Jitwam’s mind
The moody house music producer blends avant-garde jazz and psychedelic soul with his subconscious instincts
When crafting his stream-of-consciousness poetry, legendary beat writer Allen Ginsberg used the practice of “first thought, best thought” as a means of trusting his initial instinct to access the subconscious mind. For electronic music producer Jitwam, that same mantra has helped him create a body of work that uses the clutter of a wandering mind as an asset to create a compelling and ever-changing body of work.
“‘First thought, best thought’ is about relying heavily on your intuition rather than the analytical side of your brain when creating art,” Jitwam says. “I am very dear to that because it brings out more of my subconscious than my conscious mind. You just press record and do whatever and throw as much paint on the wall as possible.”
Jitwam’s moody house music benefits immensely from his instincts, as each of his releases weaves together a mind-bending array of influences from avant-garde jazz to psychedelic soul. His latest record, ज़ितम सिहँ, manages the difficult feat of maintaining cohesion amid a backdrop of shifting styles. The song titled “dooooooooooooooooooo” takes a grab bag of sounds, from police sirens to skittering drums, and turns them into a hypnagogic collage guided by his faraway crooning. Unlike so many house producers, Jitwam isn’t afraid to sacrifice a booming four-on-the-floor groove at the altar of unfettered experimentation.
“There’s so much information or so much music or so much news that we’re all trying to take in and process,” he says. “For me, being an artist, I have to synthesize that all together. A lot of that, for me, is being bold in your choices and understanding yourself, because once you understand what you like and don’t like, that whole process becomes a lot easier.”
For Jitwam, music isn’t just artistic expression, but a means of centering and exploring himself among the chaos of experience
.