JASSS - Weightless (iDEAL Recordings, 2017)
Brought up on an overflowing diet of jazz records, Spain’s JASSS emerges years later as an elusive experimental electronica producer, delivering an immensely impressive debut out of nowhere with ‘Weightless’. Weightless. The dance, the rhythm, the basslines. There’s the menacing grime of Mumdance in ‘Every Single Fish In The Pond’. JASSS are damn happy to be on the dance floor without the rhythm breaking out. The weightlessness continues and fades away. Clawing rhythms, clashing grimaces, sounds with a limited lifespan. And on ‘Oral Couture’ the dirty palette gets even thinner. Brutal and direct. Then she succumbs to her own urge to experiment. She takes the listener on a sonic journey. Draws you in and fully presents a debut that you can listen to forever. Like endless towers of building blocks in all shapes, the sounds are sculpted in layers. ‘Danza’ takes on a Arabic accent while a monotonous rhythm drives the techno part. Motoric layering. Stuttering and unruly. The idea bubbles and swells and without you noticing, sounds and symbols change and the song takes on a whole new narrative. This is JASSS. It happens regularly. An idea bursts like a magic ball. New layers mix with existing sounds, sounds disappear and you can’t remember what you were listening to. Without losing focus. Jazz samples (drums, trumpets, voices) smolder in the dirt. Their foundation is familiar. Its jigsaw pieces strike you with wonder. The elaborate cutting and pasting, a redrawing of thoughts and expectations. Nothing prepares you for the title track. A song that unexpectedly emerges as an emotional pop song, while the icy electronics endlessly set the cadence. Overwhelming and goosebump-inducing. A feeling that lingers on ‘Theo Goes Away’. JASSS is unpredictable, enchanting and uncompromising. But what a record. What a debut. And what an artist. Weightless with an incredible impact.
Released on iDEAL Recordings,