Electronica prodigy Nicolas Jaar dropped a new album, 2012-2017, last week and you probably had no idea. That’s because it was released with little fanfare under his A.A.L. (Against All Logic) moniker via the artist’s own Other People label. Pitchfork brought the record to everyone’s attention, and lest you think it’s quiet rollout was due to a lack of confidence in the material, fear not—2012-2017 is really, really good.
More upbeat than his standard brand of stormy, fractured dance music, 2012-2017 feels firmly rooted in house, with many of the songs being built around infectious soul and funk samples, though “Such a Bad Way” draws upon Kanye West’s “I Am a God”. A mix of original material and previously released songs, 2012-2017 dropped last Saturday, February 17th.
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A.A.L. isn’t Jaar’s only pseudonym. He also makes music under the alias Iva Gocheva, and performs alongside Dave Harrington as Darkside (and, if they’re remixing Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, Daftside). Jaar’s last release under his own name was 2016’s Sirens.
“I see things like Against All Logic as a continuation of that,” he told Crack Magazine in a recent interview. “I always find it funny when announcements say something is ‘the first Nicolas Jaar single in three years,’ as I’ve put out work under many different names.”
Listen to it in full below, and pick up your own copy on the Other People website.
