Jamie XX returns with a new song, his first since 2015’s all-conquering In Colour album.
Just when you’d thought James Thomas Smith, the British producer and beat-sculptor known as Jamie XX, had vanished off the face of the earth, he’s unleashed a brand new track entitled Idontknow, an ear-worm that cropped up in live sets last year and is now getting props from other artists’ Boiler Room isolation shows online. Set for a 12” vinyl release through Young Turks on May 1st, it represents Smith’s first solo outing for five years, a long wait for acolytes of his misty-eyed, existential dance music.
Commencing with those trademark whip-cracking electronic drums before a drop of woozy bass and familiar chopped-up vocals a la Gosh and All Under One Roof Raving, Idontknow is neither immediate or his deepest piece of music to date; in fact, it lacks the ‘colour’ of his hugely successful debut album and veers close to repetitive monotony.
Let’s hope there’s more interesting material hunkering away in Jamie XX’s studio and waiting to satiate our pangs for the sad-core rave bangers we’ve come to expect.
Score: 1/5
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