FACT mix 759: J. Albert

25 May 2020, 11:00 by Scott Wilson

FACT mix 759: J. Albert

Photo by: @sarah____g

Crunchy club sounds from one of NYC’s most chameleonic producers.

J. Albert is the primary alias of Jiovanni Nadal, a Florida native based in NYC who makes club music that, while not exactly ‘lo-fi’, is pleasingly rough around the edges. It’s an aesthetic he shares with a loose group of friends and collaborators in the city such as DJ Wey (aka DJ Python) and Person of Interest, with whom he runs a label, Exotic Dance Records.

While his early releases on labels like Black Opal and 1080p fell squarely into the category of house music, recent records for The Trilogy Tapes and Hypercolour have offered innovative, genre-agnostic club tracks that experiment with garage and jungle to great effect.

Over the past 18 months he’s expanded his creative reach even further with the R&B-influenced Jio alias, through which he released his debut set of songs on Quiet Time, and a self-released ambient album, my rave ended yours just began.

His FACT mix features lots of unreleased music from himself and some of his favourite artists in the Tri-state area. “I made it on a pair of CDJ-800s and one turntable, he says. “I feel like it really set the pace for the way the mix feels and how I selected.”

“This mix I made like a poem,” he continues. “It required equal preparation on the emotional and technical fronts – stanzas, and stylistic spacing that regulate your flow and demand things of you to maintain the pace of the vibe.”

J. Albert’s next release is a six-track EP called Pre Formal Audio, which arrives on Hank Jackson’s anno label on June 2. Find the rest of J. Albert’s music at Bandcamp.

Tracklist:

Darren Ho – ‘Jan. – April 2019 (Live Mix)’
WBG003 – ‘B2’
Mark – ‘We Connect the Right People to Make Connections That Matter’
Chris Jay – ‘Junglist Soldier (The 95 Lick)’ (DJ Devious D)
M. Geddes Gengras – ‘Ring Drop’
Chris Jay – ‘Junglist Soldier (Nuff Gunshot Mix)’ (Ramjac)
Turinn – ‘Yu Dont’
Best Available Technology – ‘Tide Tunnels’
Low End Activist – ‘Neighborhood Activism’
Color Plus – ‘Bothworld’
Equiss – ‘Make My Dei’
Yaleesa Hall & Malin – ‘Second Carol’
James Bangura – ‘Temperance’
James Bangura – ‘Silk Worm’
Soft Boi – ‘Bye Then’
J. Albert – ‘Skitter’
J. Albert – ‘Untitled’