by RAF KATIGBAK

Laptop: check. Headphones: check. Blake Markle's suitcase is almost packed. "All I need to do is throw in some underwear and toothpaste and I'm set," he explains. It's Friday night and the 29-year-old producer is getting ready to catch the Saturday-morning red-eye to Philadelphia for the launch of the latest experimental drum & bass album under his Black Market guise, Sabres High. His modest Plateau apartment, like his luggage, doesn't contain much - a vintage Fender Rhodes keyboard, electric guitar, futon, television, small-budget audio mixer and of course, at the centre of it all, his computers.

Despite what his minimal decorative tastes might lead you to believe, when it comes to music, Markle likes it dense. His latest album is lined with heavily edited, hyperkinetic breakbeats anchored by off-kilter moods and gut-rumbling basslines, residing somewhere at the nexus of jungle, hardcore and techno.

While Montreal fans might know Markle as one half of the live drum & bass duo dB, over the last year, Philly has been eating up Markle's schizophonic sounds like so many cheese-steak sandwiches. It was there that the burgeoning Philadelphia label g25 signed him after an impressive second-place finish at a live laptop elimination battle last year. Since that time, Markle has joined several indie bands as a bass player, remixed Stars and shared the stage with IDM acts like End, U-ziq and Canadian breakcore wunderkind Venetian Snares.

But while Markle recognizes the influence of fellow experimental producers like Otto Von Schirach and the aforementioned Venetian Snares, he insists his tunes aren't so dark, twisted and sinister. "I like fucked-up stuff, but I'm not trying to make people freak out. It's more like a heady groove with lots of other shit coming up. I think that mood definitely comes from my years in high school as a jazz head. Miles Davis was a huge influence and so was Yes. If there's one single thing underlying all my projects, it's that it's definitely heavy in programming and mood - it's both chill and crazy, which is how I feel a lot of the time."

CD launch with 16-Armed Jack, Stabba, RCola and more at Blue Dog on Friday, April 22, 10 p.m., $5

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