After shooting to fame with his remix of Ellie Goulding’s ‘Starry Eyed’ in 2009 this British born DJ and producer has slowly risen to prominence in the dubstep world for his remixes and after becoming the most recent signing to Mercury, Jakwob is on the cusp of releasing his debut album, but gives us a taster with his EP Right Beside You.
Due to the dubstep mentality Jakwob is known for, his accessibility and first track ‘Right Beside You’ featuring Smiler and Nicky is no different. What we get here is an amalgamation of beats which slowly merge into slow and steady dubstep, but this is by no means hardcore dub, in fact the bass is barely present allowing the vocals to take centre stage. Both vocalists here are superb and together it makes the song become, what will undoubtedly be, a radio friendly hit. Smiler spits his words out and creates what can only be described as meta-music dropping names like “Skream and Benga” as well as lines like “the pace of the dubstep slowed down,” whereas Nicky’s lyrics may be more stereotypical of the genre “close your eyes and I’m going to find you,” her voice is charming in the most uplifting way possible. It’s a perfect summer song and should be on everyone’s speakers in the coming months.
To round off the EP DJ Fresh brings us a remix of the title track ‘Right Beside You.’ The song loses all evidence of Smiler and focuses on Nicky transforming its dubstep origins into a smooth club classic more likely to ignite the feel good crowds of Cream than those skanking at a house party. In doing this though DJ Fresh has wiped out any originality the song had forcing it to fit the generic moulds that dictate the difference between a house track and a dubstep track.
Somewhere in between this departure from dub Jakwob bridges the gap with ‘Boomer’ an ethereal instrumental number that doesn’t quite fit the trip-hop or break-beat categorization that it will undoubtedly be given. It’s essentially a chill-out track with bells and Jakwob does this brilliantly creating an ever so slightly unnerving atmosphere that he holds over the listener for just long enough. It’s repetitive sure, but name a track from any dance sub-genre that isn’t.
Jakwob has made his name creating genre-bending remix’s of popular tracks so it is suiting that his solo material sticks to this formula producing what is decent single material, but everything else here is filler. If this is to be an impression of what a full length debut will bring then Jakwob really ought to stick to the day job.
Rating: [2.5]
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