Jerome - Moods (2020)

Can a blurry picture somehow turn into a concise, persuasive and urgent depiction of reality? It’s hard to believe that Jerome’s debut ‘Moods’ started as an improvisational escape, a spontaneous no frills minimal endeavor that turned into a dense, brooding, tenacious magical dark electronic album.

Jerome formed in London in 2019 and consists of Annalisa Iembo and Stella Mathioudakis. The Italian/Swedish/Greek duo sought out to make raw soul freeing music in opposition to their classically trained backgrounds, a new form where ‘sessions’ could become songs, adopting technoid mutations to convey desires, new needs and a certain chaotic randomness that evolved into ostensibly surgical danceable industrial rhythms.
‘Moods’ was created mainly on drum machines, samples, pedals and sequences with the occasional use of spoken word and vocals and recorded between London, Gothenburg and Italy. What really sets the album apart is their stellar use of ever-shifting magnetic rhythms, capable of carrying dissonant sonics (Iamyou) into wondrous landscapes; steady alien kraut 4/4s (IO, ITSTHEWATER) that almost brings back the Birmingham sound of Regis. Jerome’s punk approach to dance music is always accompanied by an intimate underbelly (Framework), layers of atmosphere where hammering beats (Edet) turn into contained spiritual psychedelic journeys, a similar path undertaken by like minded artists Hiro Kone or Coil’s Drew McDowall, where club culture adopts an almost ecstatic conceptual perspective, where mind connects to body and body connects to feelings.

Jerome is God. Jerome is Female. Jerome is Male. Jerome is You. Jerome is Me. Jerome is Inside but also Outside.