When we received some tracks from a mysterious producer by the name of Shoot the Ghost—whose sparse website gives no real indication of a concrete identity aside from a homebase in the UK—our minds instantly turned to some of bass music’s other enigmatic personalities from recent memory. Names like SBTRKT or Zomby, who go to great lengths to ensure that they aren’t seen without their signature masks, came to mind, among a myriad of other anonymous tunesmiths. One might ask why this phenomenon is so prevalent in bass music, and as SBTRKT would say, it’s about “giving the world something to sell that wasn’t just my own face and name,” or, in other words, letting tracks speak for themselves. And that’s exactly what Shoot the Ghost is doing on “Love Rain Down.” As an R&B sample repeats “love rain down on me,” the enigmatic producer warps and cuts up the phrase into energetic vocal chops, punctuating it with wonky synths. By adding spurts of bass and shuffling drums, Shoot the Ghost morphs the originally wistful phrase into something entirely dancefloor-friendly.

Love Rain Down