Like many of his contemporaries, 21-year-old Brian Leeds seems pretty nonplussed about the production process. Before moving to Kansas City, MO, a year and a half ago, he was honing his craft on FL Studio (which he still uses) on his mother’s computer in Eastern Kansas, where he grew up. Now working with a hodgepodge of equipment—Casio keyboards, tapes, and a mixer—Leeds creates dissociative arrangements as Huerco S. His tracks recall house via occasional signposts only: an old-school rhythm here, a resonant square bassline there. They are grit-saturated and loose from the grid, and he’s quick to agree that an assortment of similar US and European experimenters have had an influence on his music. “Wania, Börft, all the General Elektro stuff, Meakusma, Marcellis on Workshop, Dean Blunt…,” he rifles off, before acknowledging classic tracks from New York, New Jersey, Detroit, and Chicago in addition. While he may be able to find kin in these sounds, Leeds’s music is particularly unique in its almost psychedelic approach to composition. “It’s like digging into the Earth and finding a bone and dusting it off. It’s still ancient and raw,” he says. “Even if I had tons of gear, I think it would still sound [the way it does]. Precision isn’t the endgame.”

As his profile has risen in the last year, he’s been offered some remix work, most recently of Jay Weed’s “Tunnel.” Given that the song’s ultra-precise bass music is perhaps the polar opposite of his usual style, it’s not surprising that Leeds describes his rework as a “deconstruction.” He claims he usually tries to, “contort and hint at the original track, [and] view it through a kaleidoscope,” but on “Tunnel” he tried to eschew the bass of the original and “focus on the higher textures.” This willingness to forgo popular structures carries over to his latest work, a nearly beatless album which is still in production. He has an array of other music in the pipeline as well: a 12″ for Future Times, a reissue of his Opal Tapes record from last year via online retailer Boomkat, and a record as Royal Crown of Sweden, set for release on Anthony Naples’ as-yet-unnamed label.