Embryo

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EPDec 10 / 20214 songs, 14m 20s86%
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Jlin's new EP "Embryo" marks a key point in the multi-platform artistic growth of the Indiana-based producer. The title track "Embryo" features a bold and fiery sound palette recalling the futurism of nineties Detroit techno and British IDM without succumbing to their cliches. The track was written for the Chicago-based new music ensemble Third Coast Percussion who are set to release their version of the composition on Cedille Records in May 2022. The bumping "Auto Pilot" takes her mutant techno stance even further. With faint echoes of classic Model 500, it sounds like music for automated cars, robot cop junctions and virtual freeways in the air. A fifth wave techno? "Connect The Dots" is one of the standouts from her recent lives sets, with the kind of rhythmic complexity only Jlin can bring, underpinned by a glitch reborn and transmuted into something utterly of the here and now. Its final segment will catch listeners by surprise with it's changing time signatures effortlessly rendered.  Looking back on the new EP Jlin comments "I was just writing trying to get out of my own head. I wrote all these pieces in between commissions and trying to stay afloat mentally." She singles out final track "Rabbit Hole" as a highlight for her - describing it as "a track I truly enjoyed making. It made me feel nostalgia yet connected me to my own evolution." "Rabbit Hole" is the most laidback track on the EP. Its sound palette is one people know her for but the delivery is like a new kind of supercomputer live rendering of a panoramic widescreen landscape of pluto. The new EP is of course only one aspect of her ever-prolific continued growth and despite lockdown she managed to record a live set for The Met museum in New York earlier this year. She's also undertaken remixes for Jazz musician Steve Lehman, Depeche Mode's Martin Gore, rising star Marie Davidson and violinist Galya Bisengalieva amongst others. She also created a remix of Beethoven for BBC Radio 6 as well as being commissioned by the Kronos Quartet to create a composition for their '50 For the Future' series. In addition, this past August, New York based dance company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham revealed a new work “Requiem: Fire in the Air of the Earth” featuring her music. Jlin is currently working on a new full length album for Planet Mu.

7.4 / 10

This grimy new EP from the Gary, Indiana producer has the unfinished edge of a sketch, pointing toward the dancefloor while showcasing her twin forces of invincibility and vulnerability.

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