Philadelphia, PA · dubstep · bass · riddim

Subtronics

3 upcoming festivals ↓

Riddim-dubstep heavyweight — appearing in the GRIZTRONICS b2b with GRiZ, an hour of pure bass warfare with a funk streak.

Subtronics is the project of Jesse Kardon, a producer and DJ from Philadelphia working in the heavier end of American dubstep. Kardon played drums as a child and through school before discovering EDM in his teens, which pulled his attention toward production.

His tracks lean on riddim's repetitive, syncopated bass patterns and abrasive sound design, built around aggressive drops and short, percussive growls rather than melody.

He has collaborated repeatedly with GRiZ under the GRIZTRONICS name, a pairing that mixes the funk and saxophone elements of GRiZ's work with Subtronics' bass-focused production. The track peaked at number 9 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in late 2019, the same year Kardon reached number 10 on the magazine's Next Big Sound chart.

In 2020 he launched his own label, Cyclops Recordings, and runs Cyclops-themed events and releases alongside it. His debut album, Fractals, came out in January 2022 and reached number 4 on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart, briefly outpacing K-pop discussion on social media. A second album, Tesseract, followed in 2024 and peaked at number 5 on the same chart. He is married to fellow producer Sonya Broner, who records as Level Up.

Earlier releases included the 2017 collaboration "Revenge of the Goldfish" with fellow producer Midnight Tyrannosaurus, the long-running mix series Now That's What I Call Riddim, and the 2018 EP Wook Laser on Never Say Die's Black Label imprint, alongside remix work for acts including Zeds Dead and Herobust.

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