Jaguar Knight, the robotic funk project, has released his latest album, Rock Your Boxes. The electronica producer from Gaspereau Forks, New Brunswick channels bells, whistles, and UFOs of all sorts to deliver an impactful five-tracker full of nostalgia.
“Atomic Wife,” eases us in with a deep bass synth, simple drum pattern, and robotic vocoder before blasting into a grinding synth pattern that sounds like police officers in hot pursuit of Windows 95. Jaguar Knight seems to channel some of Daft Punk’s underground tracks here.
“Lying In Bed” is about as retro as EDM gets, with dizzying synths of all shapes and sizes backed by a hard bass and harder percussion. It sounds like downloading purple screensavers on a sunny day.
“Axe Murder” is a supremely interesting piece; with sharp interjections of sound during the intro giving the track a horror-film feel. This track holds some of the most distilled sounds we’ve heard, along with the heavily vocoded lyrics adding a sort of intensity that horror flicks can bring; think auditory jump-scares but they’re actually good and enjoyable.
“Sass Horse” sounds exactly like a sassy horse strolling through one of the many forests in cyberspace. A groovy disco beat and commanding acid synths give the track even more character.
Finally, “Data Limit”’s funky disco beat dictates a cheeky arpeggiated beep, while heavily resonated synths team up with splashes of autotune throughout the verses.
“I’m always trying to anticipate an emotional or physical response,” says Philip Jaguar, the mind behind Jaguar Knight. “You never know if a song is going to work until you play it live.”
“These days I try to write really quickly… Given that both human civilization and my physical body both have an expiry date.”
Jaguar will be performing at Taco Pica in Saint John on March 8th, alongside his band Cursing & Swearing.