If you know your way around the electronic dance scene, you will have noticed a particular genre bludgeoning its way out of the dark recesses of tangled beats, bass and drums. With a small group of devoted listeners, dupstep—the bastard child of UK garage, reggae and d’n’b has been spreading its influence of late with the rise of producers and DJs like Instra:mental, Alix Perez, Benga, Skream, Ramadanman and Ikonika. Born Sara Abdel-Hamid, Ikonika is one hot producer to watch. Since bursting onto the scene with her stunning debut 12-inch record Please/Simulacrum in 2008—two dubstep-influenced tracks with woozy synths, glitchy 8-bit samples, melancholic sub bass and complicated song structures—Ikonika has been signed to label Hyperdub, helmed by influential producer Kode9. “I shoved my music down Kode9’s throat and he loved it 'cos it was weird,” she jests of her meet-up with the label’s head honcho.

Ikonika describes her sound as “genre-less UK electronic music,” and it’s not hard to understand why. The rhythms she employs aren’t typically dubby; instead her music is one crazy hybrid of melodies full of dissonance, hyperactivity and warmth—introducing a new soundscape that’s distinctively hers. “This is a war and Ikonika is my weapon of choice. My music is hard to understand; sometimes it’s a bit too edgy,” she says.

Ikonika recently released her debut album, Contact, Love, Want, Have, which includes tracks of brazen beats and a bassline that will give you goosebumps: “The album introduces the different personalities of Ikonika. It’s like Marmite, you’ll either love or hate it,” she explains. Fans of the sonic soundstress will hear her unleashing all kinds of unreleased goodies during the month of Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival, alongside Dâm-Funk, Dorian Concept, dOP, Funk Bastard and KFC.

So just what can we expect from the fiery Ikonika? “I have to see what the mood and vibe is like, read it then execute. But it will probably contain a lot of my new tunes—funk, fakestep, garage, grime and juke.”

Catch Ikonika at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival Sessions (Zouk Edition), Aug 27-28. Zouk, 17 Jiak Kim St., 6738-2988. $30-50 includes two drinks.