I. JORDAN – Give It 2 Me / Reclaimed

The journey that I.JORDAN has been on lately has been a deeply personal one. It’s a gift then that they should choose to share the intimacy of this moment with us, as they have done through their recent string of double single releases. We’ve essentially been witnessing their coming out, with the London producer mapping their coming to terms with their non-binary gender identity with their music. Tellingly, these singles have been diverse and often sweeping, honest to a fault, and a bold expression of the complexities, anxieties, desires, and euphoria of the queer experience. 

Their latest dual release, “Give It 2 Me / Reclaimed,” is the final of the triptych. For I. JORDAN, it’s also the most personal of the bunch, particularly Give It 2 Me. “I have lots of confused feelings when listening back to this release,” they confessed. “It’s rough, raw and rugged.” Indeed, Give It 2 Me is a touch chaotic. Pinpointing the track is difficult; it races with a 2000’s trance pulse, is moulded around oscillating drone synths, and is held together by looped house vocal. Pieces of it are at odds with each other, creating a tension throughout that echoes its origins in “heated emotions and anxiousness.” Technically, Give It 2 Me is a mess. But it works by virtue of its raw honesty, an expression of emotion that is as messy as those same emotions in real life. Yes, it’s a bit frazzled and perhaps a touch too cerebral, but one has to admire I. JORDAN’s ballsiness in running with it.

Download and stream Give It 2 Me / Reclaimed here 

The antithesis of this is Reclaimed, a tightly wound piece of techno whose grid-like structure suggests notions of power. Everything here is precise, I. JORDAN’s synths and beats not a hair out of place. Reclaimed throbs with a dark confidence, the aura of being completely in control. For I. JORDAN, it’s the sound of the armour queer people put on when they encounter spaces they do not feel completely safe in. Taken together, Give It 2 Me and Reclaimed tell the last chapter in I. JORDAN’s story of finding strength in the fluidity of identity, of owning your fears and turning your anxiety into power. These, like the two sets before them, transcend dance music. These are statements of intent. 

Listen to Give It 2 Me below.

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