jerk: circling
Francisco Espregueira
Jerk is the brainchild of Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Joshua Kinney. Following tasty releases like Some Cosmic Shift, which we’ve featured here last year, Kinney drops a new beat tape entitled Circling - a collection of 12 tracks directly inspired by the people, places and experiences in Jerk’s and his fellow collaborators' lives. Like a lot of us, Joshua was unemployed and at home for a significant part of 2020, escaping that situation with walks and bike rides around Brooklyn. The title, Circling, makes sense and the music is truthful to that spirit.
Composed, produced, mixed and mastered by Jerk himself, the album reflects a smooth connection between hip hop beats and instrumental jazz compositions. Circling also marks the reintroduction of Carey Ozmun (trumpet) and Martine Wade (drums) who have featured on previous Jerk records, joining Jean Matthieu Carvin (keyboards) and Mikey Migliore (bass). This provides us with a brilliant blend of organic grooves with a beat tape driven kind of record. The vocal contributions from Taylor Burgess, Habit Blcx and Franco Colon are also essential, to make this a very pleasurable moment of music. Via DeepMatter, Circling is available on Bandcamp.
“I noticed streets and buildings in my neighbourhood blocks from my apartment, and I was similarly inspired to write music with no end product in mind. ”