Exactly who—or what—is Patten? At this point, practically nothing is clear. Patten could very well be the all-encompassing name for a group of subversive producers that cram their ideas into one burst of clattering rhythms and fragmented melodies at a time. Patten might just be the title under which scavenging deep-sea divers release the destroyed music they discover on tapes discarded at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Patten is possibly even nothing and no one, just a figment of our collective imagination somehow manifested in the form of sound. When listening to the surprising and bewildering tracks from Patten’s GLAQJO XAACSSO LP (out now via No Pain in Pop), it seems as if all of those options are both possible and likely.

“Fire Dream” from GLAQJO XAACSSO

In actuality, we know that the Patten moniker belongs to one anonymous fellow living in London. Well, to be completely honest, we don’t even really know that. We just assume those loose facts to be true because we’ve gleaned them off the internet from a few reliable sources. When we contacted the producer to ask him a few questions about who he is and where he’s from, the responses ranged from a single vague word to phrases like “One endless, imaginary quarter-second.”

True to his tunes, the artist is mysterious, confusing, and, sometimes, even a bit off-putting, but maybe he’s on to something fresh, too. As heard on the blown-out leftfield techno of “Fire Dream” or the shifty, inverted soundscapes that comprise “Plurals” (video above), Patten floats between the realms of the familiar and the unknown. The whole of his debut LP evokes the contemporary experimentations of fellow Londoner Actress, or even the twisted IDM blueprint put forth by Autechre, while simultaneously harkening back to the raw sound of early Detroit electronic music. It’s an exciting combination that exponentially makes up for the producer’s lack of public persona, and has our interest absolutely piqued for whatever dusty, high-concept jams he delivers next.