LiL ♎ JaBBA - SWiSHeR.

Perhaps some of the best juke from outside Chicago, Lil Jabba's self-released EP (at a cheeky 8 bucks) is a benchmark in the expropriation of the footwork sound. It's worth pointing out that Lil Jabba is by no means the first person outside the original scene to play with the formula, Machinedrum with tracks like 'Seesea' adopts the micro-cuts and pitched sample-savvy vocal melodies of his predecessors, however, being white, he obviously dropped the ghetto-isms that foreground the hardcore Chicago sound. The Machinedrum approach is evident on SWiSHeR, as it certainly has a wider and fuller sound than the work of DJ Spinn or Rashad but Jabba never essentially strays far from the juke sound we know and love. The standout moment on the EP is undeniably 'MaVeN', whose indefatigably dense drumwork is masterfully offset by smooth pulsating synth sweeps. Other tacks like 'SKaLa' stutter along with a foreboding urgency, keeping it simple yet engaging through subtle atmospherics evoking the work of similarly minded Slava. Even with all its academic progressiveness SWiSheR still packs a fix of 'Teklife'-esque ghetto soul in the form of 'GET UP BITCH'. I feel like this may be a very reductionist way of looking at this budding genre, but I'm very happy that it is at a stage where, like every new genre before it, white guys are starting to rip it off, and doing a great job of it.

Oscar