If Shlohmo weren't a producer, he'd be a pyromaniac. His music, a sludgy mix of techno and electro-soul, burns slowly until it crumbles to a foggy, smoldering heap. Some tracks, like those on 2009’s Shloh-Fi and 2011’s Bad Vibes, felt immersed in water before the producer finally set them ablaze. Shlohmo has broadened his aesthetic since then, to an accessible dance-oriented sound that vibes with musician Tom Krell (aka How to Dress Well) and singer Jeremih, with whom Shlohmo released the collaborative No More EP this summer.-=-=-=-

For his new single, "Emerge From Smoke", Shlohmo pins a simmering drum-n-bass instrumental beneath metallic synths and distortion. The song calmly unfolds until almost halfway in, when the drums are elevated and the synthetics bubble over. It culminates in a dark, hypnotic groove that unifies Shlohmo's old and new ways, and would work just as well on Bad Vibes and last year's R&B-influenced Laid Out. Five years after his debut, the producer's style has evolved, but it's still quite combustible.