Jonti

Twirligig

(Stones Throw)

Record Review by Bianca Barragan

Jonti is the newest edition to the Stones Throw catalog, sharing space in there with Mayer Hawthorne, Aloe Blacc, J-Dilla, and, of course, Peanut Butter Wolf.  He's already worked with big names like Mark Ronson, the Dap-Kings, and Kurt Vile, and he plays multiple instruments, arranges, produces, and does vocals for most of the tracks on this album.  Most would be quick to comment on his youthful appearance, but these achievements are impressive regardless of age. 

It might be easy to align Jonti with artists like Madlib or the Beach Boys sonically, but, as he said in an interview, "frogs were my true inspiration." That's pretty unusual as far as inspiration goes, and so it is from that statement which we will begin examining the record.  Superficially, animals and references to them appear in many of the titles on the album ("Batmilk," "Hornets Nest,""Solar Smoking Dogs," "Snickers Hiss").  Animals, and, to a greater degree, the natural world is a prevailing theme on this album.  For example, you can hear his love of Brian Wilson in the soft lalas and woos of "Passaros," but he adds chirps of what sounds like it might be someone's finch in the background.  All of the songs, with their multitudes of layers and their juxtaposition of what should be disparate sounds, produce the same effect as being in a tent in total darkness and hearing for the first time all the sounds--every single one.  We can see that indeed frogs are his true inspiration here. 

Having established this nature-and-the-outdoors theme, let's expand.  These zoological sounds--the chirps and buzzes interwoven into the songs--are in fact things we probably hear every day.  Each track on the album combines cheeps and squeaks with more quotidian, industrial sounds--whirrs, beeps, squelches, bangs, jangles--to produce a fresh melody, all beautifully balanced and all seamlessly ordered.  In doing so, the sounds are all elevated, never just noise. The snippets of a guitar being played, the alarm clock ringing we hear as part of something bigger and better. This must be what a musical savant hears when walking down a busy city street. Without an iota of exaggeration, it can be said that in this album, Jonti is showing us the beauty of the world we move through each day. Like that kid in American Beauty who videotaped a bag. 

Jonti describes his songs as pop, but that should not been seen as a detraction of talent.  This is not an album that will only be played in stores that sell expensive desserts or overpriced clothes that look like they've already been worn out.  This album can and should be appreciated by anyone who likes to hear new things, who likes to backtrack a little bit on their iPod or in the car and try to figure out what that sound is or how he did that.  Like the best artists, Jonti shines a light on what we see and hear every day and allows us to see those things in a different and better light.