Get to know Poté, the bleeding-edge talent merging percussive prowess with psychedelic flair

Presenting tunes to a genuine music icon like Damon Albarn could be a daunting prospect. But 24-year-old Sylvern Mathurin seems to have taken it completely in his stride.

“‘Spiral’ was actually the first track made for my album,” he tells us. “I took it down to my friend Remi [Kabaka Jr] from Gorillaz and Damon was there too. We all ended up working together on it, and that was literally how it started.”

Backed by Albarn, Poté continued piecing together the project, enlisting the likes of Kojey Radical and Chelou to join him in the studio as he brought his highly personal debut album to life – with a little help from Deviation head honcho Benji B.

“Benji emailed me in October or November last year, saying that he would love to put out something but he had no idea I had been working on this album,” Poté remembers. “So I went and played him the entire project and he stood up and said, ‘Can we shake on this now?’ and I was like, ‘Yes definitely!’”

Fusing raucous underground sounds with a hearty dose of Britpop nostalgia, Poté’s unique sound is explored on the new full-length release as he draws on his colourful, cross-genre past to paint a picture of bass music’s future.

As a regular on Lisbon-based imprint Enchufada since 2015 the St Lucian-born, London-bred talent honed his percussive prowess as he dived into the bleeding-edge world of contemporary bass music early on in his career, exploring the musical mutations that were forming between UK sounds and global genres like baile funk, kuduro and gqom to critical acclaim.

Taking this exploration a step further, Poté found himself working with the Gorillaz frontman and Kabaka Jr once again earlier this year, joining Albarn’s Africa Express project in South Africa. As well as working alongside a troupe of Albarn-approved artists on the project, he also hit the road as support on the European leg of Bonobo’s Migration tour, an experience Poté refers to as both ‘reassuring’ and ‘mind-blowing’.

Citing the likes of Arca, Sampha, Travis Scott and Branko as key influences and inspirations, he tells us: “There’s a raw honesty about their art which you can’t take away.” And he’s keen to make a similar impression with his own music. “It always has to come from an honest place, as otherwise it won’t carry the power I want it to.”

On ‘Spiral, My Love’ he delivers a bass- and melody-driven album fuelled by raw, confessional honesty. Perhaps we’ve found British bass music’s next icon.

‘Spiral, My Love’ is out now Deviation Music on September 21

Jasmine Kent-Smith is Mixmag's Weekend Editor. Follow her on Twitter