Jack Beats - Careless

After a string of high profile single releases this is the first in a series of mini-albums from the production duo. Across a record awash with star guests, it’s the Takura-featuring title track which kicks off proceedings. By far the most accessible number here, its soulful vocals and skyscraper-like breakdowns sound equally at ease on the wireless as in the grimy underbelly of clubland.

It’s noteworthy that ‘End Of Love’ marks the first occasion that Leonard Cohen has granted approval for one of his tracks to be sampled. His distinctive tones open the track in spectral fashion before an onslaught of heavy dubstep beats, the vocal chopped and pasted about with a cheeky Latin-tinged house break adding yet more sonic intrigue. A most fascinating composition and the high watermark of this collection.

On the other end of the quality spectrum is ‘War’, featuring the usually reliable Diplo and chart-bothering Example - who sounds like a man desperate to finish off his vocal parts and head home for a nice fish supper. It lacks that combination of forward-thinking beats and infectious hooks that characterise their respective outputs, drowned in a mudslide of over production and un-sifted ideas.

Even without the luxury of collaborators the instrumental ‘Hooligans’ is proof there is a keen ear for melody at work here, a dizzying but tuneful concoction of bleeps and effects that doesn’t depart greatly from his other material but sits nicely amongst its lyric-assisted counterparts. ‘Epidemic’, meanwhile sees Mr Beats call on the services of none other than Dillon Francis to deliver a brutal sonic assault that fuses jangly piano riffs with dirty slabs of bass. Built around an infectious sampled vocal (‘This latest craze continues to be an epidemic of drugs, dancing and general debauchery. can we make any sense of it? Let’s find out’), it effortlessly recalls the spirit of Adult’s ‘Hand To Phone’, a track beloved of a certain 2 Many DJs.

Ending a predominantly four-to-the-floor collection is the downbeat 2-step groove of the MNEK-featuring ‘Fast Girls’ whose honeyed vocals are an oasis of calm in a sea of freneticism, the tune a grower in many ways but a fitting way to round off the record.

Whilst ‘Careless’ isn’t quite the finished article, there is a subtlety at work here that sets its creators apart from their contemporaries. Its pulsing electronic heartbeat will have your head and limbs in a welcome spin.