On The Verge

Nicolas Jaar

Providence, R.I.
Knob-Twisting Newcomer
www.nicolasjaar.net

While it may not be a revolutionary concept to infuse difficult-to-digest sonic dissonance into music made for dancing, knob-twisting newcomer Nicolas Jaar has pioneered a new brand of cerebral, beat-laden jams that are both mind-stimulating and undeniably head-bop-inducing. Fueled by a desire to slow down the warped speed of modern life, Jaar meticulously crafts songs which tap into a curious juxtaposition of alienating ambient grooves and a universal emotive human quality. On his debut effort, Space Is Only Noise (which dropped in February), Jaar, who describes his esoteric sound as “a conscious forgetting—a forgetting of consciousness,” manages to merge a global-centric sensibility with an unpredictable avant-garde aesthetic. Disjointed hip-hop percussion gives way to droning hums, haunting samples slide into French voiceovers, and pleasantly piercing exotic string sections collide with tinny keyboards, making for a transcendental listening experience that shifts and morphs like the ebb and flow of the tide. When he’s not doing homework, this 20-year-old wunderkind and full-time student at Brown University is busy changing the face of electronic music, one profoundly moving track at a time.