High-flying global house and techno torch-bearer Jimi Jules returns with a new EP Free Bird on Life and Death Records.
The four tracks on Free Bird were written during the same sessions as Jimi’s album ‘+’ on Innervisions in 2022, and collected together they’re a summary of what Jimi’s all about – hands-in-the-air anthems, chaotic house bangers, deep burners and contemplative moments all rolled into one release.
Jimi Jules has been turning dancefloors inside out for over 20 years, from festival stages to intimate redlight basements. He’s brought his free-wheeling creative spirit and masters in music to bear on collaborations with Dixon, Âme, Joy Tyson and Tugg The Drummer for labels like Defected, Innervisions, Zukunft, Watergate and many more.
Jimi’s Free Bird EP switches seamlessly from anthemic mood and all-out party to self-reflection and brooding rave noir across 25 transformative minutes. The title track is a acid-tinged floor filler, imploring dancers and the public at large to question the status quo, and “break the rules, in everything you do”. Then Jimi follows his own advice and hands over the controls to his Swiss latino accomplice Lil Dirty, who embraces the chaos with delay effects, scratches and saw waves, for a house grinder that’s full of fun and filters.
The euphoria of the A-side is balanced out on the flip with two deeper cuts. Speed Meditation delivers a zoned-out atmosphere over a bouncy percussive groove, while poking fun at the West’s adoption of spiritual practices to deal with the stress of modern living. Touched By Silence rounds off the EP, as Jimi channels his inner dancing Thom Yorke for an urban hymnal complete with a haunted falsetto, on top of a driving beat inspired by the ghost town that was Zurich during the pandemic.
Free Bird is an EP only Jimi Jules could make, operating at the height of his powers after over two decades of making people dance all over the world, where he rips up his own rule book and gets creative on four tracks packed with personality and character.