Raven - SDX24

SutroFM resident and Vaguetracks label boss Raven drops SDX24, a brilliant two-track EP that weaves together roughly a half dozen sounds and subgenres into something genuinely new and endlessly enjoyable. Both tracks flip Pooh Sheisty’s gleeful, taunting “Back in Blood” over a smoothed-out jazz instrumental of Janet Jackson’s “Any Time, Any Place.” The A-side is bouncy and driving, falling somewhere between uptempo deep house and Chicago footwork, while the slow burning Quiet Storm Mix on the B-side feels like a long lost DJ Screw ballad.

But don’t let these genre tags fool you: Raven’s sound – the sleek textures and glassy surfaces that the label has dubbed “R&B Science Fiction” – is something out of time.