Tadd Mullinix’s James T. Cotton project seems to have found its spiritual home at the Dutch label Crème Organisation, who have not only released his last two singles of raw acid-jacking, but have now gone out of their way to devote a sub-label to this sound called Creme Jak. These first three releases are all one-sided affairs, limited to 200 copies, and don’t contain much more than a liberal helping of 303 and 909.

As with other projects that state a nostalgia for a time that may have never existed, releases like this often need to tame their infatuation with the sound (here, lo-fi acid) in order to be a success. J.T.C’s “Take ‘em Off” falls flat along these lines, as it sounds like any other Chicago acid track circa 1989, but fails to give me anything other than “cool raw acid lines” and “distorted jackin’ drums.” D’Marc Cantu, Mullinix’s partner in 2 AM/FM, is on hand for the second and third releases here, which are a bit better. “No Control” is more percussion-oriented, with a grunged-up vocal echoing the word “house” incessantly, and plenty of flange effects thrown in. “Barely a Track,” under Cantu’s moniker X2, is the pick of the three releases, utilizing a more breakbeat flavored house rhythm to underscore yet even more swampy vocals and low-end drones. An inauspicious start to Creme Jak, yet the potential remains.

Creme Organisation / Creme Jak 01 / 02 / 03
[Listen / Listen / Listen]
[Michael F. Gill]