JUMP SOURCE - Fold

A Montréal duo formed by Patrick Holland and Francis Latreille, Jump Source arrive with a résumé already packed with dozens of records released under assorted aliases and projects: Holland has long recorded as Project Pablo, one of the leading names of lo-fi house in the 2010s, while Latreille has worked as Priori, dispensing techno and house in a partnership built on hypnosis and mannerist sound design. The name comes from Jump Source Studio, the space run by the duo, a crossroads that has seen new electronic-music gurus like James K and Maara pass through. “Fold” is their debut full-length, released on Naff, the label Latreille runs together with his friend Adam Feingold (Ex-Terrestrial). Its defining trait is the sheer number of guest vocalists, one per track, the most famous of whom is undoubtedly Japanese downtempo legend Poison Girl Friend.

The record is a set of vocal tracks laid over solid tech house foundations; the aim is to dredge up the post-Millennium bug era and feed it to the almost pop-like freshness of contemporary production. Far removed from their techno EPs of a decade ago, the pair shake off any hint of nostalgic drag with a sweeping, seductive modernization: having struck the right balance between syncopated excess and minimal manipulation, Latreille and Holland attempt to get ahead of the next trends that, following the twenty-year rule, might resurrect the energetic, playful microhouse of the late 2000s. What ultimately shapes the record's direction, blending academic rigor with catchy flourishes, is the collaborative process itself: as the duo explained in an interview with Stereogum, they drew up a sort of glossary of key words around the identity of “Fold,” then handed it to their guests so each could translate it into music their own way.

In other words, an album built more around a shared vocabulary than actual lyrics. Sonically, the results are deliberately varied: ranging from luminous to pensive, from faint dub echoes to bouncier electro; Latreille links this openness to the nature of the French Québec scene, where, in his view, genres and scenes are less siloed than elsewhere (“whoever's in a band goes to raves, whoever goes to raves plays in bands”).
The themes are movement, disconnection and the urban environment: life on the road, identities that shift from one city and time zone to the next, fleeting connections; the title itself, “Fold,” evokes the idea of layers folding into one another and narratives overlapping. Unabashedly cheesy, crowd-pleasing right up to the edge of radio-friendly, yet held together by impeccable sonic craft, this is by far the most accessible and catchy record the duo has made: perhaps too much so, and yet never short on personality, and carried by a level of skill that never misses a beat.

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04/07/2026