I AM JORDAN
Recent years have been full of change for I. JORDAN. The Doncaster-born producer has been on a meteoric rise, collaborating with the likes of SHERELLE and Fred again.. and taking their thundering, freewheeling DJ sets to packed clubs and festival stages across the globe. Closer to home, they have also been transitioning their gender. The result of this exhilarating, tumultuous, and life-affirming period now finds its expression on their debut album, *I AM JORDAN*. “It’s a collection of tracks that signify where I’m at as an artist and also serve as a snapshot of my life over the last few years,” they tell Apple Music. “It’s trans-led and full of trans artists, a celebration of my community.” Across 12 tracks, *I AM JORDAN* showcases each aspect of the producer’s ever-evolving artistry, veering from paying tribute to the hardstyle and donk music they grew up hearing on “The Countdown” to euphoric trance synths on “Close to You,” hammering techno on “Butterlick” and an immersion in “wobby” basslines on “Round n Round.” “It’s a record by trans people, allowing us to be ourselves, which feels more important than ever,” they say. Read on for their in-depth thoughts on the album, track by track. **“When Lights Flash”** “This track feels like the encapsulation of a whirlwind. I had just landed in Melbourne while on tour and was feeling disoriented and jet-lagged. I wanted to make something experimental, so I started playing with a plug-in synth that produced this really dramatic sound that was unlike the music I usually make. It felt like a turning point in my creation of the album and something I needed to start it with—a siren or a call to action.” **“Casino High”** “I made this track a week after ‘When Lights Flash’ while I was still in Melbourne. I was staying in this high-rise and it reflects how energized and uplifted I was feeling in the city. I feel like it has a classic ‘me’ sound, since it’s the only track on the record with a sample and so is a nod to my earliest productions where I would sample quite a bit.” **“Real Hot n Naughty” (feat. Felix Mufti)** “I first met Felix when he was dancing for me at Homobloc festival a few years ago, and we became friends. I later found out he did rap and spoken word and knew I had to get him on some demos. As soon as I sent him this one, he fired back this hook right away, and it all happened really quickly. We wanted it to be a northern working-class queer anthem, which is tongue-in-cheek and punctuated by Felix’s Liverpool accent.” **“The Countdown” (feat. TAAHLIAH)** “I’ve been mates with TAAHLIAH for a while and, since we both grew up with donk and hardstyle and other northern working-class dance floor sounds, we decided to make ‘The Countdown’ as a celebration of that shared heritage and of our friendship. It always goes down really well when I play it live and is basically just a tribute to the fun we have together.” **“Butterlick” (feat. Sister Zo)** “I first met Sister Zo in a production workshop, and she sent me the drum loop you hear on this intro. It came at a time when I was making loads of tunes in preparation to play at Glastonbury 2022 and so those drums soon developed into this tune, which used to be called ‘For Glasto,’ since it ended up playing out really well there. It’s also a nod to my growing love of techno, which is really technically challenging to make well, so I’m very proud of it.” **“Reification and Pathetic Fallacy”** “I wrote this track on the train home after spending a week at a residency in Newcastle for trans artists. I was really inspired after being around all these different creatives and, while it was looking gloomy outside on the way back, this track just emerged. It’s me trying to put the overwhelming emotions I was feeling into sound, as well as connecting with the mood of the weather.” **“People Want Nice Things”** “Once I started taking testosterone, it led to changes in my voice that I wanted to document, so I began recording myself saying the phrase ‘People want nice things’ every month to track how my voice was dropping. Those recordings are part of this track, like an archive of the changes I’ve gone through to honor my transness, all set to a nice house tune!” **“Round n Round”** “I will always love ‘wobby’ sounds and basslines—those bass frequencies that anchor the sort of music I grew up listening to in clubs in Doncaster and Sheffield. ‘Round n Round’ is a tribute to that sound, as well as the music I have released before like ‘Hey Baby’ and ‘WARPER.’ I initially made it for a set I was playing at AVA festival in Belfast, where it really went off.” **“The Woodpecker”** “This is the oldest track on the record, which I started in 2020. I wasn’t going to include it on the album since it felt too heavy but my A&R convinced me otherwise! It’s got this intense hardstyle kick and wood-chopping sound, which made it the perfect tribute to my favorite bird, the woodpecker. Those who follow me online will know I’m a keen birdwatcher, so this is also a nod to that part of my life.” **“7 Degrees of Despondent”** “If you’re going to make a record that is a documentation of your life, you need to include the lows as well as the highs. This was written during a difficult period in 2021 when I was isolating with COVID and feeling pretty miserable. It was seven degrees outside, and I was feeling despondent—it’s not really a track for the club but rather something that speaks to the sadness we can sometimes all feel.” **“Close to You”** “After the mood of ‘7 Degrees of Despondent,’ this track switches it up by launching into a euphoric trance feeling. It came really quickly and was another one I made just before Glastonbury, encapsulating the feeling of hope and happiness for the summer to come. It felt like the perfect note for the record to draw to a close on.” **“Rapt Finis”** “I came up with ‘Rapt Finis’ after becoming really absorbed by playing this melody and the dramatic mood it creates, which isn’t really one for the club. In the same way that ‘When Lights Flash’ is something more experimental from me, setting the tone for the record to come, I wanted this closing number to bring people gently back down to earth as it ends.”
Despite its technical mastery, the English producer’s debut full-length struggles to deliver on the emotional revelation it promises.
On their long-awaited debut, Doncaster's I. Jordan pays tribute to trans joy in electric style – read the NME review