Enigmatic footworker Lil Jabba prepares debut LP Scales

Phat Jabba.

Lil Jabba might not hail from Chicago, but he’s proven over the last couple of years that his footwork has more than enough bump to compete with the best of them. The Australian-born producer splits his time between Baltimore and Brooklyn, and while he’s not exhibiting art or rolling with his bike gang, he turns his hand to producing some of the weirdest footwork we’ve ever heard.

Scales is his debut LP, and is due to be released on June 1 via Local Action*. It showcases Jabba’s eccentricities in a flurry of double-time rhythms and a cloak of off-kilter samples, jumping from one idea to the next but retaining some kind of dancefloor coherence. It’s a footwork record, sure, but Jabba’s unusual lo-fi aesthetic (no doubt derived from his tenure throwing out limited cassette tapes) sets him apart from any and all competition.

Scales can be pre-ordered here; the first track from it, ‘Maven’, can be streamed below.

* = full disclosure: a label independently operated by FACT staff member Tom Lea