Seattle producer Kid Smpl (aka Joey Butler) established a reputation for deeply poignant and introspective bass-oriented electronic music—dubbed "nightbus" for its haunting atmospheres and emotionally fraught melodies that evoke the feeling of nocturnal, public-transportation melancholy) through his releases on Alex Ruder's Hush Hush and Ill Cosby's Car Crash Set labels. With his Silo Tear EP from earlier this year, Kid Smpl revealed a move toward harsher textures and harder beats.

"Ena" continues in this rougher vein. It begins with his commonly deployed pitch-shifted vocal samples (reduced to tender phonemes that somehow carry more emo power than comprehensible words) and beautifully wafting synth drones until about 85 seconds in, an artfully spluttering profusion of beats disrupts the solemn peace. Another gorgeous pensive ambient passage eventually replaces the percussive onslaught, before another fiercer one arises with Kid Smpl's bass and drums barging in at their most rugged and raging. "Ena" is a masterly display of dynamics, and it stokes excitement for Butler's next move.

In an email interview, Butler said, "'Ena' is definitely an elaboration on the Silo Tear tracks. It's basically one of the handful of new tracks I've been working on and I just wanted to share it while I continue to figure out exactly what I want to do for my next release. All of the new tracks kind of evolve and mutate like 'Ena' does, or at least I hope they seem to."

Check out more Kid Smpl music here. He performs at Decibel Festival Sept. 27 at EMP's JBL Theater.