If you remove the urgency out of the modern dance floor template, slow things down and chill things out and replace it with a rolling and hypnotic groove yet retain a sultry grace and understatement you arrive at a musical place where Katie Bates’ Naked is the leader of the pack. Employing the same downtempo minimalism as the likes of such alt-dance pioneers Portishead or Massive Attack, this is a sassy and sashaying piece of music, one which thinks very differently from the by-numbers pop and dance set which it will find itself competing with.
Aloofness, elegance and charm are threaded through shimmering beats, plaintive electronica washes through vocal delicacy, dance floor culture is turned into smoke and anagrams and dream-pop vibes soak into a wholly new sensual and understated EDM sound. It wanders the fringes of so many musical styles it is difficult to pin down, but rather than being a detraction it is actually its strongest selling point.
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