Jhobei, the alias of London producer Jobe Elliott-King, is a British artist best known for his work in Felon5, a minimal production trio he runs alongside his friends Charley Tucker and Oliver Rayner. The roots of their work can be traced back to their childhoods in Bracknell, when their parents would introduce them to electronic music by throwing house parties. “Most weekends you could find us lumped together at one of our houses with a soundtrack of vocal ‘90s house occupying the space,” Elliott-King tells XLR8R. “This sparked my interest, and from my early teens we would always be DJing at house parties, halls, and even the odd club.”

While studying Digital Music at Southampton Solent University, Elliott-King developed his skills as a DJ by playing in clubs across the city, albeit chart-related music. As he became more accustomed to electronic music, though, he began to discover deep and emotive yet danceable sounds, and soon he was producing them, too. Earlier this year, he teamed up with Tucker (Charleze) and Rayner (Oliver.r) on a new EP to launch Bizarre Trax, a label and event series with a firm focus on wonky house and minimal sounds. As a solo artist, as Jhobei, he’s put out material on the likes of Truly Madly’s Mindhelmet label, plus some smoother, downtempo work on Markus Sommer’s Pager Records. “I am constantly improving and updating my sound as I don’t think it’s good to get too comfortable,” he says. “I’m particularly interested in forging interesting arrangements that really keep the listener surprised throughout. That’s what I’m delving into and exploring currently.”

Just recently, he contributed “Skylounging,” a previously unreleased track to XLR8R+035, which fell more in line with his work on Pager. (He recorded it in the first lockdown in response to a need to break from the constant bombardment of upbeat music he’d been making.) Now, though, he’s back with an XLR8R podcast, recordedrecently at his home in London. Across its nearly two-hour run-time, it shuns the more enigmatic and energetic cuts you’ll hear him playing out across Europe in favor of a more stripped-out groove. That’s not to say it won’t have you dancing though: this is a mix for the mind and the soul, filled with spaced-out groovy house and deeply melodic cuts of the highest order.

01. What have you been up to recently?
Recently I have been busy with Bizarre Trax, planning events and label releases for this year. We are spanning out across Europe with more dates in 2022 than ever before.

02. What have you been listening to?
I’ve been leaning toward the more progressive sound with lovely deep melodies, as well as more ploddy electro and tech releases, so there’s been a nice variation in sounds. As well as this I have had a lot of really cool demos come in for the label which keeps things interesting!

03. When did you record this mix?
I recorded this mix at home on a lazy Sunday. It was originally meant to be the first run-through to gauge the track selection and flow but after the first recording, I was actually quite happy with it, which is not always the case!

04. What setup did you use?
Two Technics SL1210s, one CDJ 850, and an Allen & Heath Xone 92 mixer recorded into Logic Pro.

05. What can we expect?
Hopefully a nice flow and selection of records that are slightly more introspective. I was debating whether to take the mix on a more dancefloor-orientated tip but instead opted for a stripped-back approach with dashes of dancefloor energy throughout.

06. How does it compare to what we’d hear you play out live?
I would be able to slip most of these records into my sets but this would depend on what time I was playing. If I were playing peak-time then of course you would hear me play with more energy than what is represented in this mix. That’s not to say there aren’t energetic songs here, but it shows a slightly deeper side to my sound!

07. What’s next on your horizon?
I’m very excited about 2022. Covid really halted gig opportunities but that now seems to be dissipating and there is a busy year of bookings ahead which I am very grateful for. As mentioned, we also have some Bizarre Trax showcases in Europe this year and that will also incorporate members Felon5!

XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to hear the podcast offline you will need to subscribe to our Select channel to listen offline, or subscribe to XLR8R+ to download the file. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Editor’s note: there is no tracklisting for this mix.