Jai Paul – BTSTU

I hardly even know the guy and I’m pretty sure I’m already in love with Jai Paul. The man sure knows how to market himself. After the chick that usually plays lamestream but occasionally whips out a totally unexpected stunner on my local radio station announced that he was ‘hot’ and made ‘cool’ music, I was somewhat sceptical. But infiltrating the mind of an otherwise normal morning announcer is not nearly as good as publishing reviews of your only official single on your MySpace page that read like absolute balls. “Kid A was eleven years ago” reads one. “Indicative of someone who’s such a shut-in that they’ve lost all sense of what passes for an adequate musical composition in the outside world”, says another. This is cutting edge promotion. When you’re attempting to progress a fledgling career and make waves and/or a good impression with normal radio announcers the world over, good press means everything. Which would have you wondering, on first glance, why Jai Paul is flaunting ’2/10′ ratings on his official website.

The answer, when you hear ‘BTSTU’ is obvious enough. Jai Paul of London, UK simply does not give a fuck. ‘BTSTU’ has the potential to be hugely offensive to the common sensibilities of your everyday listener. Where’s the chorus? I don’t like it. Why does he start with the line ‘Don’t fuck with me’? This guy is nuts! Why is the bass making my car wobble like that? This is shit. What’s with the space ship noises? Turn it off. And the most amazing aspect of the whole thing is that Paul had the foresight to craft such an obviously commercially disagreeable slice of audio not this year but four years ago. ‘BTSTU’ is in fact a 2007 demo which has found release now that Paul has caught the ear of XL Recordings – home of Gorillaz, Beck, Adele and Kid A’s own Radiohead alongside basically every one of the globe’s alternatively important bands or artists. That Paul had cobbled all these ostensibly discordant sounds and vocal harmonies in the year 2K7 begs the question; What the fuck has James Blake been doing all these years? Honing his technique, one would assume. For if Jai Paul has his way, Blake’s minimalism might well be blown out of the water by the BBC Sound of 2011 longlister.

Where Blake’s eponymous debut was welcomed with widespread critical acclaim and the swooning of hipsters worldwide, XL’s signing of Paul at the end of last year after un ‘bidding war’ makes increasingly good commercial sense/cents. While BTSTU’s strange cocktail of acapella, 8-bit and warbling synth sounds would have had all the makings of financial suicide back in 2007, Paul’s transgressive vision – as with a good bottle of wine or Gwyneth Paltrow – has gotten better, and certainly more palatable, with age. I like hearing stories of tracks that were recorded years in advance and yet still blew up on their later release. It shows a real insight into the direction music is travelling and demonstrates a unique ability to tap that vein and produce something that will eventually be contextually consistent and worthwhile. Despite all the hating on ‘BTSTU’ and with the sort of regret that comes from discovering an alternative popstar of the future a few months too late, I am now desperately looking forward to Paul’s debut release. “Wobbly electro that oozes aggression and spunk. Wrong in all the right ways. 8/10.” Put that in your website and smoke it.

Jai Paul – BTSTU

Make up your own mind on Paul here.