Since relocating from Berlin to Los Angeles, Detroit-born producer Jimmy Edgar has shifted his music away from club idioms and closer to contemporary rap and R&B sounds. Having moved far away from the perverted electro-funk of his earlier releases and the sweaty bounce-techno of the mid-2010s singles on his Ultramajic label, his production style has become more audacious, constructing brash, contorted rhythms while taking cues from mainstream pop, trap, and the bubblegum bass of the PC Music crew. After producing a track on Vince Staples' Big Fish Theory, making a house single with Dawn Richard, and releasing the debut full-length by J-E-T-S, his long-running project with Machinedrum, Edgar returned to the solo album format with 2021's Cheetah Bend. SOPHIE and Hudson Mohawke co-produced one track each (respectively, the whistling, clanging "Metal" and the lumbering, toy-like trap of "Bent"), and it's impossible to mistake their influence on the record's sound. Most of the remainder of the tracks feature guest singers and rappers, making the album Edgar's most collaborative record yet. Danny Brown's presence is welcome on "Get Up," and other emcees present include B La B (whose Who I Be mixtape was produced by Edgar), 24hrs, and Gen Z rapper Matt Ox. Millie Go Lightly's sweetly yearning vocals float over "Be with You" with ease, and Semma soars like Mariah atop the stomach-rumbling beats of "Cheetah." Rochelle Jordan (frequent collaborator with Edgar, Machinedrum, and Jacques Greene) sounds wonderful on "Crank," a simmering slow jam sprinkled with jungle-esque tambourine. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi

1		CROWN
2		GET UP
3		PAUSE
4		METAL
5		BE WITH YOU
6		BENT
7		TURN
8		HAVE A GREAT NOW!
9		CHEETAH
10		ZIGZAG
11		NOTICE
12		READY2DIE
13		CRANK
14		CURVES

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