Also featuring the likes of Vic Mensa (“Lose It”), Raekwon (“You Know”), and Little Dragon (“Take A Chance”), Skin’s intent is to appeal to a large, eclectic base. He maximizes the strengths of his guests without diminishing his own abilities. The incendiary tempo of “Smoke & Retribution” (featuring Vince Staples & Kučka) and the downtempo garage of “Innocence” (with an appearance from AlunaGeorge) attest to Streten’s malleable production tactics. But while Skrillex has been shunned by droves of his early supporters for “selling out” and working with Justin Bieber and Diplo has established himself as the best in regional music appropriation, Streten has earned the freedom to entertain both the underground dance aficionados and mini-van driving soccer moms on his own, unique terms. Revered among that “future bass” community, Streten is prime to break through the top tier of dance music and share a new vision of future pop with the masses. In part due to the Stateside rise of dubstep and trap since the turn of the decade, the building blocks of electronic music have been fundamentally impacted by these genre’s prevailing low-end distortion. Gearing up to be the next EDM crossover talent, Flume’s sophomore effort, Skin, showcases a producer at ease with all of the sounds moving tickets at America’s major festival events: hip-hop, indie pop, and EDM. In an era when EDM stardom can be as close as a light-up mask, clever anonymous alias, and management-directed collaborations, Flume has continually avoided the gimmicks and concentrated on a production palette that festival-goers crave and Billboard Award recipients are looking to hijack.

While deadmau5 also decided to chime in (of course), Australia’s Harley Edward Streten (bka Flume) wisely steered clear of the drama and sensationalist headlines. On March 21 st, Diplo started a minor twitter blaze by calling out Zedd and his “ fake flume drop” on the M&Ms-sponsored cover of Willy Wonka classic “The Candy Man”.

Flume best album