Reviews
Jamie Woon
When listening to ‘Mirrorwriting’, it’s hard to fathom that this is only Jamie Woon’s debut. With its freshness comes a maturity only seen in artists who’ve flourished. Having said that, Woon’s collection of impacting tracks have taken him over three years to master. When you have an artist who can produce such vividly insightful songs about even the mundane (Woon claims at least four of the tracks on ‘Mirrorwriting’ are about going for a walk) you know you’ve landed on someone who’s reflective creativity has the potential to produce audible artistry.
After having prior success with his first 12″, ‘Wayfaring Stranger’, in 2007, Jamie Woon has blasted back into the urban music scene as a more ‘mainstream’ talent who is gaining rapid recognition for his music. ‘Mirrorwriting’ is a twelve track album encompassing a collection of harrowingly atmospheric melodies intertwined with Woon’s rich, lustrous vocals. His sound is certainly chart compatible, but there are elements within his songs that take him a step away from the norm, with unsuspecting chord progressions and an ability to create tension and feeling through melodic detailing. This hasn’t been achieved purely through generic production and instrumentals. His musical wizardry has led him to sourcing obscure means to create sounds, for example recording clicks and taps on wicker furniture in the Cornwall cottage he resided in for two months, and catching the sound of stones from a nearby stream to use as snare beats.
‘Mirrorwriting’ starts with ‘Night Air’, the first track to have been released off the record. It’s cruisy but at the same time there’s a static tension in the sequence. The infectiously airy repetitions are symptomatic of a heartbeat, which gets you hooked immediately. After time, funk elements seep into the mix which give it great diversity and shows pretty early on that Woon takes musical inspiration from a vast repertoire. Tracks like ‘Street’, ‘Lady Luck’ and ‘Middle’ resonate with artists such as Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke, especially with the falsetto chorus in ‘Lady Luck’. They sit well in the current R&B scene. There’s definitely something that sets Woon aside however: an inventiveness and ability to fuse a multitude of unexpected layers, putting him alongside fellow innovators such as Jamie Lidell.
A number of tracks on the album hold a more reposed and hazy vibe, like ‘Spiral’, ‘Gravity’ and ‘Waterfront’. Within these there’s a great romance and depth – rich tapestries of intimate experiences and feelings enveloped in silken melodic brilliance. Woon did hundreds of takes on each track to achieve the exact sound he envisioned when writing his songs. The time he has taken to cultivate this record is reflected in the result – a collection of technically advanced yet undoubtably thoughtful tracks that will refresh the UK urban scene.
Words: Jen Jaconelli
‘Mirrorwriting’ is out now on Polydor.
