Bambii – ‘Infinity Club’ review: bass-heavy dancehall and jungle bangers galore

2 August, 2023

bambii

In an interview with The Face, Bambii described the club as an “alternate dimension”, and her music is equally transportive. For the last decade, the Toronto DJ’s club night Jerk has been a bass-heavy haven for Caribbean dance music in the area, and has attracted a loyal and largely queer following. She was also a silent presence on Kelela’s excellent album ‘Raven’ earlier this year. But while ‘Raven’ was a sedate club expedition that documented personal growth, Bambii’s new EP ‘Infinity Club’ puts you at the centre of a lusty night at Jerk.

Bambii’s sound pairs club styles from her native Jamaica with an inky atmosphere you might find in a warehouse rave. Whirring synths generate tension, basslines have a slinking friskiness and sound effects that are Pavlovian to clubbers – MCing, dub sirens, air horns and speed garage vocal loops – are shrouded in hazy effects. She pulls in vocalists from the worlds of pop, R&B and dancehall while keeping their idiosyncrasies intact, like Aluna’s bird call-like falsetto on ‘Hooked’.

When Bambii goes for jungle, it best shows how multi-faceted her production can be. ‘One Touch’ opens with an enchanting synth chime that points towards airborne pop before pulling the rug to reveal caustic bass swells and rhythmic patois flows. Before Sydanie hotfoots over the breakbeat on her self-titled interlude, it begins with a ripple in the watery atmosphere that almost resembles Drexciya’s synth sorcery.

There’s a baked-in confidence to every track here. On ‘Slip and Slide’, Bambii takes rapping duties and channels Deto Black’s self-assured flirtiness towards Ragz Originale, who is fresh off his excellent debut album, June’s ‘Bare Sugar’. The beat is what truly gives this song its allure, though, with a dancehall groove that oozes out with doomy synths and percussion. In the other corner of the room, London MC Lady Lykez takes the floor with gruff raps on ‘Wicked Gyal’. “My body thick, no mi never lanky / Him say, ‘What a bam bam’ like mi Sister Nancy,” she quips atop an ascending bassline.

In that aforementioned interview with The Face, Bambii also said that the club “is a microcosm for how you navigate your community.” ‘Club Infinity’ is maximum hedonism, but there’s also a communal undertone to how every artist featured here has the same willingness to hand over their inhibitions to the dancefloor. It’s the sort of liberation that comes from creating a disarming space that plays with sounds you won’t find anywhere else.