It’s here. 2017-2019, the newest Nicolas Jaar project, under his alias Against All Logic, dropped on February 7th, 2020. For those unfamiliar, Nicolas Jaar is one of electronic music’s most fascinating figures, a wunderkind whose musical eccentricity is not only anticipated but expected. Influential albums like Space is Only Noise (2011) and Sirens (2016) cemented his position as one of our generation’s greatest experimental electronic composers. Under his Against All Logic alias, Jaar returns to the dancefloor-oriented cuts he started his career with. 2012-2017 (2018), a loose collection of tracks recorded during the title years, was a notable improvement from his early work — bolder, more subversive, and vastly more intricate. Some criticized it as a generic nostalgia trip, unable to escape the inherent cliches of dance music. One of my wishes going forward with the Against All Logic moniker was for a more cohesive project — while 2012-2017 has great tracks, it is only a collection of songs that doesn’t have the flow I want from an electronic dance album.
2017-2019 delivers in that sense. A stylistic swerve from 2012-2017, 2017-2019 delivers harder, cleaner techno as opposed to the crowd-pleasing, sample-heavy disco-house influence of its predecessor. Percussion takes center stage, with Jaar using a creative array of clanking metal, squelching distortion, and digital feedback. Every song flows seamlessly into the next, most notably during the exhilarating transition from the industrial chaos of “Alarm” to the squealing, adrenaline driven “Deefers”. The first couple tracks are slow burners and closer to the vibes of 2012-2017, gradually picking up energy to the climactic trilogy of “If You Can’t Do It Good Do It Hard”, “Alarm”, and “Deefers”. On “If You Can’t Do it Good Do It Hard,” Lydia Lunch delivers the sole feature on the album, a harrowing line that bristles with aggression:
“Because you can’t beat ’em, kill ’em/If you can’t kill ’em, fuck ’em/If you can’t fuck ’em, kill ’em/If you can’t do it good, do it hard.”
The song then explodes into a militaristic show of force, with overblown kick drums and a droning, high pitched frequency that matches the intensity of Lunch’s brief verse.
“Faith” is a much-needed cool down, and a turning point in the album’s trajectory. The ominous vocals give a perception of space and airiness, while the relentless beat picks up into a distorted finale. Electronic fuzz and reverb drowned piano melodies end the track, leading into the euphoric, 145bpm uplifter “Penny”. Closer “You (forever)” serves as a moment of reflection, with a melancholic melody overlaid with brief samples and electronic squeaks and spatters.
I appreciate the more experimental direction Jaar has decided to take with this new album, breaking Against All Logic out of the vein of the soul/funk driven house of 2012-2017. The bristling and eccentric tech-house of 2017-2019 surely won’t have the same broad appeal as its predecessor, but as a whole it is a more exciting, cohesive, and driven project. Nicolas Jaar continues to impress, and I am really looking forward to the hypothetical 2020-2022.
Listen to the album below:
Article by Everett Williams