If you’ve been following this site for some time now, you may have remembered that earlier this year, I wrote about Alan Wilkis, best known under his musical moniker, Big Data. And his first, single “Dangerous,” featuring Joywaye is a dense and slickly produced track with an incredibly catchy hook paired with a throbbing bass line, falsetto vocals that convey an anxious paranoia and layers upon layers of synths and other electronics. Multiple listens reveals that Wilkis has a production style that’s a sonic marvel – percussion rains down at strange angles, as the propulsive bass line pulls the song forward to its conclusion.

The song managed to capture the blogosphere and radio airwaves on its way to landing at number 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Charts, amassed several million Spotify plays, 3.25 million views on YouTube and an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Interestingly, Wilkis won the attention of the folks at Warner Brothers, and his forthcoming full-length effort, 2.0 which has Wilkis collaborating with Twin Shadow, White Sea, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, Dylan, Bear Hands’ Ted Feldman, Dylan Rau, Jamie Lidell and Kimbra. So just with this single alone, there’s this sense that Wilkis has exploded out to the national scene as the next big thing.