Review: Instrumental Recall - JFB

Whilst the world is stuck in quarantine, one of the few advantages to our current plight is all the fantastic content that’s being streamed online in place of live events. My personal favourite experience so far has been the Lockdown festival hosted by Ether Tickets on the 4^th of April, and featuring DJs including Jimi Needles, the Hong Kong Ping Pong club, and of course, JFB. 3x DMC champion, JFB is one of the best of the best; my feelings being summed up efficiently by the tweet I posted mid-set:

Jesus Christ I always forget just how talented @jfbscratch actually is

— Dr Chris Inglis (@ChrisSwinglis) April 4, 2020

Now, at the end of last month, JFB put out a free album of unreleased instrumental tracks dating from 2002-2015. Some of these I recognised from live shows, but the majority were new to me. However, far from simply being a compilation of leftover, unusable material, this album is certainly worth listening to.

The album opens with ‘Journey Through Bass’, a drum ’n’ bass piece which I’ve heard him use a few times as the closing number of a set, and it’s obvious why, as it’s an absolute banger. A fairly long piece, the word “journey” is certainly an appropriate word. It builds up for so long, lasting over two minutes before the drop, but never hesitates and always maintains the excitement. There’s some nice brass and guitar samples used throughout, which make the piece sound particularly atmospheric; in fact, “atmospheric” sums up the whole piece – it just sounds huge. It’s hard to imagine how the rest of the album will stand up to this one track – brilliant. ‘No Sleep’ follows, featuring some lo-fi, hip hop vibes. The song is based around a relaxing piano loop that swirls around and around, and a trumpet line also features – there’s some real jazz vibes here. We also find some of the skilful scratching that demonstrates just how JFB made his name; and some really interesting discordant lines towards the end, setting him apart from much of the standard dance music. ‘The Collective’ then offers quite a techno-based track, which also features some slow, almost avant-garde flute lines. This piece feels quite like the meeting of two worlds. And again, there’s some of the considerable scratching talent, which always slots in perfectly and never feels out of place.

After this, we have ‘Under The Depths’. Once more featuring the sounds of the flute, this piece can too be described as atmospheric, with almost scorelike qualities to it. There’s another jazzy drum loop on this one, played with brushes, which somehow sounds both cut up and live at the same time. It’s a very interesting and well-made piece of music, although one would be forgiven for thinking it sounds a bit more like an experiment than a complete piece. ‘Scratch Mustard’ is then also a rather unusual one. The sound is quite reminiscent of C2C’s ‘Give Up the Ghost’ – at least to my ears – and I wonder if there’s been some kind of DMC influence here. There are some low wobbles throughout, with slow attacks that make the song sound slightly out of time – an effective technique! – plus more flute, and towards the end, a strange-sounding instrument that I can’t quite figure out. It’s the most unusual song on the album, however I presume that JFB would take this as a compliment. And then we have ‘Interlude’, which does just what it says on the tin, featuring some nice, sweeping synths to relax to amidst the rest of the album.

‘Micro Dub’ starts off pretty chilled as well, almost feeling like an extension of the interlude. There’s so much subtly going on in this piece, every instrument has some interesting aspect to it – you could listen again and again, and notice something new every time, never letting up or becoming dull. And then, from its very beginning, ‘Out Bound’ plunges us back into the high-energy, drum ’n’ bass mayhem that began this album. This could easily be another set closer, and yet it isn’t even the album closer! There’s a nicely embedded brass chorus throughout, and some small, descending lines which work so well for providing intrigue. Whilst I wouldn’t say this is quite as good as ‘Journey Through Bass’ – being perhaps a little repetitive – this criticism has only emerged as the standard is just so high. Finally, the album ends on ‘Far Out’, which at over eight minutes is the lengthiest track on the release, giving it time to try out all sorts of ideas as the piece progresses. It starts off with a minimalistic loop, which has some interesting beat displacement to it, and then once the beat kicks in, the drums, along with the bass provide a kind of industrial feel. Later on, the piece features some lovely plucked strings which reverberate all around, and each time the beat kicks in following an extended break it fits perfectly. This isn’t the biggest piece to end on, but despite a number of tracks that would fit that brief, that’s not the overall theme of the album; the exploration of this one fits perfectly, and is an excellent way to conclude.

In another world, were I to pursue this path myself, JFB is exactly the type of producer that I would aspire to be like. There’s a very atmospheric quality throughout this entire release; there’s the perfect balance of recognisable samples mixed up with completely alien sounds; and his songs are decently experimental – he’s not afraid to try out new ideas. The very fact that this album comprises a collection of songs that were never intended for release demonstrates just how talented he is – anyone else would be proud to put out many of these pieces. We all already know just how talented JFB is as a DJ; a release such as this one shows forcefully that these talents have been equally distributed to his producing abilities as well.