Jackson And His Computer Band
Smash

Dance Cybernetica.

So, at first listen, "Smash2," the debut album of our ultra-acclaimed nu-warp enfant prodige Jackson Forgeaud, appears to us.

Parisian, 26 years old, former model, musically inspired by the sounds of the French background and the alternative, electronic, techno-glitch, and disco scene, following in the footsteps of Daft Punk & dDamage and thus predominantly tied to the stylistic rearguard of Warp (autechre, afx, two lone swordsmen, and prefuse73) which immediately made him the electronic event of the year in France.

We initially talked about robotic dance because that's how it seems each track is composed upon the (superficial) listening of a habitual four-quarters clubber. Analyzing the sound, we find: chopped samples, expertly remixed, vocal microloops in '80s style, minimalist and continuous use of synths, sporadic hand claps here and there, and splashes of hip-hop decorating everything when needed, the artist's merit is thus to successfully organize this chaos/disorder in a more or less complete way, deriving excellent ideas and new sounds.

Surely not very danceable to us ignoble humans, this music presents itself, however, as quite simple and intuitive in its impact, but if one studies the artist's individual compositions carefully, one notices great qualities that make this record an excellent debut, to be placed among the top in the list of the best electronic albums of the year.
It starts with "Utopia," a track that already fully shows what our Frenchman has in mind, sectioned rhythms, dry and static drums, accompanied by shards of vocals and space-time synths, as if to characterize a new, more rhythmic and intelligently reformulated version of the post-glitch maximalist scene, which Warp itself knows very well (autechre, boards of canada...), with the same concept Jackson continues for the rest of the album (Rock On, Teen Beat Ocean, Tropical Metal).

As we continue listening, we can find traces of hip-hop (thanks to Mike Ladd) accompanied by a scenic minimalism and bass sequences that seem to transport us to a futuristic cybernetic dance floor (Tv dogs). An almost trivial use of synthesizers in "Moto", which nevertheless enchants us with 'motoristic' soundscapes worthy of an early 90s retro video game.
We conclude with a return to more direct and less abstract alternative sounds, clearly inspired by Aphex Twin (with Radio Caca), ending with a glitch-based ghost track that seems directly taken from the final scene of an old '70s style James Bond movie.

We find in the acknowledgments the well-known Mr. Oizo, who plays the part of the persistent remixer in some tracks of the album, other names like Tiga (!), Ellen Allien, and Benjamin Diamond convince us of Jackson's artistic validity, who will surely not cease to make headlines in the coming years.