Since debuting in 2011, New Jackson has been producing romantic and nocturnal electronic music from his windswept studio beside the Irish Sea. Having released on such luminary club labels as Permanent Vacation, Hivern Discs and Dublin’s own All City Records,his evocative and sophisticated club music has found itself swept out to Europe’s finest dancefloors, and into the record bags of it’s most esteemed selectors. The solely electronic side-project of cult singer-songwriter David Kitt, whose storied twenty year career has seen him enjoy chart success and a personal invitation to perform at David Bowie’s edition of ‘Meltdown’,
Principally inspired by strains of Chicago house, melodic disco and acid ambience, the sound of New Jackson is outstanding machine music with a rare soul. Reflecting Kitt’s extensive musical history, each of New Jackson’s dozen-or-so releases thus far is characterised by an adventurous musical spirit, often weaving unexpected influences from acoustic, experimental and classical genres to rousing and authentic effect. Kitt’s “MPC-mindset” often thrives as the rhythmic centre of each production, reflecting a lifelong love affair with the machine first- established Kitt produced as part of Dublin's 'Thomas The Skank Engine' crew, who were behind the now legendary Dub Trax parties.
Nonetheless, the tracks exist firmly in dance music’s underground diaspora, stripped of novelty and nonchalance into something emotive but always physical. The woozy vocoder at the centre of ‘Sat Around Here Waiting’ continues to turn heads in clubs since it’s sudden, delightful arrival on John Talabot’s Hivern Discs imprint in 2013, matched by 2014’s ‘Having A Coke With You’, an unforgettable slice of acid-house melancholy, defined by a memorable sample and poignant strings.
This steady stream of singles laid the gradual foundations for New Jackson’s debut LP, ‘From Night to Night’, released in 2017 on Dublin’s All City Records. Hailed by The Irish Times as “a gratifying and hugely satisfying collection”, it perfectly framed his dancefloor impulses with a wider palette of sound, deftly blending influences as disparate as Larry Heard, Pete Rock and Arthur Russell. This same weaving of tempo, genre and context inform New Jackson’s DJ sets, that have taken him to clubs including Berlin’s Panorama Bar, Output in New York and Amsterdam’s Sugar Factory.
The follow-up LP for All City and a EP was released in early 2018, on record labels Maeve and Permanent Vacation, New Jackson continues to impress with his expansive sound and musical philosophy.
