J Tizzle: “The Chill Zone Vol 2” – malleable production tactics

J Tizzle (Jeffery Townsend Sr.) describes his music as ‘Hip-Hop inspired by World Fusion’. Listening to his upcoming EP, “The Chill Zone Vol 2”, set for official release on 5-22-2017, that statement could not be closer to the truth…in part. Why? Because to be perfectly honest, it offers a whole lot more, including elements from classical instrumentation and chill, jazz or ambient sounds. In an era when EDM stardom can be as close as a light-up mask, clever anonymous alias, and management-directed collaborations, J Tizzle has continually avoided the gimmicks and concentrated on a production palette that electronic music lovers crave and rappers are looking to hijack use fro sampling.

Gearing up to be the next EDM crossover talent, J Tizzle’s new effort, “The Chill Zone Vol 2”, showcases a producer far removed from all of the sounds moving tickets at America’s major festival events: hip-hop, indie pop, and EDM. This recording is more intimate, made for one-on-one consulting, maybe through a set of high-tech headphones, or a good old quadraphonic sound system. Either way it needs to be something that can low thumping bass frequencies.

The incendiary tempo and tone of “Secret Passion” and the downtempo thrill of “Chill Zone Part Two”, or the banging percussion of “Mind Voyage”, attest to J Tizzle’s malleable production tactics.

In between there are the standouts – the piano driven funky twists of “Escape To Paradise”, the bass drum thumping of “Heart Wave” and the melodic slow burner, “Off And Away”. All though these tracks J Tizzle offers a professional hat-tip to a producer/multi-instrumentalist that regularly re-invents his own artistic rules, and more broadly, the rules of electronic music.

J Tizzle is on an earnest mission to push the acceptable, tasteful boundaries of his genre. Having no vocals on the recording allows him free space to show off his production talents without bending around a singer or rapper’s top line. J Tizzle continues to be an advocate for space within his music.

He consistently strips tracks of drums and elects to use an alternative element to drive the track, only to turn back to heavy percussion and his notorious focus on the low-end. Upon listening to the EP, it’s clear that J Tizzle hasn’t strayed too far from what defines his sound, but there is certainly a more mature, professional and intricate sound design that upholds portions of the record.

Overall, “The Chill Zone Vol 2” is very well-polished and is an audible display of J Tizzle growth into his role as an electronic producer. Even though the album is incredibly accessible, it never feels like something the listener has heard already.

The sheer notion that J Tizzle has had the confidence to release his debut album “Cosmic Journey” in 2014 and the EP “The Chill Zone Vol. 1” in 2015, and then dropped another EP, entitled “Transition” in 2015, and now follows it up with this EP, proves that this is a man who cares about maintaining his creative process – and the undisputed quality of this recent work indicates that he’s not just surviving in the industry; he’s thriving.

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