[Freerange Records]

Since his 2006 album, Amour, Jimpster seems to have been moving into ever-more glossy territory, for better or for worse. Tracks like “Sleeper” and “Dangly Panther” showed a new coat of shine beginning to emerge, culminating with last year’s “Alsace & Lorraine.” But even that track still saw the London producer and Freerange head throwing in deep, massaging bass lines below the pumping chords. His first release of 2011 doesn’t really offer even that concession: with “Change In You” we’re thrown into a world of big-room chords with little to no sign of possible relent.

We should be happy for it; “Change In You” is one of the most insistent and infectious house “jams” this side of Levon Vincent’s “Late Night Jam.” It has the same monotonous yet mellifluous repetition, a single chord progression strobing madly over lightly shuffling drums, but it’s cleaner around the edges. Where Vincent’s throbber descended into static interference, Jimpster instead chooses a pseudo-psychedelic collage of chimes and clock sounds (think Pink Floyd here) before the whole thing slips away into a pooling vocal breakdown. “Change” is undeniably simplistic but it hits the pleasure centers with impressive exactitude and grace, the kind of way-too-obvious tune that’s still impossible not to fall in love with. “Infinity Dub” hearkens back to more familiar times, as a boogie bass line, faint chimes and muted chord progression pile up into a pleasantly groovy and reserved deep house jam that pulses rather than throbs. That’s the Jimpster we know and love. But the look he has on “Change In You” isn’t shabby either.