Majenta vinyl

There are certain artists whose style you can always count on for consistency, and if there's one artist whose style oozes out of every pore, it's Jimmy Edgar. Ever committed to emitting a highly sexed take on electro, the Detroit native has slid from one electronic institution to another flaunting his wares. From his breakthrough releases on Warp to his last album on !K7, the framework for his crisp edits, glossy synths and suggestive (at the very least) vocals has remained the same, and now he makes a home for himself in the ever-broadening climes of Hotflush. There's certainly points in Majenta where it feels like Jimmy is trying less to show off his considerable skills for micro-edits, instead just trying to make something a little more simplistically feel-good. The chances are if you're signing up for a Jimmy Edgar album, you know what you're in the mood for, and there's plenty of that sleazy funk to sink your teeth into here, but in a crafty move he saves the big surprise for last. "In Deep" kicks off on a choppy vocoder jam like a modern Zapp & Roger; nothing out of the ordinary there. It's as the track builds to its climax that it reaches a bombastic album-closing high, creeping in some a heavy break and epic stabs that sound like a tribute to Art of Noise, that you really hear another side to Jimmy Edgar. It's a tantalising glimpse at what else the man is capable of.

Craig Bratley, DJ Downrock, Baldo, COSMO LOPEZ