Jump Into - Uffe

One of my favourite albums from 2014 was Max Graef's debut LP, Rivers of The Red Planet. It's one of those albums which hangs together as an entire album incredibly well. It's a full listening experience with different moods and tempos flowing throughout but without it feeling like a playlist or a collection of individual songs which sit together a little disjointedly. It's something that I've always found especially difficult to achieve with electronic music but Graef's mix of jazz and soul samples into deep house and hip hop is infectious and brilliantly done. The concept is great with even the album cover itself really fitting into the feel of the record and helping to bring that concept to life. Check out the full album stream below, it's really fantastic, even for someone, such as myself, who wouldn't describe themselves as a house or "club-music" kind of guy.

 
So when I heard that "the next Max Graef" is due to drop a new album in October, I was excited, if also a little wary. Wary because this new Graef, who goes by the name of Uffe, an electronic producer and DJ from Copenhagen who already has an LP out from 2015, is releasing his next LP through Tartelet, the label that released Graef's LP. That should make me feel at ease as Tartelet are a very solid label, but instead it immediately made me think that it was Uffe's connection to Graef's label rather than to his music that would make him "the next Max Graef", as so often happens with the hypemachine.



I'm still undecided as to whether Jump Into, the debut track from the album No!, makes Uffe into the next Graef or not but ultimately, I don't really want another Graef, the one we've already got is doing a great job. I can certainly see the Graef comparisons; Uffe has created some killer jazzy deep house with many of the same squelching synths and bursting effects as Graef. Jump Into seems more of a bona fide club tune than many of Graef's tracks and has a searing bass that thuds its way through swirling effects for the track's full 7 minutes. The shimmering effects which pop in and out of the track in almost a random manner keep everything super interesting and fresh. The first minute and a half before the vocal breakdown is super cool, like walking through a rainforest at dusk with only the distant croaks of creatures and glisten of stars to be heard. The vocal breakdown is incredibly generic with its echo effect and dull, disconnected voice saying something relatively artsy about music. But Jump Into is a solid track that's brought me back for listen after listen and I for one can't wait to hear more from No! in October.

Uffe
Jump Into
Tartelet
2x Vinyl LP out: 14/10/2016 at Tartelet