Andrew Veeder on August 15th, 2013

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“The Vail” is the first project released by 21-year-old Los Angeles native Jonathan Dilin, a multi-faceted 13-minute collection that showcases his abilities at rhyming and singing – but also producing, crafting four of the five tracks under the pseudonym JDefeats. His sound is rooted in post-R&B, murky and propulsive synth-driven 808 beats that recall a smoother “House Of Balloons” and “Kaleidoscope Dream” and harder “Yeezus.” Opener “Never End Ing” begins with fragments of a British-sounding gentleman orating the links between creativity and education and future uncertainty, over a foggy bassline, with bytes like “all kids have tremendous talents and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly” and “my contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status” and “if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original” It’s quite a way to open. The beat hazes out yet builds, and the chorus “Never gonna stop / never gonna stop for nothing now” completes the introduction. Down-n-dirty “Dude Where’s My Ride?” pulsates with a barrage of bass blips, and “Mess With” is a cocky and playful romp that flips the beat on itself at the second chorus, morphing the undercurrent groove into a darker incarnation with sinister synth jitters. The closer “World” is smoother washed-out rhythm & blues, with its chorus “this is for the world, for when you’re down and out / this is for the world, for when they count you out” riding a drum machine onslaught like a wave. Let’s hope this is merely the beginning.

||| Download: “The Vail” EP

||| Stream: “Mess With” and “World”