DJ Seinfeld Mirrors Black Vinyl Edition

Swedish musician and producer Armand Jakobsson aka DJ Seinfeld has always stood out from his peers. With a special place in the so-called ‘lo-fi house’ scene now developing into something beyond the no-nonsense dance music he pioneered. 2017’s Time Spent Away From U popped with the complex emotive quality of a true club shaker, and Jakobsson’s long-awaited second LP Mirrors shows that he’s an individual carrying that sensitivity in spades.

There’s no doubt that Mirrors is another straight-up belter of a dance record loaded with state-of-the-art 2-step and garage upgrades, but a glance at this track-listing suggests that Seinfeld’s been feeling a particular kind of rave melancholia recently. Far from being the jubilant declaration of its title, ice-cold synths and rainy urban stroll drum programming shake ‘She Loves Me’ into a Burial-esque revery of love lost despite the good times. The gentle hardcore stabs of ‘Walking With Ur Smile’ and the vapour trail textures of ‘These Things Will Come’ have their sights on better days to come, even as their snipped, Four Tet-like diva vocals offer cadences of joy in the now.

Mirrors is precisely the kind of self-reflexive dance record we need to hear in 2021; a striking reminder that brighter days are on the horizon.