House music is in a state of flux; you don’t need me to tell you that.
If over the past year you‘ve been willing to look outside the Berlin-Detroit axis that a large number of over-25-year-olds cling to like a hot water bottle, you‘ll know that the most interesting 4/4 tracks around are emanating from the UK bass scene. Since my first naïve report in 2008 on its emergence, the sound of UK funky – derived from funky house, grime and garage, essentially the “urban” club musics of Greater London – has taken over the underground and now, sonically-speaking, it’s evolving at a terrific pace. Still, I sometimes feel like there aren’t enough mind-blowing tunes to go round, and though the irrestibly bruk drum tattoos of Roska (‘Elevated Levels’) are never likely to tire, though Hard House Banton’s thugged-out ‘Sirens’ continues to get a massive reaction when played out, the time has come for the step up, the next level. I’ve been waiting for someone to cut deeper into the sound, to take those rolling tribal drums and use them as a launch-pad to more exciting, intricate and expansive climes. Ladies and gents, that new dawn has finally arrived, in the shape of the street-smart house psychedelia of Jam City.
Let’s not beat around the bush. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a new British producer as I am, right now, about Jam City (pictured above). If I was a bit older, and had been a sentient music-lover when, I don’t know, Gerald Simpson first struck out, then that statement might be hyperbole. But I’m not, and it’s not. Jam City is the real deal, the future, the producer that I – and hopefully you – have been dreaming about.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a new British producer as I am, right now, about Jam City.
My first introduction to the young Londoner’s sound was the mix he recorded for Lower End Spasm, a 30-minute session which not only blew pretty much every house mix I’ve heard this year out of the water, but also showcased no less than seven examples of his unique production style.
Here was a music – finally! – that combined all the raucousness, all the twisted percussive energy, of UK funky and grime, with a depth of texture and grain more readily associated with house and techno from Michigan. In fact, to shove this music under the umbrella of “funky” is misleading; whatever it is, whatever it might take influence from and whatever context it might be consumed in, it is, first and foremost house.
There’s part of me that wants to do a Kathy Bates in Misery, you know, keep poor Jam City prisoner in my house and force him to make tracks for my pleasure alone, then break his legs if he attempts escape. But I guess that would be a bit weird, and besides, the cat is out of the bag: any right-thinking head that’s heard the Lower End Spasm mix already knows that this guy is special, and as soon as his productions start hitting wax (a release on Bok Bok & L-Vis 1990’s Night Slugs imprint is imminent), the whole world will follow.
Jack ‘Jam City’ Latham is i20 years old – precocious bugger – and based in London. Throughout this article you’ll find clips of his tracks, but perhaps as a starting point you should visit his myspace page and stream ‘In The Park’ and the truly breathtaking ‘Island’. If you like what you hear – and I’m sure you will – download his LES mix; in the mix is, after all, where Jam City’s productions really come to life, and the guy’s an inspirational DJ to boot. Then come back to me.
Stream: Jam City – In The Park [via myspace]
Stream: Jam City – Island [via myspace]
It’s amazing that ‘Island’ is one of Jam City’s first forays into production; for all its youthful vim it’s staggeringly mature in composition and execution; washed-out synth patterns reverberate across grids and fractals delineated by drums which in their live-feel programming remind me of top-drawer FXHE and Hieroglyphic Being-type material, and the shakers even carry a hint of Carl Craig’s ‘Mind of A Machine’ or Incunabula-era Autechre. ‘In The Park’, meanwhile, showcases JC’s gift for simple, haunting melodies and minimal-but-busy percussion; also an ability and willingness to drop from high-bpm house into half-speed rollage like it ain’t no thing, a rhythmic insouciance no doubt learned from juke and grime (of which more later).
“I’d been thinking about music in terms of production for ages but for some reason denied myself actually sitting down and making something,” Latham explains. “Hearing all the same sounds – Juno-6 synths, lots of percussion – that I was listening to outside of house music for the past few years in a club context felt like this point where my tastes had lined up exactly with what was happening on radio and in clubs and it just felt like the right time to finally make some stuff.”