All the stores are closed, the nom de beat of producer J Morales, returns to Heterodox Records for his third album of handmade hardware sculptures. These five sleek, streamlined dancefloor odysseys trade in the murk, grit, and industrial menace of Morales’ now-classic earlier work as all the stores are closed for a more playful, yet still lo-fi and experimental enough to bend minds and ears.
The Down EP opens with “Nights,” an acid-laced EBM workout, all *Jiffy Pop* snares garlanded together into a headwhirling gallop. “Electro Voice” is the neon silhouette of a footwork anthem. “TekTok,” an album highlight, sounds like a glass-mounted mantel clock from Days of our Lives thrown down King Tubby’s gravity well. “Tubbs” is pure Bristolian bassweight as it might sound in Lavender Town. Finally, “Under Lord” is a shear-sharpening mantra of ping pong beats and polished metal shrapnel. It’s industrial in the machinist sense of the word – better, stranger living through engineering.
J Morales is a restless, ceaseless innovator, turning in works in a handful of genres from a hatful of projects, aliases, and collaborators, most notably ABSV or Abusive Delay. The Down EP is his third outing on Heterodox Records and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have him. This is heterodox in every sense of the word – beat music that defies easy genrefication and lazy stereotyping.
creditsreleased April 5, 2024
J Morales – Percussion/Synths/Samples/Recording
Cover Art by Ramon Mills