10. Jam CityClassical Curves
This is a more contemporary choice – a peer choice, as it were. I think Classical Curves confused a lot of people when it first came out. As is usually the case with important records it sparked a wave of copycats, but it doesn’t seem to happen very often that copycats end up being more popular that the originals. In ten years time, it’ll be Classical Curves that people remember. Crucially, if you listen to it from start to finish, it really holds together. He’s definitely ‘an album guy’, I think.
When I say ‘peer’, that perhaps implies that I’m involved in this sound directly, which I’m not. For me, peer comes from sharing a similar musical background and mindset, hanging out in the same clubs, running our own labels in a particular musical ecosystem in London. That close proximity just makes the otherworldliness of Classical Curves so inspiring. It’s mind-boggling to me that the record was a 3D image modelled on a building in the city of London: all these layers, rebuilt over and over again. It’s inspirational to know that there’s a crew of people out there like Night Slugs, who are so focused on what they do and have such a strong vision of what they want to present. It takes a lot of drive and confidence to be someone like Jam City. He’s a true artist.
