Album
26 July 2010
!K7

Detroit-based award-winning fashion photographer Jimmy Edgar releases his second album. Now in his late-twenties, Edgar was initially influenced by the techno scene, having deejayed alongside Detroit legends such as May and Atkins as a teenager.

XXX bears little resemblance to the pioneers of techno, though. This is a straight-up electro/synthpop album.

It’s hard to fault Edgar’s proficient production skills, his tracks are chlorinated to perfection, with effervescent synth bass patterns bubbling beneath crisp vocoded vocals and warped, pitch-bent keyboard patches. Rather like the fashion world from where Edgar derives – it’s all very contrived, prepared and scrubbed to perfection.

I’m not denying Edgar’s stuttering, arpeggiated electro-patterns do not have a certain scatterbrained charm, but still XXX suffers from a lack of persuasive and memorable songwriting. His use of vocals is limited to repetitive phraseologies and lacks emotion and personality – the surrounding music so perfect in its programmed execution so as to become almost faultlessly technique-based.

Rarely does Edgar depart from that equation, except perhaps for the brooding, feline Physical Motion – well-assisted by female vocals - and light Prince Funk of the opening Function of Your Love. On the flip side, Hot Raw Sex and Turn You Inside Out could hardly be any less exhilarating and red-blooded than their titles suggest.

A very slow and mechanical album, Edgar’s track titles may talk a good game but the content lacks the essence of originality or the rough edges required to really excite.