What makes a good pool jam, anyway? Don’t we tend to think of sunglasses, overly sweet cocktails and mislaid tubes of sun cream—of exuberance translated into music? INIT, the fourth album by INIT (Benedict Frey and Nadia D’Alo), offers a different definition: this is music for those sitting at the edge of the pool with headphones on, forgetting they ever sent out the party invitations in the first place.
The tracks on INIT drift gently through the album, as if recovering from some unnamed strain. Urgency and haste are nowhere to be found. On the second half, the music begins to summon droning, hypnotic ghosts of trip-hop—»Shiver«, clocking in at nearly eight minutes, shuffles toward the finish line through hazy fog—or it lingers in a sonic space that feels like the alternative to an alternative take on seductive R’n’B.
A track like »Jaded«, with D’Alo’s voice doing only what’s strictly necessary while a sparse drumbeat gathers beneath, encapsulates the project: it knows its means and uses them with care. Pool jams? More like cool jams.
Pool Jams
