Subtronics

Jesse Kardon, better known by his alias Subtronics, is an American electronic music producer and DJ from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began playing drums as a child and continued through grade school, before discovering EDM in high school. He has toured internationally, headlined major festival stages, launched his own annual festivals in North America, and released multiple charting albums. In 2020, he founded his own label, Cyclops Recordings.

Subtronics' freshman album Fractals released in January 2022 and charted at No. 4 on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart and trended globally over K-pop on Twitter/X.

He is known for his song "Griztronics", a collaboration with Michigan-based electronic music artist GRiZ that peaked on Billboards Hot Dance/Electronic Songs at the No. 9 position in late 2019. Kardon peaked at No. 10 on Billboards Next Big Sound chart in September 2019. Kardon is married to fellow producer and dubstep DJ Sonya Broner, also known by her alias Level Up.

In 2024, Subtronics released his second album Tesseract, which peaked at No. 5 on the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

Career 2017–2020 On April 28, 2017, Florida-based dubstep producer Midnight Tyrannosaurus collaborated with Kardon to release the song "Revenge Of The Goldfish" via Never Say Die Records' Black Label imprint. The song was released for free as part of Never Say Die's sixth Black Friday compilation extended play and sampled a speech originally by Klaus Heissler during an episode of the American animated sitcom American Dad.

On July 6, Canadian electronic music duo Zeds Dead and American DJ and electronic dance music producer Jauz released a remix album of their song "Lights Go Down". Kardon's remix of the song was featured on the album, alongside remixes from by Sikdope, Duke & Jones, Gentlemans Club, Jarvis, Lick, Sqwad, Awoltalk, and Spirix.

In mid-August, Kardon's SoundCloud account was hacked and as a result, had various unreleased and private songs stolen and published by the Hacker. Before, he had received a message from Los Angeles-based dubstep producer Megalodon, asking him to repost a song uploaded by an unfamiliar account. After privately messaging him, Megalodon told Kardon that he was hacked and soon blocked him. The same account later published a song by Kardon that was previously only accessible from his hard drive and private SoundCloud account. On October 19, American record producer Herobust released a remix album of his previous song "WTF". The album, titled WTF VIP + Remixes, featured Kardon as a remix artist. In November, multiple producers had most or all of their songs removed from online audio distribution platform and music sharing website SoundCloud for wrongful copyright claims. Among these producers were Kardon, who had lost 23 songs due to these claims.

In the same year, Depth Perception EP was released on SubCarbon Records, and Thermal Expansion EP on Disciple Round Table. Kardon announced his “Headline Tour: Warp Drive Tour” during the same time period. Later on, Wook Laser EP was released on “NSD: Black Label”.

On April 17, 2019, Australian dubstep producer PhaseOne released "Demon Hunter", a collaboration with Kardon, as part of his album Transcendency via Disciple. EDM.coms Phil Sclippa commented on the song whilst reviewing the album, stating that it featured Kardon's "insane sound design and electronic music elements, along with some entertaining samples." On July 7, Kardon released his ninth extended play Cyclops Army via his record label Cyclops Recordings. The four-track extended play included the songs "Cyclops Army", "Glitch Fight", "They Call Me", and "Loopholes", most of which were previewed in the fourth volume of Kardon's mixtape series Now That's What I Call Riddim. A fifth installment was released in January 2020. Kardon marked it as the last in the mix series and included songs by Skrillex, Excision, Doctor P and Boogie T. On July 23 Canadian producer and DJ Excision released a remix album based on his fourth studio album Apex. Kardon was featured on the album with his remix of the song "Vault". While reviewing the album, Jayce Ullah-Blocks of EDM Identity briefly touched on Kardon's remix, noting that he had retained elements from the original while "fully capturing Subtronics' diverse sound palate." On August 2, English dubstep producer Rusko collaborated with Kardon to release the song "Bounce" via the latter's record label Cyclops Recordings. The song debuted during Kardon's DJ set at Electric Forest Festival and Rusko's set at Camp Bisco earlier in the year.

Subtronics released the Cyclops Army EP and the Wooked On Tronics EP on Cyclops Recordings. That year, he also dropped the single GRIZTRONICS, a collaboration with GRiZ, which went viral on TikTok and climbed to No. 9 on Billboards Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in late 2019. To top it off, he headlined the Up In Smoke Tour. Writing for Dancing Astronaut, Chris Stack noted the song's influence from earlier dubstep works, utilising Kardon's "stellar syncopation and sound design" alongside Rusko's "signature elated wobbles and groove." On August 14, American songwriter and electronic producer GRiZ released his second extended play Bangers.Zip via Deadbeats. A collaboration between GRiZ and Kardon was released as one of the three songs featured on the extended play, titled "Griztronics"; a portmanteau of the two artists names. The song debuted during Kardon's DJ set at Electric Forest Festival. Writing for Dancing Astronaut, Chris Stack described the song as appealing even to "the most stubborn of dance fans". During October, the song became popular on video-sharing app TikTok, becoming the top trending song on the platform with over 259 million views in total. The song was associated with the hashtag #tastesdifferent, a similar wording to the song's pre-drop vocal "Ooh, this shit be hittin' different".

Next, Kardon released the Scream Saver EP and the String Theory EP, both on Cyclops Recordings. In 2019, Cyclops Recordings grew into a full-service label, signing different artists. Then he began the Cyclops Invasion Tour as the year’s headline tour. On September 10, Quebec-based vomitstep producer Snails released "Snailclops", a collaboration with Kardon, via his record label Slugz Music. In the week of September 14, 2019, Kardon peaked at number 10 on Billboards Next Big Sound chart. The extended play features 5 songs, including a collaboration with English music producer Moody Good.

2021–2024 In 2021, Subtronics launched his first-ever Cyclops Cove, a one-day event with a single stage, and played at Red Rocks 2021, which was the venue’s first full-capacity event following COVID-19 restrictions.

In 2022, Subtronics released his album Fractals. The album was released by his own recording label, Cyclops Recordings. The album itself encompasses several EDM genres.

Then in 2023, he released his album Antifractals. The album remixes each song from the original Fractals album and some of his prior hits. These remixes were done by both Subtronics himself as well as other artists such as Peekaboo, Sullivan King, Zeds Dead, and his wife Level Up. The album reached number 4 on the Dance Charts as well as had over 50 million streams. Then he inked a Live Nation tour deal for the sold-out Antifractal Tour and also sold out the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.

On February 16, 2024, Kardon officially released his 2nd full length album coined "Tesseract"; the album contains many collaboration with other artists, such as Excision, Rezz, Grabbitz and HOL!. The album consists of 16 songs. He launched the Tesseract tour, headlining major arenas such as Barclays Center, Cable Dahmer Arena, and State Farm Arena. Cyclops Cove expanded to a three-day event, and Subtronics was named Beatport's top-selling artist of the year. He also delivered a production at the Tacoma Dome and made his main stage debut at EDC Las Vegas. Kardon has been a winner at DJ Mag North America's 'DJ of the Year' 2023 and a three-time winner of Dubstep Artist of the Year.

2025–present On March 29, 2025, Kardon officially announced a two-part album on his social media platforms, Fibonacci. The first part, Oblivion, was released on April 4, 2025. The EP contained the single "Final Breath", a collaboration with English singer and artist A Little Sound.

Subtronics recently announced part one of a new album series, Fibonacci Part 1: Oblivion, during his mainstage debut at Ultra Music Festival. This was the first installment of a two-part series in the album. He also kicked off his first-ever Las Vegas residency at Wynn Las Vegas. Subtronics sold out six nights at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles, which was the second-highest number of shows ever held at the venue.

Discography Albums and extended plays TitleDetails 3K Free EPReleased: February 21, 2015 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download Panic Attack EPReleased: May 4, 2015 Label: Prime Audio Formats: Digital download ImpactReleased: January 18, 2016 Label: Blacklight Audio Formats: Digital download Cyclops EPReleased: December 6, 2016 Label: Prime Audio Formats: Digital download 20K EPReleased: June 8, 2017 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download Depth Perception Released: January 15, 2018 Label: SubCarbon Records Formats: Digital download Thermal Expansion EPReleased: February 23, 2018 Label: Disciple Formats: Digital download Wook Laser EP Released: March 4, 2018 Label: Never Say Die Formats: Digital download Pashmina Death Sauce EP Released: September 26, 2018 Label: Kannibalen Records Formats: Digital download Cyclops Army Released: June 7, 2019 Label: Cyclops Recordings Formats: Digital download Wooked on Tronics Released: October 2, 2019 Label: Cyclops Recordings Formats: Digital download Scream Saver Released: April 10, 2020 Label: Cyclops Recordings Formats: Digital download String Theory Released: October 9, 2020 Label: Cyclops Recordings Formats: Digital download Fractals Released: January 14, 2022 Label: Cyclops Recordings Formats: Digital download Antifractals Released: December 16, 2022 Label: Cyclops Recordings Formats: Digital download Tesseract Released: February 16, 2024 Label: Cyclops Recordings Formats: Digital download Fibonacci Part 1: Oblivion Released: April 4, 2025 Label: Cyclops Recordings Formats: Digital download

As a featured artist TitleDetailsGeniusby JPhelpz Released: May 19, 2014 Label: Prime Audio Label: Self-released Format: Digital downloadRipper EPby Creation Released: October 10, 2015 Label: Uplink Audio Format: Digital downloadDouble U EPby Ubur Released: June 15, 2018 Label: Never Say Die Format: Digital downloadSoul'd Out by Boogie T Released: October 23, 2017 Label: SubCarbon Records Format: Digital downloadJunkworld EP by Svdden Death Released: February 26, 2018 Label: Never Say Die Format: Digital download2KFO by Boogie T Released: June 15, 2018 Label: Drama Club Recordings Format: Digital downloadTranscendency by PhaseOne Released: April 17, 2019 Label: Disciple

Other singles Title Year Album Label "Cataclysm" 2013 Ordinance Records "Citadel" 2014 Riot Audio "Buckshot" MultiKill Recordings "Childs Play VIP"2015 Self-released "Suspekt" Artist Intelligence Agency "Madness" "Nightmare"2016 DirtySnatcha Records "Spasm"Self-released "Astrofang" "Saw Blade" "Trendz" "Pete's Song" "Spasm VIP" Cyclops Prime Audio "Wonderwall" Self-released "Shredder" "Skank"2017 Kill Your Ego "Negative Space" Self-released "LDA" Kill Your Ego "Liberator VIP" Self-released "Revenge of the Goldfish" Black Friday Vol. 6 Never Say Die "Two Faced" Self-released "Hallucination Dub" Loud Speaker, Vol. 1 SubCarbon Records "Particle Meme Weapon" Self-released "Shock Value" "Thunderdome" 2018 "Omega Robot" Deadbeats "Headband" 2019 SubCarbon Records "Bounce" Cyclops Recordings "Snailclops" Slugz Music "Step Aside" Bassrush "Braincase" Welcome Records / Cyclops Recordings "Bumpy Teeth" We Are Deadbeats Vol. 4 Deadbeats "Nuclear Bass Face" 2020 Ultra Records "Bunker Buster" 2021 Subsidia Records "Resist" Planet Cyclops Cyclops Recordings "House Party" Shockwave Joytime Collective "Gravity" Gud Vibrations / Cyclops Recordings "Electric Noodle Soup" Cyclops Recordings "Griztronics II (Another Level)" FRACTALS "Spacetime" "Gassed Up" 2022Deadbeats / Cyclops Recordings "Puzzle Box" "Final Breath" 2025 Fibonacci Part 1: Oblivion

Remixes

Awards and nominations

Accolades