Today we listen to Jlin‘s new track “Nandi” off her upcoming LP Black Origami due out May 19th via Planet Mu Records. Following up on her excellent debut, Dark Energy (Planet Mu), which was one of Live Eye Tv‘s top 10 albums of 2015, this new effort promises collaborations with Holly Herndon, and William Basinski, as well as Halcyon Veil producer Fawkes and Cape Town rapper Dope Saint Jude. According to the footwork producer, the new effort reflects her desire, “to do something different, something that challenged me to my core”, and she goes on to explain: “
Black Origami for me, comes from letting go creatively, creating with no boundaries…Composing music for me is like origami, only I’m replacing paper with sound. I chose to title the album Black Origami because like Dark Energy I still create from the beauty of darkness and blackness.”
In addition, Jlin explains that the new record was inspired by her work with the Indian dancer Avril Stormy Unger, after their initial collaboration at Poland’s Unsound festival. Considering the kinetic nature of footwork, and Jlin’s music in general, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when she explains:
“Movement played a great role in Black Origami…Our rhythms are so in sync at times it kind of scares us.”
On “Nandi“, the producer opens with clipped vocal samples that skitter and repeat before snare and bass drum fire off in intricate, syncopated patterns. It’s this sort of rhythmic complexity that is the hallmark of footwork, but Jlin has a special talent for creating baroque beat structures that are both earthy and exotic. At the same time, though, her detailed compositions have an open air quality that allows for a sense of “negative space”, and it’s the perfect balance to footwork’s busy and athletic style.
