Unsurprisingly, Jlin’s energy is absolutely infectious. Despite the lack of face to face interaction (I speak to her over Skype), she becomes audibly animated over the course of the interview and gives me the excitement bug too – though when speaking about records like Missy Elliott’s So Addictive, how could I not catch it?
She’s known for her frenetic, twisted percussion arrangements that turn footwork <a href="https://www.residentadvisor.net/reviews/20672" target=“out">"inside-out", but her speech packs a punch too. Speaking loudly and energetically, her animation makes it incredibly clear just how excited she is by the music she’s chosen. Throughout the course of the interview, Jlin frequently stresses how important (and rare) it is to be able to hear authenticity in music nowadays, and how much she values the "give-a-million-percent" kind of artists.
Centred around the idea of balance, Jlin’s choices sketch out a range of her moods: "every artist I name on this list is so far apart from the others. I have different moods and so different things make me happy to listen to at different times. Different things strike me."
"To me, balance is something everybody needs, and it’s personally something I have a tendency to struggle with. That’s why I chose balance as the theme."
The selections that comprise this list are stylistically a long ways away from Jlin’s output – like what can be heard in the hard-hitting sounds of Dark Energy and Dark Lotus. More often associated with dark synth lines that weave in and out of challenging and forceful percussion arrangements, Jlin offers a list that feels a lot lighter than her own discography. But over the course of the interview, she’s clear about why such breadth is important to her – "the imbalance is what makes balance."
Black Origami is out now via Planet Mu and features collaborations with William Baskinski and Holly Herndon, among others. You can order the album here. Click the image of Jlin below to begin reading through her selections
