Classical Curves
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''Classical Curves'' is the debut studio album by British producer Jam City. It was released on 28 May 2012 by
Night Slugs Night Slugs is an English electronic music record label, established in 2010 by Alex Sushon (also known as Bok Bok) and James Connolly (also known as L-Vis 1990). History Night Slugs was originally started as a London-based club night by DJs/ ...
. It received critical praise, and has since been acclaimed as an influential release in UK dance music by publications such as ''
The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...
'' and '' Fact''.


Background and production

The press release for Classical Curves, published by Night Slugs in April 2012, detailed it as being 'a record that owes equal parts to Philly Club as it does to
Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...
,
The Neptunes The Neptunes are an American songwriting and production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1992. Williams often provides additional vocals on records and appears in the duo's music videos ...
as it does to
Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The group is currently composed of founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals; guitar; keyboard) and N.U. Unruh (custom-made instruments; perc ...
, Steve Poindexter as it does to the soft jazz leads of
Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progr ...
. It detailed Jam City's own atmospheric intents, noting almost synesthetic details about its musical textures and sound palette.
We are engulfed in booming, monolithic kick drums/We are floating on a pink cloud. We are thrashed and contorted by sheets of metal/We are suspended in breathy quiet of sighing voices and raindrops kissing the windowpane – and then it erupts again.
Jam City aimed to tailor his productions towards the club environment, noting "...when you’re forced to experience that in a club it brings it to life in a totally different way, and I think the more you go to clubs and hear music on a really loud soundsystem, the more you’re able to try and write music for that environment. You think about space and shape a bit more." On this basis, he attempted to "make is musicmore and more minimal". He also noted that he was becoming fascinated by the 'aesthetics of wealth and the modern world', "like mansions in
Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...
or
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics ...
. I don’t even know how I’d begin to make a club track that sounded like some mansion in the
Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Unive ...
, but it’s just an easy starting point" and that this interest fed into his productions. The resulting glossy, post-dubstep sound established Jam City's reputation for creating instrumentals from club music tropes. Multiple tracks on ''Classical Curves'', such as "Her", "The Courts" and "How We Relate to the Body" use staccato-based rhythms directly inspired by
Jersey club music Jersey club (originally called Brick City club) is a style of electronic club music that originated in Newark, New Jersey in the late 2000s. It was pioneered by DJ Tameil and other members of the Brick Bandits crew, who were inspired by Baltim ...
.


Critical reception

''Classical Curves'' appeared in multiple end-of-year lists and received positive review from the press. Rory Gibb of ''
The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...
'' called it "one of the most interesting album-length listens to come from a UK club producer in a while, ..a reminder that many sub-heavy dancefloors post-dubstep ought often to be demanding more for their money." '' Fact'' magazine's Tom Lea said "Both ''Classical Curves'' and Girl Unit’s recent ''Club Rez'' feel like they could mark the start of a new stage for Night Slugs. Not only are they among the best records that the label’s put out in its short but impressive history..." and called it "one of 2012’s best and most provocative albums." It also appeared at number 7 in their "Best of 2012", where it was described as "easily the most modern-sounding record on this list" and "an album that surprised, disoriented and delighted at every turn." ''
Resident Advisor ''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. It was established in 2001. ''RA''s editorial team provides news, musi ...
s Todd Burns gave the album a score of 4.5/5, and noted parallels between ''Classical Curves'' and the work of experimental
synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
group,
Art of Noise Art of Noise (also The Art of Noise) were an English avant-garde synth-pop group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn, and mu ...
, saying that the latter group "was basically a hugely expensive experiment designed to uncover new sounds; nearly 30 years later, Latham's music sounds like it's using shiny, new software to create old ones". Mike Powell of ''
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'' wrote that the music "achieves as much of its effect through silence as through sound: Between every beat, the space is so absolute and empty that getting to the next piece of solid ground is a kind of perpetual thrill."


Influence and legacy

In the years since the release, the influence of ''Classical Curves'' on Latham's musical peers has been noted, especially in the post-
grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...
-leaning productions released on Keysound Productions, Her Records and Night Slugs. In an interview with ''The Quietus'', Night Slugs head
Bok Bok Alex Sushon, known by his stage name Bok Bok, is an English music producer, artist, and founder of the UK record label Night Slugs. Night Slugs Sushon is the founder and label manager of London-based record label Night Slugs. Night Slugs eme ...
said "I would like to state that I think it's really nice that people are becoming aware of this album's long term influence... It's interesting, I can play a whole set of tracks that basically rip off two or three key tracks on ''Classical Curves''. Some of them do it in a good way, some of them do it in a less original way that I don't really like so much.". In its 2014 feature on "The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far", ''Fact'' ranked the album at number five, writing: "Few albums in this list have been as influential as Jam City's ''Classical Curves''. In the two years since its release, a host of producers have attempted to replicate the album’s precision crafted, chrome-plated sound, and most have failed to even come close to evoking the singular vision put forth by Jack Latham on his debut."
Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on musi ...
discussed the album in his 2019 ''Pitchfork'' article on the rise of "conceptronica" in the 2010s, writing that the record's "glossily surface-oriented" sound made Jam City's polemic-focused concepts more striking. He added that while the album concerned the 'aesthetics of wealth', the "sorcerous allure of artifice and illusion asseemingly left unchallenged." He also wrote that the album likely marked the first appearance of the "crashing drum", a dramatic sound that appeared on most 2010s 'conceptronica', adding that the sound's "imposing but ungroovy approach" is a central factor to "what the critic Matthew Phillips identifies as a '
neo-futurist The Neo-Futurists are an experimental theater troupe founded by Greg Allen in 1988, based on an aesthetics of honesty, speed and brevity. Neo-Futurists in theatre were inspired by the Italian Futurist movement from the early 20th century. Origin ...
' aesthetic in electronic music." Also in 2019, ''
Crack Magazine ''Crack'' is a monthly independent music and culture magazine distributed across Europe. Founded in Bristol in the UK in 2009, the magazine has featured Björk, MF Doom, Lil Yachty, FKA twigs, Gorillaz and Queens of the Stone Age on the cover. Th ...
'' ranked ''Classical Curves'' ninth in their list of "The top 100 albums of the decade"; contributor Oscar Henson wrote that the record inspired
deconstructed club Deconstructed club, also known as post-club or deconstructed music is an experimental style of electronic dance music characterized by a post-modernist approach and an abrasive or dystopian tone. It stands opposed to the tropes of mainstream clu ...
in the manner in which it isolates familiar ideas from their musical contexts and abstracts them "to form radical new structures". He continued:


Track listing


References


External links

{{Authority control 2012 debut albums Albums produced by Jam City Jam City albums UK bass albums Experimental music albums by English artists