Bakermat on five bridge-building electronic acts

Marlous Dirks

It may be instinct to define music by genre, but for Dutch music producer and DJ Lodewijk Fluttert — better known by his stage name Bakermat — categorization has officially been broken. Despite being an electronic musician, Fluttert, 24, is an old soul. The samples he uses as templates for his energy-driven sound come from traditional genres — typically gospel and jazz. "I'm a bit of a gravedigger," he says by phone, laughing. "I just like to look for interesting samples and use them." With the spliced saxophone, speeches, and other audio he collects, Fluttert creates melodic house music that feels historically familiar, yet electronically invigorating. "I personally love electronic music specifically because it has the rhythm, the kick, the thump — it has energy," he says. "The energy is totally in the drums. . . . I think that's what electronic music adds, all the focus on the drums." Preparing to appear at Ascend Nightclub (formerly Umbria Prime) on Saturday, Fluttert spoke with us about five artists who helped him to bridge the divide between traditional and electronic music.

Moby "His old albums and stuff, back in the day, he already did the whole combo of dance music with old folk samples and blues, and jazzy kind of samples, so I really love that. I listen to his stuff a lot. He showed me that dance music and old folk and blues and soul music is a really good combination. And it inspired me to do the same, only I did it with jazz and gospel."

Fatboy Slim "I love his stuff . . . like, he has the classic albums, and I still take them as a reference for making a good album, and making good tracks in general, because I think they have everything. They have energy, and they're very original and broad as well. He did kind of hip-hoppy tracks, but he also did dance tracks, and also pop tracks, so I like that about him."

Coleman Hawkins "He's my favorite jazz saxophonist, actually, because he really keeps his melodies very simple, but for me, it's always on point. . . . It's very catchy, and very nice to listen to, and I learned a lot from him, like to keep melodies simple sometimes, even in a genre like jazz. And that inspired me to do my own saxophone solos and stuff."

Klangkarussell "It's an Austrian DJ duo, and they were actually the first ones to make a track — it was in 2012 I think — in this genre. . . . I guess the 'melodic,' 'tropical,' whatever genre. When I heard their music, I thought it was really cool. I was already doing that as well, but they were the first ones to actually break the charts in Europe, and that opened the gate for that kind of music, and the radio's more open to that kind of music since then."

Digitalism "They're a duo, two German guys. I really love the chord progressions in their music. And that's the main thing that really influenced me in my music, is listening to theirs, and having an exciting chord progression. Chord progressions are not really different in every genre, but theirs really make you feel something — I can't really explain, but they always [are] very emotional."

Bakermat performs at Ascend Nightclub, Boston, on Saturday at 10 p.m. Tickets $20.
617-963-4511, www.ascend.
wantickets.com

MALLORY ABREU