As a member of Brian Eno’s favourite London experimentalists Three Trapped Tigers, Adam Betts has spent years exploring the boundaries between electronic and live music, and celebrating the flaws thrown up when one tries to replicate the other.

His upcoming debut album ‘Colossal Squid’ showcases Betts’ unique approach to music combining his love for the irregularities in electronic music (by the likes of Aphex Twin, Autechre and more recently Arca and Oneohtrix Point Never) with his visceral connection to live drums.

Taking the “Drums Vs Electronics / Man Vs Machine’” idea he’s been developing behind the kit for TTT, The Heritage Orchestra and Squarepusher this album has a wider focus.

“So much electronic music has had concerns with performance – how much of the amazing programmed music can be recreated live? For me music has been so much about the connection between the performers onstage and the audience.”

Betts took a unique approach recording the entire album live by making a series of instruments on Ableton – a combination of effects, synths, and samples, all that could be triggered from the drum kit or SPD-SX – and “playing” them live, with the freedom to take the pieces in a variety of unplanned directions.

The ethos was that no matter how exciting or odd the texture, it was important to turn each track into a piece of music with real form and shape. So, for all it’s technicality, experimentalism & idiosyncrasy, ‘Colossal Squid’ is an evocative, absorbing & rewarding journey: avant-garde in formation, yet undeniably catchy & invigorating.