Decibel Festival

After a two-year break, Detroit producer and wayward star-child Jimmy Edgar debuts on Scuba’s Hotflush Recordings armed with an album full of futuristic sleaze. Known for his unique take on jacking house and electro funk, he’s recently been splitting his time between the US and Berlin, exploring transcendental meditation and the boundaries of the nonphysical. This offering is an extension of that journey, bringing eleven tracks of erotic robopop to the table. Titled Majenta, this LP is a departure from his past sound, marking a shift in his own ever-expanding consciousness, as well as another exciting chapter of his musical career.

Each track is an aural manifesto, giving well-deserved nods to his varied musical influences. Close encounters with Detroit legends Derrick May and Juan Atkins, Jimmy’s 2004 signing to Warp Records, and his early exposure to Kraftwerk have all acted as lynchpins in the cultivation of his sound. With a number of releases on Glasstable, Semantica, Nonplus and long player releases on both Warp and !K7, Majenta reflects Jimmy’s evolution as both artist and child of the cosmos.

According to Edgar, the making of the album was steeped in countless synchronicities, continuously reminding him he was on the right path. In contrast with his last LP, XXX, for !K7, which took five years to make, Majenta is more raw, more spontaneous and in his words, “more futuristic … than my other music, which played a lot with retro, especially R&B.”From the outset, Jimmy’s flexing his Kraftwerkian muscle, with vocoder complimenting his own unadulterated voice and ‘80s synthlines bubbling away alongside jazz-funk keyboard riffs. From the raunchy and sexually explicit ‘Take Me on a Sex Drive’ (“windows down, legs up high”) to the low-lit, hypnotic feel of ‘Attempt to Make it Last’, to the UK garage rhythms of ‘Let Yrself Be’, to the Kiss-era Prince vibe of ‘I Need Your Control’, it’s clear that the postmodern is Edgar’s domain. The Frampton-esque vocals of ‘In Deep’ close out the LP and further cement his envia le place in the intergalactic community.Spring/Summer 2012 will see Jimmy playing a number of live shows across Europe and the US in support of Majenta (including major festivals such as Glade, UK), as well as his continued exploration into the world of LEDs and synchronized light technology.– Aja Badame