Against All Logic // 2017-2019

This album completely slipped through the nets. It’s been 2 years since Against All Logic (the pseudonym for the mighty Nicolas Jaar) released his first LP, 2012-2017, and since then I continue to listen to it periodically, which I cannot say even for some of my other favourite albums. I was sitting in my room when Nathan, my housemate, announced the news in person. Bewildered we both were, learning of the release date to be nearly one month prior. ‘How could this be?’ we both proclaim. How did Spotify nor any form of social media inform us of this release? Confusion quickly turned to excitement and these questions were ignored; I sat down, put the headphones on and let 45 minutes of music ensue.

Nicolas Jaar is a respected name in the electronic music genre, with his music ranging from the psychedelic to the experimental. His ability and willingness to experiment and push out new sounds for the last decade and a bit, as well as his notorious live sets, is what grants him this high status and what made me so excited in the first place. 

The appropriately named 2017-2019 is an album which I didn’t think Jaar would actually make and so it caught me off guard, with many assuming 2012-2017 was a one off. This probably was an illogical assumption to make given Jaar’s artistic abundance and versatility in the electronic music scene (and his own lack of recent releases). Like before, this album seems to be a compilation of tracks that he produced during this period. 

Fantasy opens dramatically – an explosion of synth sounding harps and some obscure percussive sounds which then give way to the song’s main lyric, which is actually sampled from Beyoncé. Some warm chords followed by a hard-hitting snare lift the song, and this brings with it a compelling desire to dance. Fantasy is seemingly about some unattainable love interest, hence the title. The track is largely repetitive in conveying its motif – it evolves nicely and doesn’t become tedious. A.A.L’s genius sampling keeps the song lively, and we will only see more of these sample-heavy songs in the album, which A.A.L is able to implement and master so brilliantly. 

If Loving You Is Wrong commences with a catchy bass riff. As A.A.L questions whether falling for his love interest is wrong, he is exposing some of his vulnerabilities here, which is mimicked in the track’s minimal sound. Some non-intrusive synths are added intermittently, complimenting the tone nicely. Towards the end, the chord structure changes and a heavier bass drum supervenes to give off a more desperate, impatient tone, before it ends and directly transitions straight into the next track - With An Addict. 

Like 2017-2019’s predecessor, A.A.L carries over his ability to make genuinely catchy melodies and chord progressions while at the same time evoking very specific emotions that I’m sure will vary from person to person. He does it so well on With An Addict. He juxtaposes dreamy synth chords with pacey drums, the latter of which takes control for a large segment of the tune. With An Addict is actually rather poignant in its lyrics, repetitive as they are. ‘With an addict … and you don’t stop’, possibly a reference to A.A.L’s despair of someone who is suffering from addiction. But I don’t know – I could be reading too much into this song. Regardless, it is a great track on this LP. At this point of the LP, A.A.L appears to be giving off a more sentimental tone compared with the predecessor, something that is different but that I like.

If You Can’t Do It Good, Do It Hard then interjects with magnetic electronica that then shifts to some very rude techno, indeed. Preluding this shift is the angry voice of a woman who exclaims: ‘Because if you can't beat 'em, kill 'em. If you can't kill 'em, fuck 'em. If you can't fuck 'em, kill 'em. If you can't do it good, do it hard’. I absolutely love this part. Alarm follows almost instantly to the tune of industrial techno, but this song doesn’t feel estranged, it just continues the narrative of the album. This is definitely the heaviest song on the album, and resembles something closer to Jaar’s own work than of anything he has produced under the A.A.L moniker. 

Another great transition into Deeeeeeefers (I think that’s the right amount of e’s) maintains the gloomy industrial sound - a far cry from soft-house sound of the album’s opening tracks. A.A.L shows off his production here, something he is notorious for and which puts him (Jaar) in the upper echelons of the electronic music realm. 

Faith is a mysterious minimal techno number with the ethereal, choir-sounding voice of a woman layered on top of simple drumbeat that evolves to become punchier throughout the track before waning completely. For the last 2 minutes, we’re given some gorgeous harp and piano notes, albeit with subtle electronic overtones. The minimal nature of the song may bore some listeners but I actually think A.A.L holds our interest by keeping it progressive and adding transient and miscellaneous sampled effects. 

A.A.L paces the album well, with the music never fully stopping in-between tracks. The techno subsides at this point. Penny sort of sounds like it could be late night banger at a 90s rave, reminiscent of Underworld or Faithless except with A.A.L’s updated, unique style of production imposed, along with sample-heavy synth pads and such like thrown in the mixer. You (forever), the album’s finale, is as ambient and delicate as we’ve ever seen A.A.L. and serves as an apt finish.  

2017-2019 is like a three-act show, going from alt-house to some up-tempo techno and then finishing with nice ambient scores. A.A.L definitely does a good job at guiding us through the album, without getting lost down a particular route. 2012-2017 is one of my all-time favourite albums and naturally I compare the two throughout this entire review, the former setting a very high bar. But maybe I shouldn’t. On 2012-2017, A.A.L perfectly balances the album with catchy house riffs and interesting samples. He unquestionably does that on 2017-2019, but not to the same extent. It just isn’t as memorable. This is also definitely less accessible than its predecessor, and you would be hard pressed trying to label it house music – not that I think this is a bad thing. It’s jagged, but it’s an ambitious new sound from A.A.L. I genuinely like 2017-2019 and really think it’s great, and I can’t wait for A.A.L to release more music, if we’d be so lucky.

S&TG X