- The London producer returns to her self-styled Planet J with introspective beats and angular sound design.
- Two years ago, Jossy Mitsu released a spectacular club record into the world—but no one was on a dance floor to hear it. The Birmingham-raised DJ, who had made a name for herself in London, was quarantined in her hometown when she released her debut EP, Planet J. Her blend of jungle, house and garage is a composite sound that felt right at home with the metallic, hiccuping UK club music coming out of London. Now Planet J has orbited around the sun, and the sounds are deeper and darker, conjuring the image of a catastrophic world crisis.
Planet J II sounds like it's suspended in time. Some of the tracks, like "Bet" and "Lava's End", hover around lower BPMs, while the record's icy atmosphere smoothes over even the fastest tracks with the illusion of slowness. On the jungle track "Catch Me If You Can," rumbling sub-bass and muted pads act like ankle weights for speeding breaks. After "World's End" is propelled into clubby territory with a tip-toeing melody and clicking hi-hats, dubstep wubs that call for a souped-up soundsystem invoke quiet introspection.
This music impresses with its sound design—the synths are heady and prismatic, like Tetris blocks finding the perfect nook. It's a quality that, on "Lava Rain," makes the squelchy synths knocking between the juddering drums sound unusually compelling. There's a similar effect on "Portal," where bass is squeezed between crisscrossed percussion, and stuttering hi-hats dance around a twinkly melody. On the most spacious track, "Zeta," broken beat lands like gunfire before finding itself subsumed into the wistful, dreamy atmosphere of intelligent drum and bass. It sounds blissful, each sound falling on an uncluttered canvas.
Tracklist01. Bet
02. World's End
03. Lava Rain
04. Catch Me If U Can
05. Portal
06. Zeta