Critiques CD: Nicolas Jaar | Space is Only Noise

Disarming, ethereal, sparse, vulnerable. This is me gushing. The 21-year-old New Yorker by way of Chile, with a slew of acclaimed singles already under his belt, conjures up wistful melodies using hip-hop tempos, breakbeats, classical, jazz, blues and so much more. He belongs to a growing contingent of young producers (think Mount Kimbie, James Blake) taking electronic music in bold new directions, namely through exploring near-silence and space. But this isn’t an esoteric soundscape made to please highfalutin musique concrete crowds. Sure, they’ll be raving about Jaar’s perplexing magnus opus, but so will we.