- Part Baltimore, part UK rave, all party. JIALING's latest EP is filled with high-energy updates on her home city's sound.
- When Janie Shih started putting out music, she wasn't afraid to proudly fly the flag of her hometown Baltimore. Her debut EP under her Big J alias was titled The Greatest City in America and featured a flip of DJ Technic's "I Just Want to Fuck." She transformed the original—a minimal Baltimore club masterpiece with raunchy lyrics, chopped breaks and funkily twanged guitars—into a modern rave symphony. The tune's first half is filled out with a massive think break before things go apeshit with some wobbly house chords, a ravey piano line and an all-business bassline that make the whole thing far deeper and weirder than Technic could've imagined. It's a bold move for any producer to take on such a storied tune and, in the words of one of the city's most famous characters, "If you come at the king, you best not miss." She didn't.
Freaky Horns is Shih's second full release as JIALING and it's a major vibe shift. Her previous release, 家 (jiā)., was a sombre affair. There was still some breaky badness, but she spliced in traditional Chinese instrument samples for a more introspective listen that covered everything from dubstep to slo-mo techno. Freaky Horns still waves the Baltimore flag high, but also touches on acid, rave and house. The album also includes another riff on a classic and comes closer to the sort of raucous party tracks she's released as Big J. "Percolator on Acid" takes the squeaky synth that Cajmere made famous, adds a bubbling acid line and lets the breaks fly. Where the original is a druggy and slanted affair, here she turns it into a no-holds banger. This speaks to Shih's underlying ethos—she makes irreverent party tunes that, while based on Baltimore templates, are bold enough to break with clubland dogma.
Take "Get Off My Jogwheel." The tune is the closest she gets to vintage Baltimore club: bass pulses, a breakbeat and a cheeky vocal. But the track soon transforms into something else entirely, as she adds a cascade of undulating pads. The effect is like emerging in some fantasy world where Baltimore club legend Miss Tony started releasing neo-trance records for a cult label like Love on the Rocks. On "Addy," Shih teams up with a trio of rising New York DJs: Rose Kourts, Honey B and Third Self. What starts off with breaks choppier than an onshore wind blowing at Rockaway beach transitions—thanks to a hair-raising 303 solo—into an ode to hardcore filled with haunted Mentasm stabs.
And then, of course, there's the title track. I'm sure there will be plenty of plays for "sound of the summer," but Shih is an easy contender. On "Freaky Horns" she works a horn sample through an MPC like a baker kneading dough, while the drums sound like a second line remixed in real time. If you don't get to hear those vocals intoning you to freak in some club this summer, you're doing something wrong. Freaky Horns is contemporary club music at its finest: paying homage to history, while also unafraid to rewrite it.
Tracklist01. Freaky Horns
02. Addy ft. Rose Kourts, Honey B, and Third Self
03. Get Off My Jogwheel
04. Percolate on Acid