J*Davey - The Beauty in Distortion / The Land of the Lost

Eighteen years after its original release, J*Davey's landmark debut double album The Beauty in Distortion / The Land of the Lost is being pressed on vinyl for the first time. The project marks a significant moment in the duo’s catalog, a record that quietly shaped the conversation around experimental R&B, alternative, new wave, and Avant-garde Black music in the mid-2000s and has never stopped circulating amount collectors, producers, and serious music heads since. J*Davey is the Los Angeles-based duo of vocalist Jack Davey and producer D’LEAU, widely cited as pioneers of dark R&B and alternative, new
wave R&B, whose 2008 double EP is frequently referenced as a foundational work in the development of progressive R&B, predating the genre’s mainstream recognition and influencing a generation of artists. The duo gained early recognition through MySpace in the mid-2000, reaching influential figures including Prince and BBC broadcaster Giles Peterson. PopMatters described the album’s approach as mixing genres also at once - “like having two or three songs playing simultaneously” - with the beauty described as abundant anchored by standout tracks including “Divisions of Joy” and “Mr Mister”, which they called “the funkiest tune this side of Prince’s vault.” SPIN called D’LEAU’s production “undulating tunes that coax rather than grab”while Jack Davey was described as blowing “barbed-wire kisses with a post-coital sigh.” rapReviews put it plainly J*Davey’s the truth. The group defines genres.”

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