Jimmy Edgar
Street-smart and wise-beyond-his-years, Jimmy Edgar wanders the desolated streets of junky occupied steaming sewers, an urban ghost town under deconstruction. Reeling through a jungle of industrious landscapes, abandoned buildings, isolated alley ways and homeless people. In the midst of which lies intense feelings of jadedness and despair that makes the city all the more musical in its thriving evolving decay, and being the inspiration to a unique style which critics rant as being: Songs with "a richly textured character ? softly softly blending a hazy arrangement of static with an engrossing nighttime beat. Scratches galore and moody electronic pulses? via some glorious Detroit Neon," Boomkat 2002.
Poster child of sound couture Jimmy Edgar, who dropped studies in fashion and design to concentrate on making music, has a background of art production and style which reads much like an urban landscape dissertation. Snatching all kinds of influences from his Detroit dwelling: the city's decay, urban fashion, and the city's eclectic music scene, Edgar manufactures unique and provocative ultra modern sound environments.
The alleged young prodigy 19-year old Edgar has been stitching beats since he was 10, when he started producing sounds electronically and fashioned his first analogue pieces. Influenced mostly by Jazz, funk, street beat and r&b in these early years, He began his musical pursuit by playing the drums in experimental bands and by making tape recordings.
"At first it was mostly experiments in sound, acoustic space, pretty minimal stuff," comments Edgar, "things like tape loops and tape manipulation."
Most of these recordings, consisting mainly of pitch bended tape loops, cut edits, field recordings, and noise tracks, were the beginning of his experimentations with the technical aspects of production.
Jimmy's intense passion for music also propelled him at a young age to learn to play any instrument he could get his hands on, including string instruments, saxophone, and mostly percussion/drum set . This is more obvious in recent releases in which he shows off his talent by playing exquisite funk and jazz keyboard solos.
By the time he was 15, he started performing at Detroit raves with contemporaries and techno pioneers such as Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May.
In February 2002 Edgar signed his first record deal with NYC based Isophlux Records, following a release of a techno track called "We Like You" on the German label Poker Flat. Then, after only hearing one of his tracks, Miami based M3rck Records immediately signed him and released his first full length album "My Mines I" [merck009] by the "dual alter ego" kristuit salu vs. morris nightingale.
XLR8R rages about the album: "Edgar-under the name Kristuit Salu vs. Morris Nightingale-layers clipped clicks, chopped vocals and brittle high frequency sweeps over SETI pulses and random-access rhythms. This is hip-hop beamed in to deep space, where the sound fragment in a sunspot before returning, riding bare back on slowly weaving radio waves. Warmed and crackled jazz chords roll slowly like clouds as beats tick through random static. Time will come, not so far from now, when folks will reference My Mines I in the file marked "Future of HipHop."
After the release of "My Mines I" in February of 2002, Edgar started getting some attention which lead to touring cities in the US, including New York City, performing at the infamous experimental music fest the Miami Infiltrate, Vancouver and selected cities in Japan. Touring he got a good response from his live performances as he carried a distinctive energy on to stage and incorporates visuals such as synchronized projections. He was also asked to perform at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival 2003 which was his debut as a Warp Records artist, and in which Detroit witnessed a legend in formation as even the security got down with the local break dancing squad.
Reviews :: Access Rhythm
"the razorsharp beats of dabrye, the twisted hip hop of prefuse 73, the futuristic glitch of akufen and the downbeat machinations of carl craig are all reconfigured into a new shape, with the kind of ease and comfort that would suggest there's a lot more to come from this talented young buck" 4/5 DJ Mag
"on this, his debut 12" for warp, the motor city native comes of age with four tracks that combine his techno sensibilities with a love for hip hop rhythms. One to watch for 2004" Dazed & Confused
?Leading the techno field with his own very distinctive sound, he uses classic elements fused with r'n'b & hip hop, creating a whole new genre, that's cutting edge, bathed in warmth & funk fueled. Jimmy Edgar is the motor city's new star? DMC Update
?he?s frustratingly cool? techno?s new toy? i-D Magazine
?merges all of his interests, bringing his strict programmatic methods to bear on glossy r&b-inspired tunes? few can match his edgar?s rhythmic dynamism? XLR8R
?cool and razor-sharp, grabbing the glitch, pushing it onto the dancefloor and telling it to do head spins in the air? Jockeyslut
LINKS ::
Jimmy Edgar website
Jimmy Artist section on the Warp Site