08 10

Jasss Weightless iDeal

05.10.17

There’s a powerful sense of foreboding that comes down heavy on you as Weightless starts up with the fractured industrial clang of Every Single Fish in The Pond. It’s a clamouring, drone-soaked paean to longing and misguided affection that feels like the antithesis of the title of JASSS’ debut album, but in the same pulse the production rings out with startling clarity. The drums hit with a piercing precision, and the incandescent peals of high frequency synth that break through in the track’s final stages feel like a most unexpected ray of hope in the gloom.

This depth of emotion, not to mention compositional heft and production prowess, sets the tone perfectly for the rest of this masterful LP. Jasss – the artist name of Spanish artist Silvia Jiménez Alvarez – has been spotted previously on Mannequin Records, but this outing feels like something new and distinct. You could reach for reference points in the murk and metallic clang of industrial, or perhaps recognise Sähkö-flavoured blasts of noise in Oral Couture, but these component parts are small fragments in a rich and constantly shifting whole.

Haunted strumming and loping hand-drumming courses through Danza, jazz gets vigorously deconstructed on Cotton For Lunch and Theo Goes Away plunges into a beautiful abyss of beatless reflection – the album may be called Weightless, but the dominant mood is mightily heavy.