Jameszoo

Describing his sound as “naive computer jazz,” Dutch musician Jameszoo (Mitchel Van Dinther) makes abstract, hard-to-pigeonhole music inspired by the outer limits of jazz, hip-hop, and electronic music. Born in the small town of Den Bosch, he made his name as an eclectic DJ — spinning everything from Krautrock to experimental hip-hop — during the late 2000s. He began producing soon after, remixing tracks by Pixelord, Shlohmo, and other underground beatsmiths. His debut 7” single “Leaf People,” a downbeat soul-jazz track featuring vocalist Coultrain, appeared on Dutch label Kindred Spirits in 2011. This was followed in 2012 by Guanyin Psittacines, a four-track 10″ EP of loose beats, quirky samples, and groovy keyboards. A more bugged-out, beat-centric 12″ EP titled Faaveelaa appeared on Rwina Records that same year. This was followed in 2013 by Jheronimus, a 10” EP that featured more live instrumentation and an overall jazzier feel, as well as his own electronically manipulated vocals. He spent the next few years performing at clubs and festivals, sharing the stage with artists ranging from James Pants to the Sun Ra Arkestra. He also remixed songs by Nightmares on Wax, Awanto 3, and Cid Rim. In 2016, he signed to Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint and released his debut album Fool. Featuring far more live instrumentation than his previous recordings, the album included contributions from Brainfeeder regular Thundercat, and two of Van Dinther’s primary influences, Steve Kuhn and Arthur Verocai. An EP, Flake, followed in 2017, featuring collaborations with Niels Broos and Frans Petter.
That same year Jameszoo opened the annual Amsterdam Dance Event in a special collaboration with Jules Buckley and the Grammy-winning Metropole Orkest at the iconic Melkweg concert hall. The recordings of this momentous collaboration simply titled Melkweg, were issued by Brainfeeder as a digital release during the spring of 2019, and as a deluxe, limited-edition double LP in July of 2020. ~ Paul Simpson