- A jam-packed album of footwork, electro, jungle and jazz that marks a production milestone for the genre-fluid Toronto artist.
- Jessica Cho's music, from her DJing to her live shows, has always bordered on experimental. The Seoul-born, Toronto-based artist draws from a wide palette and doesn't colour inside the lines, opting for bold, striking sketches over orderly designs. She's a risk-taker musically (she once played abstract noise during peak-hour at Nolja, her Toronto party, for one example). A classically trained pianist who grew up on a diet of hip-hop and K-pop before discovering house and techno, Cho moves through genres with sass—her last album, Elephant in the Room, was a dizzying bricolage of rap, jungle and glitch. But her new LP reveals a more polished and cohesive approach to genre, an indicator of an artist maturing into their style.
Packed with buzzy club tunes, In Motion is functional dance music that doesn't dilute Cho's creativity. Encompassing footwork, electro, jungle, jazz and hip-hop, these nine tracks feature tight, funky grooves rather than the abstract collages that define her previous records. "Heads Up" with Canadian producer Hood Joplin, for instance, is full-on footwork with an introspective feel thanks to a dulcet melody. The album's overall sound design feels crisp and structured, as if Cho had an exact blueprint in mind before opening Ableton. There are still oddball touches that represent her adventurous side, like the ribbeting vocals on "Everyday" or the warbled synth soundscape on "Uggy."
Cho loves to collaborate, and In Motion features a diverse cast including Delic'amarr, rapper and director of underground Seoul club Sober, and the New York-based Moist Briefs. But the strongest tracks on here come from Cho herself. "Closed Doors," one of the highlights, is a hybrid of deep techno, footwork and IDM that nods to Detroit with its taut arrangement and cold, slinky mood. By playing with loops and splicing up the vocal sample, Cho's able to inject her personality into this techy roller. "Malibu" touches on jungle and jazz, bringing to mind scenes of a live drummer tearing it up on stage as a saxophonist cooly croons.
When I interviewed Cho at MUTEK Montreal two years ago, she described how artists are always under pressure to make a banger. "Sometimes, I just want to do what I do and make art." With its kinetic percussion, jazz and classic club fare, In Motion checks all those boxes. These tracks are well-crafted and waste no time on conceptual clutter—the feeling is like focused spring cleaning after a long winter of hibernating and hoarding. This is Korea Town Acid at her most precise.
Tracklist01. dis·co·theque feat. Delic'amarr & Midas P
02. No Hard Feelings
03. Everyday
04. dejavu
05. Malibu
06. Closed doors
07. Heads up feat. Hood Joplin
08. uggy feat. Moist Briefs
09. Ur trauma feat. Delic'amarr & Midas P