jayda g’s soulful house music is graduate werk

It’s great to see good, talented people growing and slaying — especially in spaces where those qualities aren’t always rewarded. We’ve been supporting Jayda G, our favorite Canadian soul-house-DJ/oceanography-graduate-student ever since we first heard her productions on a couple of great 12″s on the small Norwegian label Freakout Cult, back around 2015-16. By the time we experienced Jayda Guy mix house records with emotionally astute, classic R&B (Stephanie Mills? whaaa?), utilizing a musical wisdom beyond her then-years, we were in full cheerleader mode. Now that she’s finally dropping her full-length debut — and completed her Master’s in Resource and Environmental Management —  how can we not support?

“Leaving Room 2 Breathe” is the first track released off the upcoming Significant Changes, and is exactly the kind of tune that Jayda has been perfecting in the studio and featuring in her sets the past few years. It’s a big modern house track, raised on the classics (dig those minor piano chords, and the knowing, vocals of long-time Vancouver compatriot Alexa Dash) but also open to giving candy ravers the bright hooks and the breakbeat breakdown they come for.

That said, if the house newbies do arrive on her dance-floor, they have to put in the work. As with most of Jayda’s best tracks, “Leaving Room 2 Breathe” spoon-feeds no one, trying to free both minds and asses, no matter how rare that strategy has become in the European clubs she now calls home. “Push / Pull / It’s antithetical” goes one of Dash’s two recurring chorus lines, as Jayda chops it up and flips it, sugar-coating its mystery with a sampled vocal hook, before bringing back the bass boom. It sounds very much like a hit.

Jayda G’s debut, Significant Changes, is scheduled to be released on Ninja Tune in late March.