Jordan GCZ Lushlyfe EP
The man from Magic Mountain High and Juju & Jordash returns to solo mode.
Jordan GCZ (a.k.a. Jordan Czamanski) is a busy man. Not only is he part of two freewheeling and experimental live outfits (one with Gal Aner as Juju & Jordash, another with Gal and deep-house darling Move D as Magic Mountain High) but so too does he run his own label. Sure, producers of just about any standing run their own outlets nowadays, but Czamanski’s Off Minor, in the space of just two years and after only a handful of releases, already stands proud of the rest because of its refreshingly different, gently challenging output.
And it’s the same story with Czamanski the solo producer. He has branched out only twice since 2013, but on both occasions he managed to do so with a rare sense of melodic intensity and subtle experimentalism that made for some of the best house tracks of the year. Following those efforts on his own label as well as Future Times, Rush Hour’s No ‘Label’ series have tapped him up for a third solo release, and once again the results confound expectation.
This EP finds the Amsterdam-based man in his most reflective, pensive mood yet. And if you follow him on Twitter, you will know that is saying something, because he is a notorious stoner, (over)thinker, and worrier. “Lushlyfe Slap,” though, is the sort of track that encourages you to forget your worldly woes. Proceeding nowhere in particular with golden chords, pixel-thin synth lines and blurts of bass guitar, it is cosmic and jazzy, retro but futuristic, and evokes the superbly sumptuous instrumentals of David Axelrod. “Lushlyfe” then starts as a sparse and worldly bit of ambient with bird calls and menacing drones. Eventually, it evolves oh-so slowly into a transcendental bit of jungle-tinged, bubbly synth work that is weird and wonderful but, most pleasingly of all, seems to serve no real purpose. Casting himself further free of any sense of conformity, closer “Lushlyfe Birds” is a cavernous and atmospheric affair that drifts and floats on a number of different chords and pads. There’s a subtle sense of eastern charm and yet more soothing bird calls here, but far from coming over like some whack-ass Enya tackle, this is prime mind music executed in eqsuite fashion. For Czamanski, then, it seems there really are no rules.