Jerome Sydenham - Electric Pussycat

This exquisite, genre–transcending mix, released early this year with little fanfare by BBE, is the latest in a series of highly forward–looking releases by Jerome Sydenham, whether as a producer or DJ. It is destined to become a classic and has my vote for DJ mix of the year.

Playing connect–the–dots is a favorite pastime of top DJs, and Sydenham reconfirms his status here both as a wunderkind and as a thinking–man's DJ by effortlessly crossing boundaries between genres, ethnicities, and even time (on the closing track) as he weaves his musical journey through a series of seemingly disparate records to form a thoroughly pleasing unified whole.

And the unifying theme here is "Soul", or rather "Âme". Though "Electric Pussycat" is not the first commercial mix album to have spotted the potential of "Rej", Sydenham's positioning of this stunning record (track 5) underscores its pivotal role in synthesizing the overarching themes and sweeping undercurrents that are reshaping underground dance music today. What's more, the work of Âme, Sydenham, and his collaborators (Dennis Ferrer, Kerri Chandler) demonstrate conclusively that it is soul which separates the wheat from the chaff, regardless of genre.

With effortless charm, a healthy dose of mischievous humor, and impeccable taste, Sydenham has crafted a unitary piece of after–party dance music from a wide palette of genres — Spacey Techno, Tech House, Deep Progressive House, Minimal, Techno Dub, and Electro — without ever losing the thread. The sweet music that flows seamlessly from beginning to end establishes this mix as a benchmark by which tastemakers in underground dance music will be measuring themselves and others against for years to come.

A track by track analysis would quickly run out of superlatives; there's something wonderful for everyone here. Those looking for mischief will find it in tracks 3, 6, and 12, with "Demoniac Lingus" by Fudge living up to every promise in its title. The sub–sequence comprising tracks 4, 5, 6, and 7 illustrate the earlier point about soul and the surprising places where you'll find it today: who would have thought that "Rej", an unmistakably Eurocentric Tech House/Techno Dub record with a mesmerizing riff played pizzicato, would embody so much soul, or that it would integrate so perfectly with the "Pan–African Electro" of Ferrer & Sydenham Inc.? And those needing proof that Sydenham is a master of mood need look no further than his remix of the Julien Jabre near–classic "Swimming Places" (track 8), which transports us from the azure skies of the French Riviera, so clearly evoked by the original, to thunderstorm clouds gathering at dusk over sweeping African grasslands (dig that Valentino/Sultan & The Greek–style guitar work). Finally, it's nice to see Sydenham once again acknowledge Carl Craig ("Darkness" on track 11): Craig's "Sandstorms", which had more than a little influence on the huge hit "Sandcastles" by Ferrer & Sydenham Inc. (2004/5), was selected to open Sydenham's mix "Explosive Hi–Fidelity Sounds" on BBE last year.

There are a number of DJ mixes in the marketplace which have similar themes and aims to this one, the closest being Joe Claussell's ambitious "Translate" on NRK (2006), a sort of meditative, ambient–tempo variation of "Electric Pussycat" (including, as it does, both "Sandstorms" and, yes, "Rej"). However, when it comes to execution, Sydenham and Claussell unambiguously leave the mostly soul–less competition in the dust.