John Dunk, better known under the alias Cameo Blush, is a London-based producer making highly kinetic electronic music: more than anything, his tracks feel like a spring, tightly coiled and loaded with energy, ready to pop at any moment. Though luminous synths, fluid drum patterns and deep sub bass form the core of his supple, shimmering productions, it’s the vocals that steal the show. Dunk uses vocal samples the way many producers might use drums: chopped up into pointillist syllables, they’re coated with a futuristic sheen through careful processing, and arranged into staccato rhythms that accent the groove while lending impact and emotional depth.
Much like his friend and collaborator Ross From Friends – in whose live band he plays saxophone – Dunk lifts snippets of inspiration from electronic music’s history, piecing them together to form a singular sound that resists swift categorisation. His latest EP for Scarlet Tiger, Silkworm, reaches back to the fidgety synths and cyclical rhythms of Kraftwerk’s Tour de France, before closing track channels Massive Attack into a supercharged hybrid of trip-hop and reggaeton that forecasts an embrace of slower tempos and spacious arrangements in the producer’s work to come.
