OK so he’s another electro sexster who blatantly wishes he was Prince, but Jimmy Edgar is a serious talent and has definitely given this album his own stamp. A one-man show who also moonlights as a photographer and designer, he’s got some serious ways with synthesizers.
Tracks drip with seductive, wet synth energy and ‘80s codpiece posturing, with leads, FX, beats and vocals interlacing in a succinct but intricate way. Several tracks provide a blueprint for how exciting R&B could sound if producers stepped away from dumbed-down dance and embraced a futuristic vision of the genre’s ideals: Turn You Inside Out for starters, Physical Motion carrying on where Ginuwine’s Pony left off.
Elsewhere authentic electro ‘n’ vocoder jams do nothing daring but are no less delectable for it, but when he pushes the boat out a little more it’s a more interesting listen altogether. Try One Twenty Detail’s fast edits and dubstep-ish attitude, or In My Colour taking a rasping electro blade to a bouncing bit of old skooled deeper house. Closer Vibration lays on the electro boom-bap heavy, eventually blossoming into a warm, euphoric pad climax – like Chromeo on an MDMA high.
One of the year’s most refreshing listens, XXX should appeal to anyone who likes their electronica just that little bit shexy.