Sutro

about

If the indietronic band SUTRO had one goal with the quartet’s new full-length album release (Title TBD), it was to up the energy level — from downtempo to, well, midtempo. But the band had far more than one goal. It wanted to up the game overall, with more fully realized songs, richer melodies and production, and a bolder sound. And with the assistance of producer Joe Chiccarelli, SUTRO has made good on its plans. Says Chiccarelli of the endeavor, “SUTRO may be the missing link in the EDM movement. They are the perfect balance of beats and atmospheric electronic elements and accessible pop song writing.” The album inhabits a sonic territory, a genre-inclusive zone, where everything from electronic, to indie, to pop can hang out on the same street corner and harmonize. The LP’s ten tracks are seductive throughout, often emotionally moving. And it's earwormily listenable, with tons of little grace noises that make you want to spin it again and again, to get at every bit of it: delicate glitch effects at the opening of “Heaven,” snatches of muted trumpet on “Surrender,” delicious synth work, and pneumatic percussion throughout. SUTRO’s music is determinedly from the near future. It's a willful indietronic hybrid — part live-band drive, part DJ sensibility — and the splendid tension of the music is listening to that hybrid, that graft, come to fruition. The new recordings add live drums to SUTRO’s sound and emphasize richer-than-ever songwriting, yet technology remains at the