Jimpster - Alsace & Lorraine

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  • Anyone can overlay loads of sounds and call it deep house. Nobody, however, can do it like Jimpster. This single is his first (remixes notwithstanding) output since Sleeper last year, and he doesn't disappoint. A pedigree in jazz, both from his family and from his early, ambient jungle-based productions, has given him not only a talent with the more tonal, soulful side of dance, but also the ability to produce this type of stuff in an interesting, innovative way. The single's A side is definitely its highlight. A steel drum-flavoured pattern bounces around playfully, and shimmering cascades of fizzing build, recede, build, recede, then build and build—and then the whole thing drops into silence, before exploding gently into a cloud of coloured bubbles. It's lovely and funky in equally large measures. A choppy backbeat, similar to the one in "Alsace" but less driving, pushes "Inside the Loop." Jazzy chords oscillate, and a warm, brief bass motif repeats without variation—but these are only a foundation for the other features which come and go within an improvised, ad-hoc structure. Raw, late '80s handclaps, a glass escalator of an arpeggio and a kind of skipping CD voice effect all make an appearance, not to mention the more subtle elements in the pastiche which all drop in and out to give the track its interest. There's nothing as great as that steel drum pattern in "Alsace" (few things are) but "Inside" still hits the spot, and the cerebrum.
  • Tracklist
      A Alsace & Lorraine B Inside the Loop
RA