Image: Graydon Driver
Fresh from tearing up a whole string of UK festivals last weekend, Jauz has dropped his debut album on his new label Bite This… And it’s a remarkable project.
23 tracks heavy, loaded with collaborations with the likes of Holy Goof, Snails, Tisoki, Krewella, Adventure Club and DJ Snake (to name but a few), laced with a range of flavours from wobble-riddled dubstep to rolling technoid house and galvanised by a strong narrative concept and theme, this is one of the most impressive, ambitious debut albums we’ve seen in a long time. Possibly since Welcome Reality.
While the album crosses multiple musical boundaries from gully UK influenced bassline to epic arena melting EDM via dizzying hard dance/rave hybrids, structurally the album makes sense as the tracks are arranged into chapters introduced by a spoken word that explains the album’s post apocalyptic story line that takes us from war torn disarray to divisiveness to eventual unity.
“When I’m writing music, half of my brain wants to write fun, crazy bangers for parties. This is represented by ‘The Wicked.’ The other half of the time I want to write emotional, intelligent, experimental music that feeds the “inner artist” in myself, which is represented by ‘The Wise.’ The middle ground, is a blend of the melodic, emotional parts of my music paired with high energy drops and climaxes, is represented by ‘The United’.” Jauz
As well as a showcasing his widest range as an artist, the album is also rooted in personal influence for the young LA artist born Sam Vogel. Adventure Club’s role on the track Frequency has poignancy as they were the first act to give Jauz a break seven years ago while DJ Snake’s appearance on Gassed Up was important for Vogel as Snake’s been his inspiration and mentor as he’s accelerated to the top of the biggest of bills in the last few years. The album also hints as new performance concepts from Vogel in the future…
“Right now, a Jauz set is ‘The United’, it’s that mix of both sides, music full of emotion,” he adds. “But in future, I definitely want to perform ‘The Wicked’ sets, a kind of underground bunker for rave music, and then also only ‘The Wise’ sets. The real goal is to have these three personalities that I can combine.” Jauz
Three personalities, one massive debut album, Jauz has achieved something very special here. The Wise & The Wicked is out now on Bite This. Full tracklist below and don’t miss his live Q&A on the comment section of this video at 6pm UK BST tonight!
