LIQUIDS HEAVEN - Jimmy Edgar: Review

Jimmy Edgar

is an experimental electronica producer, conceptual artist, and fine art NFT grifter, sure why not. He's been around for well over a decade at this point but found a new audience as a Sophie collaborator in the hyperpop scene and his 2021 album Cheetah Bend was met with a level of critical success. LIQUIDS HEAVEN the album comes paired with a new line of NFT sculptures built from deconstructed medical equipment.

Review by Lav:

I will not talk about NFTs in this review.

I will not talk about NFTs in this review. 

I hate NFTs.

I will not talk about NFTs in this review. 

Jimmy Edgar is great. Not only is he a strikingly unique producer who absolutely refuses to limit himself sonically, but he's also a great curator of talent. Last time we heard from Jimmy Edgar was just a year ago when he dropped Cheetah Bend, not only a very solid experimental electronica record but one that featured some unexpectedly brilliant collaborations with SOPHIE, Danny Brown, Matt Ox, Millie Go Lightly, Hudson Mohawke and a breakout performance from B La B. That's why I was hyped for LIQUIDS HEAVEN which despite being a shorter project features just as many unexpected collaborations, but the results are even better than I anticipated. 

Let's talk singles first. SLIP N SLIDE and STATIC came first as a double single (and I reviewed the former for Ringtone Magazine <3). SLIP N SLIDE was the first of many absolute bangers this era provided, just a straight-up ripping piece of electronica with warping textures and warbling tones over a rattling bassline that would fill the queerest most zoomer dancefloor you can imagine. STATIC features a standout performance from Banshee where she does exactly what she's known for. Her ability to weave the dichotomy of shrieking screamed vocals and charming girlishness is irresistible and Jimmy turns in an appropriately layered performance to match. 

EVERYBODY came next and while my initial reaction might have been a bit much this is still a total banger. I'm not sure I like the rapping on the song quite as much as I thought I did but that doesn't make it any less of a whirlwind. From the hard-hitting beat to the weird sequences of short refrains the song still gets me every time I hear it. The final single EUPHORIA serves as a great opener to the record. It's a shimmering pop ballad that reminds me of many a Flume collaboration in the past, but somehow even crazier in Jimmy's hands. LIZ has lent her voice to these kinds of songs in the past with great results and there's no difference here. 

So let's get right into it, there were a number of features I was excited to hear and almost all of them paid off. Dreams 1000000 is a cloudy ballad featuring Milk whose debut single I covered earlier this year and was also produced by Jimmy. While the chilling synth lines can sort of take over the song with just how imposing they are, I still enjoy the reserved vocal performance which is packed full of memorable refrains. 

One of the things I love about Jimmy Edgar is his willingness to seek out strange collaborators you'd never predict and chef up some insane bangers with them. That's exactly what happens on BITE THAT 2 with Trinidad James which is just as wild as my imagined idea of what these two could do together. It's a zonked-out repetitive but absolutely insane banger that sees Jimmy spinning some rumbling bass and jittery distorted synths around James' short shouted refrains. You really have to hear this song to fully understand what makes it so unique. 

BUNNY LAVA is the one song on the record I can't even find the right words to describe. It's sort of a hot girl anthem and it's sort of a banger but it's also a little bit more abstract than you'd expect either of those things to be. Regardless it has my attention on lock and I find it incredibly interesting. NO ANTIDOTE has another insane but awesome feature from Ripparachie. The match in zaniness between these two is perfect and it really shows on the song. 

SIDEROOM is easily the most abstract song on the record and I'm not necessarily crazy about it. It unfolds in a really hectic way with crashing metal tones and rumbling distortion spliced seemingly randomly into the track. I appreciate that it transitions into a calm outro but being the one song on the record that doesn't really shoot for anything conventionally catchy does make it even more of an adjustment than you'd expect. 

The record also doesn't end on the best note. YA! features 645AR and it confirms some hesitations I've always had about his career. Unlike a lot of the other features, he chooses to play it as lowkey as possible and gets TOTALLY wiped by the booming percussion and wiry synths all over the song. NEVER LEAVE is the closing track and it's slightly anti-climactic given just how much more I enjoyed the first Milk feature on the record. It's a much more quiet and reserved song than anything else on the record but it also doesn't have anything that channels finality for the record. 

So no, this thing isn't perfect, and it's on the shorter side, but boy what an insane 28 minutes. Jimmy continues to be one thing that nobody else in music can be, himself. With that comes insane warbled blown-out beats that only he would make and a collection of utterly unique collaborators that collectively, only he would work with. The results are one zany banger after another that come together to form something irresistible. 8/10

For more electronica check out my review of Flume's Palaces here