Jacen Solo - Virgo
[Ai Records]

Jacen Solo has all but appeared out of nowhere, but in this brief stroll through the spotlight he has already released the devastatingly original and well crafted ‘Forbidden Medicine’ EP which was part of a limited series of 12” disc’s, that featured thought provoking and dramatic artwork much like the music locked deep within the grooves.

With ‘Virgo’, his first full-length album released through Ai, Doug Adamson, as he’s also known has managed to bridge the gap between genres such as techno and electronica while in the process creating a new form of music that stands alone without an identity as yet. Fusing electro with elements of deep and rich house, lush melodies and even a dose of hip hop for good measure it becomes apparent that Adamson means business. It also makes it an extremely difficult and all but impossible task to pick stand out tracks.

‘The Nexus Chase’, ‘Dancefloor Tingles’ and ‘Robot Child’ are all just so very infectious, almost melting from speaker to speaker but holding with a firm and tight grip onto their Detroit influences. Adamson along with Mark Stewart (Claro Intelecto) are proving that you can have one hand firmly in nostalgia while the other one maps out a clear and exciting journey towards the future.

This is music with a purpose, and as Adamson himself has pointed out, a return to the ‘old school’ way of partying is almost paramount to the evolution of music, where people can avoid the watered down and unappealing nature of commercial dance culture. And leading the way? Well at this point in time its records like this and labels such as Ai.