- A breathless and emotional LP about self-actualisation and community through the language of belting house music.
- It's been a turbulent half-decade for Doncaster-born producer and DJ I. JORDAN. Whether it was being consistently deadnamed while going through a public transition, or becoming a breakout star in dance music during the pandemic without anywhere to play, finding any footing could have been nigh on impossible. Thankfully, perpetual motion is their forte. "I feel happy being in a constant state of transition, that nothing is ever still," they told DJ Mag. That sentiment translates directly to the music: I. JORDAN has become synonymous with tracks that ceaselessly shuffle and transform, teeming with bliss and built with prismatic sound design. With its relentless pace and bright soundscapes, euphoria is the mission statement on Jordan's debut album, I AM JORDAN. But beneath the glossy surface of each track lies deep feeling. Jordan turns inward and then outward on I AM JORDAN, framing the album as an ode to both trans people and their own working class origins in Doncaster.
As the ravey synths rise on opener "When Lights Flash," they sound like alarms warning that good times are coming. And they're imminent. On "Close To You," glitzy piano stabs and a stuttering bassline judder forward into an unbridled hands-in-the-air moment, the aural equivalent of exploding into confetti. Things get hot and sticky on "Real Hot N Naughty," where Jordan enlists Sex Education star Felix Mufti's distinct scouse for tongue-in-cheek lines—"You're still not over him, girl / We've told you he's a tory"—adding an infectiously humorous slant to the breakneck joy everywhere else.
Jordan takes trance and French house and weaves in playful, heavier styles like donk and hardstyle for an approach that feels both refreshing and defiant—a cheekiness embodied in the album's quirky production choices and sudden left turns. During the second half of the propulsive scouse house of "The Countdown," the focus briefly switches to a twinkly, childlike keyboard riff, only to return to its relentless drumline like it never happened. On "Casino High," soulful keys are modulated until they sound like a chorus of meowing cats over some razor sharp 2-step, and "The Woodpecker" nearly works itself up into a gabber-esque fit. Some of these tracks would fit right in if played at the fabled Doncaster Warehouse in 1992.
There's a peacefulness that radiates between the lines of the album, in addition to all the hype and fury. It's hard not to get bowled over by how the lush, aquatic tones and chirpy samples of "Reification and Pathetic Fallacy" hitch a ride towards the heavens on soaring synth chords, accumulating and releasing energy in an entirely different—but no less powerful—way than the rest of the LP. This New Age-y tranquility trickles down into the following track "People Want Nice Things," where keys that sound like cat meows purr over a guttural, off-kilter bassline.
Thematically, "People Want Nice Things" is the album's centerpiece. The track's vocals come from Jordan recording themselves saying the phrase "people want nice things" every ten months, to track how their voice was changing while taking hormone replacement therapy. It's a beautiful tidbit on a track that, like the rest of the album, emits more and more light as it unfurls—incredibly revealing, specific and universal all at once. Both introspective and marking the importance of community and friendship, I AM JORDAN is energising music that can only instill joy and catharsis, and loud, radical encouragement to the communities that supported I. JORDAN on their way here.
トラックリスト01. When Lights Flash
02. Casino High
03. Real Hot n Naughty (feat. Felix Mufti)
04. The Countdown (feat. TAAHLIAH)
05. Butterlick (feat. Sister Zo)
06. Reification and Pathetic Fallacy
07. People Want Nice Things
08. Round n Round
09. The Woodpecker
10. 7 Degrees of Despondent
11. Close To You
12. Rapt Finis