Since relocating from Berlin to Los Angeles, Detroit-born producer
Jimmy Edgar has shifted his music away from club idioms and closer to contemporary rap and R&B sounds. Having moved far away from the perverted electro-funk of his earlier releases and the sweaty bounce-techno of the mid-2010s singles on his Ultramajic label, his production style has become more audacious, constructing brash, contorted rhythms while taking cues from mainstream pop, trap, and the bubblegum bass of the PC Music crew. After producing a track on
Vince Staples'
Big Fish Theory, making a house single with
Dawn Richard, and releasing the debut full-length by J-E-T-S, his long-running project with
Machinedrum,
Edgar returned to the solo album format with 2021's
Cheetah Bend.
SOPHIE and
Hudson Mohawke co-produced one track each (respectively, the whistling, clanging "Metal" and the lumbering, toy-like trap of "Bent"), and it's impossible to mistake their influence on the record's sound. Most of the remainder of the tracks feature guest singers and rappers, making the album
Edgar's most collaborative record yet.
Danny Brown's presence is welcome on "Get Up," and other emcees present include B La B (whose Who I Be mixtape was produced by
Edgar),
24hrs, and Gen Z rapper
Matt Ox.
Millie Go Lightly's sweetly yearning vocals float over "Be with You" with ease, and
Semma soars like
Mariah atop the stomach-rumbling beats of "Cheetah."
Rochelle Jordan (frequent collaborator with
Edgar,
Machinedrum, and
Jacques Greene) sounds wonderful on "Crank," a simmering slow jam sprinkled with jungle-esque tambourine. ~ Paul Simpson