- Extremely weird techno.
- DJ JM has been quietly ahead of his time since the beginning. Long a proponent of synthesizing global club sounds from gqom to UK funky into something new, he eventually helped the scene land on a newer term: hard drum. He's hardly sat still since then, however, more recently dipping into the kind of jagged techno coming out of the Southwest corner of England. His latest EP for Nervous Horizon, Abnormal, centres on a sound that cuts and sizzles like electrified barbed wire, full of all the strange turns and irregular notes the title would make you hope for.
If you've been going out to hear UK (or UK-minded) DJs this year, then you probably already know the opening track "Syze." Over the usual hi-def experimental club music noises, JM lays down a colossal organ motif that hits in-between notes and rides the rhythm like warm butter slipping across a plate. It's the closest successor to that old post-dubstep genre we used to call "wonky" that I've heard in a long time. It's anthemic in its wrongness. "Pepper" takes the idea of broken techno to its extreme, with a constantly burrowing bassline amidst gasping but funky vocals that add an unsettling air to the proceedings.
The flipside leans more towards straightforward techno, from the wheezy synths of "Erazer" to the squidgy Euro sounds of the title track. "Abnormal" is a study in how DJ JM can make even a genre exercise feel unusual: the hats and snares are sharpened to a needlepoint edge, everything feels like it's changing speed and the synths come out in odd belches and huge squalls. But the most impressive thing is how well it all holds together without coming off chaotic. Some of this year's biggest techno tracks have had an outrageous sense of scale and silliness, like they could fall apart at any moment. The difference with DJ JM is that it feels like he's always in control, guiding things carefully even when melodies crash into a wall or the drums dive off a cliff.
Tracklist01. Syze
02. Pepper
03. Abnormal
04. Erazer