Some artists create and immediately release their music, others meticulously build it, piece by piece, note by note before releasing a single song.
Leonard Cohen once spoke about his encounter with Bob Dylan, asking him how long it took him to come up with one of his songs, and Dylan responded – ‘five minutes.’ Dylan then asked him – “How long did it take you to write ‘Hallelujah?’ I said – five months. Actually, I lied. It took me five years,” said Cohen.
When he creates his music, British Columbia rap/electronic artist and producer jRadx seems to favor the process more akin to that of his late legendary compatriot. He doesn’t even seem to remember how long it took him to put a single track on Soundcloud or other streaming sites.
Throughout Desert Power, his latest album, you just get the feeling that this step-by-step, note-by-note process is again at play with jRadx. After all, a few years back, he gave up on sampling and rapping over other people’s beats and decided to do everything by himself.
Listening to the album, you get the feeling that his concept has actually worked for him. Taking cues from more experimental artists in the field like Nosaj Thing and Aphex Twin, jRadx electronic/rap/ambient combination is more left than center field, but no less listenable or substantial, delivering some intriguing combinations of words (“Is this war, Is this Life, Is this democratic, Or is this just strife” – from Strife), beats and music along the way.