Nervous Growl by Jason Code

Jason Code’s Nervous Growl wasn’t born in a club. It started on a cold, rainy day in Seattle, when he pulled out some hardware to shake off a creative rut.

Let’s backtrack. Jason first learned to produce at 16 after falling for the bass and energy of early dubstep, fascinated by its overlap with hip-hop. After years of honing his sound – including releases on Scuffed Recordings, Ommaya Records and Future Everything, plus his self-released 2022 EP JC01 – he moved back to Seattle and began working as a lighting tech for after-hours parties like Research, High+Tight, and Second Nature. Those nights, with their long-form, hypnotic grooves, would have a huge impact on the production of Nervous Growl. Around the same time, he started throwing his own parties, investing in a soundsystem with friends, and creating a DIY space to help bolster the local scene and strengthen the city’s underground dance community.

It’s that same spirit – inclusive, DIY, and fiercely proud of its scene – that fuels Nervous Growl: as he puts it, “a rising tide lifts all ships.” Bringing together that formative love of proggy house and techno with the deep womps, think breaks, tripped-out vocal chops and breathy ASMR moments that have become his signature (put it this way: he’s not beating the ADHD allegations any time soon), Nervous Growl feels like the record that brings together all aspects of Jason’s musical make-up into a disharmonious whole.

This EP also features his best mixing work yet – tight, bass-forward club tracks that balance silliness, darkness, and sultry energy. The low end is king here – especially the chest-rumbling “growl” at the core of the title track – but there’s a wry humour running throughout the EP with details that reveal themselves on repeat listens. Nervous Growl is a record built for big systems and packed dancefloors, with Jason’s personality stamped all over it.

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