Electronic pioneer Rustie hints at return to music

Electronic pioneer Rustie (aka Russell Whyte) has hinted at a return to music after confirming a show in London and relaunching his social media.

The Glaswegian artist recently launched new Instagram, Twitter and TikTok accounts, using the handle @rustie808. Though nothing has been posted yet, the bio on Instagram and Twitter reads “soon”.

Rustie has also confirmed an appearance at Project 6, a new South London festival from the team behind Outlook, Dimensions, Cross the Tracks and We Out Here.

Ghetts, Goldie, Channel Tres, Hudson Mohawke and more are due to perform on May 26, with Rustie hosting a takeover at Fabric for the night time programme. You can see the full line-up via Project 6’s website here and buy tickets here.

Back in 2015, the producer cancelled live appearances and announced he was taking a break from touring, citing “addiction & mental health problems” on Twitter at the time.

His last appearance was at a Numbers party at Glasgow’s Sub Club in December 2022, alongside Marie Davidson, OK Williams and Spencer, which was his first show since 2017.

Rustie originally made a name for himself on Glasgow’s club scene through his association with the Numbers collective. His debut ‘Glass Swords’ earned him huge acclaim for its merging of grime, hip-hop and electronic sounds, with Rolling Stone describing it as “one of the most thrilling electronic albums of the decade”.

‘Glass Swords’ was also the winner of The Guardian‘s First Album Award in 2012, with Tim Jonze noting at the time: “It refuses to sit still for more than a nanosecond and has been hailed by several critics as being at the vanguard of a new wave of “maximalism” in electronic music.”

The Scottish producer, who signed to Warp Records in 2009, released his last album ‘Evenifyoudontbelieve’ in 2015, which was the follow-up to 2011’s ‘Glass Swords’ and 2014’s ‘Green Language’. The latter included collaborations with Danny Brown and grime MC D Double E.

In a four star review, NME said ‘Evenifyoudontbelieve’ was “Rustie in excelsis, a perfect example of his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, magpie’s eye gift for reassembling modern dance music styles in his own image.”

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