Jim-E Stack - Tell Me I Belong (2014)

Anyone angled toward downcast, piano-house driven melancholia that makes you feel like you’ve spent the last few decades digging a grave will be floored by the debut album from Jim-E Stack. The captivating Tell Me I Belong is 10 diverse tracks representing the culmination of their creator's musical experience thus far. There's a tangible through-line that ties together the plaintive piano samples of opener "Somewheres", the stark rhythmic workouts of "Run" and "Out of Mind", and the bodymoving, emotional resonance that songs like "Reassuring" and "Is It Me" offer in mass quantities. "Below"'s excitable beat may move with the skip of an experienced drummer, but it's the billowing synths and jittery organ chords that keep you stuck to the elastic groove. In every corner of Tell Me I Belong, you can hear an artist who reveres classic jazz musicians like John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner, experimental pioneers like Steve Reich, and Detroit techno greats Omar-S and Robert Hood, but contemporary boundary pushers Arca, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Actress are no less inspiring for Stack. – Words courtesy of Passion of The Weiss