Album Review: Majenta by Jimmy Edgar

Nomadic sex fiend Jimmy Edgar has found a new home at Hotflush, but not a whole lot has changed in his purple-hued world of robot decadence. Majenta is scantily clad in the same skeletal synth funk, though it was apparently conceived in a passionate flurry of creativity rather than the belaboured nature of his previous works. On the surface Majenta isn't anything close to a reinvention, but it's a tighter record that struts and gyrates in a more assured fashion than the sprawling XXX, and quite possibly represents Edgar's most full-blooded work yet.Majenta springs to life with a trio of tracks that hearken back to earlier work, only this time they hit harder and swell larger.

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Detroit-born, Berlin-based Jimmy Edgar is one of electronic music’s most intriguing figures. Still just 28, he is both an internationally renowned fashion photographer and a prolific dance music producer, renowned for turning out sleazy, highly sexualised electro-funk, house and instrumental R&B for Warp and !K7. But it has been two years since his last release, and from the sounds of ‘Majenta’ he’s spent that time as you’d expect any self-proclaimed ‘star-child’ would: jet-setting between Detroit and Berlin, basking in the sexual energy and gilded debauchery of high fashion, and delving deeper into the classic ’80s funk and electronica that are such obvious influences on him.

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The sound of bass music is constantly mutating, and the UK label Hotflush has certainly played a part in that over the last nine months. While many of its recent singles still toy with big grooves, crisp hi-hats, and deep rumble, its releases have taken on a sonic guise that's straightforwardly melodic and, at times, pink-hued and romantic. Last year saw the release of Braille and Machinedrum's self-titled debut LP as Sepalcure, an adventurous record that explored sensual depths while appropriating sonic signifiers from assorted dance sub-genres; this year has brought the open-hearted second album from label head Paul Rose's Scuba project, Personality, as well as Scottish producer Beaumont's Never Love Me EP, which threw lush Italo synths into the mix and came adorned with the kind of artwork that Drive fetishists could get airbrushed onto the back of a leather jacket.

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With his third LP, Majenta, Detroit, MI post-modern-Renaissance man Jimmy Edgar makes it crystal clear that he's serious about this whole "electro" thing. Going all-in with 11 more robotic lover tracks, Majenta ? from its Xanadu cover art to song titles like "Indigo Mechanix (3D)" ? can almost be considered a concept album. But it's the fact that Edgar has worked so hard to build this futurist motif, through his music, photography and guest production, which allows the listener to enjoy the analog glitch of "Let Yrserlf Be" and "Heartkey" without any hint of irony.

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Edgar’s sweaty-palmed beats are as saucy as ever on album three. Rich Hanscomb 2012 It’s impossible to describe Jimmy Edgar’s recorded output without quoting Alan Partridge: “It’s basically sex music.” I Wanna Be Your STD, young Jimmy told us a few years ago and, judging by the album title’s reference to a lurid hue of pink and the gaudy, third-eye dilating blow-up doll that adorns its cover, not much has changed in his sweaty palmed world. In the interim, Edgar has been slapping his bass betwixt New York and Berlin whilst developing an interest in Transcendental Meditation (other notable musical exponents: The Beach Boys’ equally insatiable Mike Love).

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