Black Origami is a monumental achievement, yet it still seems like Jlin is just getting started.
After spending a lot of time with the new LP, the early work seems almost naive, the product of someone still trying to find her voice ... And that’s simply because Black Origami is a massive breakthrough.
The sophomore album from the brilliant producer turns the tools of footwork into an overwhelming piece of musical architecture, an epic treatise on where rhythm comes from and where it can go.
Black Origami can be intimidating: it's dark, relentless, and makes substantial demands on the listener. But it's also powerful and distinctive. In the world of rhythmic electronic music, nobody else is doing it quite like this.
Make no mistake—this is an album that’s challenging and demands attention, but if you can stay focused, you’ll be richly rewarded.
Perhaps one of the greatest sources of tension on Black Origami is not knowing what shade of tense it’s going to be. From track-to-track, Jlin shifts moods with enough subtlety to sustain a through line but enough variation to prevent the album from ever losing your attention.
‘Black Origami’ is a record of experimentalism and inventiveness that reaches beyond novelty. It showcases an artist widening her scope of production, whilst maintaining an ear and a place for the dance floor birthplace of her genre.
Footwork has always been body music; dance music at its purest. Yet the avant-garde was never far away. With Black Origami Jlin has pushed both of these potentials to exhilarating extremes.
Uhm yeah, I just don't get the hype behind this record at all, a lot of the songs don't have much that interests me, they go on for way too long which is only amplified the album doesn't offer much variety in terms of sounds.
Best Track: Never Created, Never Destroyed
Worst Track: Carbon 7 (161)
EDIT: I feel like people rating this low just don't get it...it's footwork and the production is ridiculous. Like, I understand the perspective of not enjoying it, but in it's genre, it doesn't get much better and you have to have a special type of brain to assemble this record. Give it a few spins until your mind is able keep up with what you're hearing.
straight spazzing
Footwork! This one is interesting. By taking away the melodic components of music, Jlin has crafted a rhythmic epic journey that has a potency to it I’ve rarely felt in recent years.
On the flip side, some of the tracks on here are less amazing than the others though it’s undoubtedly an important record for electronics as a whole
This album is wacko, there are standouts, I love Holy Child and Enigma. But although the sound of this album is so unique, I must say that throughout the experience, songs start blending together and don't really stand out. And although the sound is so different, the instrumentation doesn't experiment enough is my opinion, or just doesn't feel conclusive or satisfying by the end. Still really well-made material, though, and I'm curious as to what Jlin's other work is like.
1 | Black Origami 4:30 | |
2 | Enigma 3:48 | |
3 | Kyanite 4:25 | |
4 | Holy Child 4:04 | |
5 | Nyakinyua Rise 3:40 | |
6 | Hatshepsut 4:40 | |
7 | Calcination 1:38 | |
8 | Carbon 7 (161) 4:13 | |
9 | Nandi 3:30 | |
10 | 1% 3:46 | |
11 | Never Created, Never Destroyed 3:31 | |
12 | Challenge (To Be Continued) 2:43 |
#1 | / | Bleep |
#2 | / | Bandcamp Daily |
#4 | / | The Wire |
#6 | / | Passion of the Weiss |
#6 | / | SPIN |
#8 | / | Mixmag |
#8 | / | NOW Magazine |
#10 | / | Pitchfork |
#10 | / | PopMatters |
#11 | / | FACT |