Jimmy Edgar – XXX

We’re forgetful types, music reviewers. We get so much music to listen to, we’re forever wondering which album we’re actually listening to at any given time. Fortunately, a few forward-thinking labels have come up with a new feature; for example, on this one there’s a lovely vocodered lady saying “You’re listening to XXX by Jimmy Edgar, coming soon on K7 Records!” over the top of the music, every twenty-five seconds or so. Brilliant! I may even replicate the effect here, just to save you from glancing up at the title; god knows, that’s a nuisance isn’t it?

Detroit-based Edgar is a fashion photographer by day, electro-funk artist by night. Playing at raves by 15, in 2001 Edgar was picked up by Warp Records and has peddled his sometimes disturbingly sex-focused produce since then. His first record, Color Strip, was released in 2006 and featured his most famous song, ‘I Wanna Be Your STD’. Taking four years to compile a sequel, Edgar hasn’t grown up a whole lot- oops, it’s that time again: “You’re listening to XXX by Jimmy Edgar, coming soon on K7 Records!”

Where we we? Yeah, Edgar hasn’t grown up a whole lot, as XXX‘s title may indicate. His slickly-produced, glitchy and heavily syncopated tracks here have titles like “Hot, Raw, Sex” but deal predominantly in a flat, plastic aesthetic of sex rather than anything with any real substance… not that I’d want much more substance, in fairness. XXX does sound like a record by a fashion photographer, its beats like excited handclaps from the sides of imagined catwalks, its tracks as lacking in depth as a polaroid. It is all pose, surface, glamour – it aims for neither your head nor your heart, but instead for whatever part of you Edgar believes contains your most base and shallow aural lust. It’s missed this reviewer altogether.

“You’re listening to XXX by Jimmy Edgar, coming soon on K7 Records!” That one was really late; my apologies. In the end, it all meshes together, like so many half-remembered Detroit raves. Unless you’re a committed Edgar fan or a devoted follower of Detroit’s electro scene, this one is best avoided. Once more just in case? “You’re listening to XXX by Jimmy Edgar, coming soon on K7 Records!”