ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Jlin, Akoma
US producer Jerrilynn Patton – aka Jlin – first emerged from the 2010s footwork scene, starting out under the mentorship of artists including DJ Rashad and RP Boo. While the frantic rhythms and staccato sample chops of footwork are still an important element of her sound, Jlin’s ambitions and musical output have stretched far beyond the edges of the genre in the years since her debut release, leading to collaborations with some of the leading lights of electronic music, ambient, contemporary classical and visual arts – and scored her a Pulitzer nomination along the way.
It’s testament to the level of respect that Jlin commands as a producer that this latest album comes complete with starry guest appearances from Bjork, Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet. As eye-catching as those names are, it’s Jlin’s distinctive style of intricate and restless production that remains the star of the show on Akoma.
Perhaps more than ever before in her career, here Jlin blurs the distinction between club music, jazz and classical. Throughout the album, stuttering drum machine grooves and grimy bass hits sit alongside rhythmic and melodic influences pulled from diverse corners of 20th century experimental music and African traditions. On Eye Am, for example, complex layers of traditional percussion wind around propulsive waves of synthesised sub bass. Sodalite, meanwhile, pairs tense strings from the Kronos Quartet with Jlin’s frenetic drum sampling, the two elements initially sounding as if in competition, before later resolving into something more unified.
The album’s most distinctive moments come with Summon, on which Jlin swaps the drums and bass for orchestral samples, yet still arranges everything in the style of a stuttering footwork banger, and the final majestic payoff of Philip Glass collaboration The Precision of Infinity. Si Truss
ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST Summon, Sodalite, The Precision of Infinity
VERDICT 9.0
