- Like many Jersey club producers, DJ J Heat is a prolific bootlegger and remixer. Chart rap and R&B don't escape his crosshairs, but he also takes aim at obscurer sounds. Club innovators M.E.S.H. and Kelela have each been J Heat-treated twice, and a bootleg of Kingdom's 2011 "Stalker Ha" is one of the New Jerseyan's best. The latter track, which has been remastered for this Night Slugs EP, is typical of J Heat's broad taste. The original is already a trans-genre mish-mash—UK funky meets the "ha" sample—and the remix pivots between menacing trap rap and Jersey's kinetic syncopations. Once the kick drums are rolling, Kingdom's samples are gated and sliced to within an inch of their lives.
This feeling of jittery panic is common to J Heat's tracks, where dense sample mosaics are often reshuffled into tricksy new forms every eight or 16 bars. This quality defines the producer's debut EP, not least on its oldest and strangest track, 2012's "Transit." The theme is implied in the title: train horns and (train conductor?) shouts are diced ruthlessly over an ever-shifting grid of kick drums. The effect is disorientating and intense, but those airhorn blasts also have something tender about them. This mood prevails on the other tracks, where two more recent originals show J Heat's softer side. The choppy arrangements, frantic percussion, shouts, bed squeaks and gunshots remain, but they're paired with sweet chord loops and snatches of melody. It's a compelling combo, especially on "Derailed Moments," where the synth loops glimmer and the breakbeats are extra sharp.
Tracklist01. J Heat - Transit
02. Kingdom - Stalker Ha (J Heat Remix)
03. J Heat - Boarding Station
04. J Heat- Derailed Moments