Jam City – Magic Drops review

To date, there’s been an aura of mystique and anticipation surrounding the music of Jam City. Purported to be ridiculously prolific with his output, unreleased Jam City tracks have been a staple of the charts, mixes, DJ sets and weekly Rinse FM shows of BokBok and L-Vis 1990 all the way back to before Night Slugs was a label entity. Hell, the young producer has even composed a film soundtrack and was featured on the risible Guardian column occupied by Paul Lester over a year ago!

The Jam City Refixes EP, released earlier this year on the NS White Label offshoot gave mere mortals an auspicious glance at his musical talent. As the label approaches the end of to a truly memorable first year of business Night Slugs reveal the real Jam City gold in the shape of “Magic Drops”.

Anyone with a semblance of attending night clubs will have heard “Magic Drops” murdering the dark spaces of dancefloors in recent months and will instantly recognise the pressurised crunk grind meets blissed out keys and sludge drunk synths of Jam City’s tribute to Eski beat. Away from these sweat filled environs what truly impresses is the richness in sonic detail throughout – you can listen to you can listen to “Magic Drops” ten times in a row and find something different to captivate you.

Elsewhere “Scene Girl” retains the industrial pressure style percussion, but lays down saw tooth synth wash that positively bullies its way to the forefront, whilst “2 Hot” drops some half step menace courtesy of the massive cloud of outergalactic synth tension.

It seems redundant to ram home once again the high quality of a Night Slugs release, everyone expects it and they never disappoint, however it is nice to finally hear the first fruits of what appears to be a truly talented producer. 2011, can you start already so we can hear some more?

Tony Poland