REVIEW: Against All Logic - 2017-209

nicolas Jaar lives up to the lofty expectations…

I was a huge fan of 2012-2017, Nicolas Jaar's debut album released under his Against All Logic (AAL) moniker. Acting as the Chilean-American's outlet for more accessible productions, AAL's first record contained easily digestible, soul-sampling house. While it was a quality addition to his acclaimed catalogue, Jaar received some mild criticism of artistic stagnation. No doubt this was due to the public's lofty expectations in Jaar's track record of pushing the boundaries of electronic music. Though 2012-2017 was a strong effort, it wasn't trailblazing. (ED: Jeez, tough crowd ha). However, 2017-2019 sees Jaar back to his boundary-pushing best.

From the moment we hit play on the ambitious opener ‘Fantasy’, it’s clear this is a whole different beast. Immediately we’re confronted with a cacophony of wonky noise and chords. Slicing through the distortion is Beyoncé’s familiar but unexpected voice, sampled from her 2002 Sean Paul collab, ‘Baby Boy’.

(It signals Jaar’s altered approach on this project: he only samples Sean Paul songs. A stunning and brave move. OK, that’s not true. But accept this as my petition for AAL’s third album to feature a sample of ‘Temperature’. Sorry, let’s get back on task.)

Against All Logic AKA Nicolas Jaar

Jaar floods our ears with oddly pleasant electrical currents and goose-bump-inducing synths, juxtaposed with rambunctious percussion and droning. As the track draws to its conclusion, Bey’s final impression is suggestive of Jaar’s actual direction on the remainder of the album: “I’m stepping in hotter this year / I know you gon’ like it.” Strangely, Jaar sidesteps a “hotter” AAL on the following track, the wistful ‘If Loving You Is Wrong’. Sampling Luther Ingram’s soul classic of the same name, the track’s house and IDM-leaning makeup is the closest iteration on 2017-2019 to the material found on AAL’s debut.

Jaar subtly puts the foot down on the percussive voyage 'With an Addict'. Borrowing cues from drum 'n' bass, it’s a clear standout of 2017-2019, and with a seven-minutes running time it’s also the longest. In 2020, I thought d'n'b would feel tired and aged, but Jaar's production wizardry is at maximum capacity, employing various timbres and head-spinning stereo panning to retain a fresh sound. Spotify, rush this into your "Songs To Test Headphones With" playlist.

Nicolas Jaar collaborator Lydia Lunch
📸 Daniel Weiss taken from Dazed Digital interview

After tickling our ears with intricacy, Jaar hires a hostile-sounding Lydia Lunch on ‘If You Can’t Do It Good, Do It Hard’. She ruptures our precious lugholes with an emphatic message: “Because if you can’t beat ‘em, kill ‘em / and if you can’t kill ‘em, fuck ‘em / and if you can’t fuck ‘em, kill ‘em / if you can’t do it good, do it hard.” Jaar bucks the trend that Lunch demands, doing it good AND hard. And right at this moment, we’ve entered the record’s hard, swashbuckling middle section.

2017-2019’s most intense track, ‘Alarm’, follows. There’s no chance you’ll sleep through this one, as Jaar throws the engineering kitchen sink at it for the entire two minutes with siren-like sounds and chaotic rimshots. He doesn’t let up, either. ‘Alarm’ bleeds into ‘Deeeeeeefers’, replacing the sirens and rimshots for surging synths, pressurised hi-hats and walls of noise.

This breakdown prepares us for the album's blissful come down over two final tracks. A homage to the late great David Bowie, 'Penny' is Jaar's adaptation of 'Moss Garden' (released on Bowie’s seminal Heroes LP). With its glowing energy, constant percussion and IDM qualities, 'Penny' kinda recalls earlier cut 'With An Addict'. It's floaty and fast, but not really danceable. Instead, it invites a deeper listening experience.

Then, after the album’s sustained genre kaleidoscope, Jaar pumps the brakes for the ambient closer ‘You (forever)’. AAL’s version of ambience remains clouded in odd chords and machine bleeps, bloops and whines, though the glistening keys and sparse vocals spaced throughout steep the track in a peculiar beauty. It’s the palatable finish that this challenging record required.

Though it’s demanding in some areas, 2017-2019 is the result of Jaar taking the criticism of the first AAL venture on board. With a fire in his belly, he has fabricated an electronic music technicolour journey that draws on all his techniques, influences and styles, some of which we’re only just hearing for the first time. From all these methods and genre-melding, 2017-2019 is impossible to generalise, and that’s what we’ve come to expect and love from Jaar’s pioneering work.