Painful Enlightenment (2021)
Jana Rush
Four years ago, Jana Rush released her debut album, Pariah, and became an overnight sensation in Chicago’s expansive juke/footwork scene. The bass-heavy album was a perfect balance between fast-paced jungle and downtempo synthesizer melodies. In a scene that boasts literally hundreds of members, from dancers, DJ, and producers, Jana’s debut made her stand out, with tracks from Pariah appearing on mixes from major names in club music such as Addison Groove and Leon Vynehall. Her long-awaited follow-up, Painful Enlightenment, pushes her music beyond her footwork and Chicago house beginnings, and further into experimentations with jungle, noise and bass. It’s one of the most ambitious records from Chicago’s rich club culture scene in recent memory, and even at its darkest sonic moments, Jana’s style is exciting and inspirational.
(Pictured Above: Jana Rush)
Painful Enlightenment arrives through Planet Mu, a well respected experimental electronic label out of Europe. The label is no stranger to juke and footwork, and has turned their attention to higher profile experimentalists in the subgenre, like Jlin, RP Boo and DJ Manny. Jana began her career as a DJ at the astonishingly young age of ten, training under the wing of Chicago house legend, Gant-Man. Due to her location and the surrounding social circle, she was a close affiliate to many familiar names on Dance Mania, which has built a legacy as one of the most impactful labels in the history of Chicago house. Pariah was released through Objects Limited, a smaller distributor that focuses on overlooked experimental artists. It was a strong platform for her to maximize the success of her debut, but releasing on Planet Mu will give Jana the chance to reach an even larger and more globally diverse audience.
Jana’s second album shifts rapidly between heightened emotions, all centered around spirituality, grief, or sexuality. The album opens with “Moanin,” (above) a track that revolves around a heavy 808 bassline and a screeching spiritual jazz saxophone sample. The album title, Painful Enlightenment, depicts the relationship between struggle and mental liberation. The sample borders abrasiveness, but there is an overpowering positive energy in even the harshest elements of spiritual jazz, and Rush connects her own spiritual awareness to the free jazz greats with the force of the 808 that built her entire culture. The style of this track embodies struggle and liberation in a way no other genres can compare.
In an interesting pivot, she shifts the record after “Moanin” with the hypnotic nine-minute, “Suicidal Ideation” (below). There is an underlying nervousness around the second song that aligns with the street sounds engrained in Traffic Control, the latest solo LP from DJ Hank, a close affiliate of Jana. Where Hank interpolates the ringing tones of car alarms and honking horns over the basslines on his record, Jana intertwines recordings of female orgasms over the progression of this song. As the mood of the track gradually becomes more uneasy, the pitch of the orgasm sounds shift, making the final product intense, but beautiful. By juxtaposing orgasmic euphoria with what mirrors the soundtrack of a mental breakdown, “Suicidal Ideation” challenges the typical connotations of instability.
Rush does a great job challenging her reputation as “just another” footwork producer throughout the album. While there are over-the-top psychosis inducing tracks, there are also pieces which find her minimalizing in ways she has never done before. On “Disorientation,” she continues to structure her production around a frequently pounding bass kick, but it’s more sporadic than most traditional juke and footwork tracks. Pushing this even further, she has a static-based noise flashing in and out of different points of various measures, which distances the song far enough out of the framework of footwork that it might sound more like experimental noise than club music to some.
Jana’s unique take on noise doesn’t end with “Disorientation.” She brings in Teklife’s DJ Paypal for a feature on “Intergalactic Battle,” (above) which centers around lasers and space cannons that sound straight out of Battlestar Galactica. Paypal pushes the track closer to the harsher side of club music, but if the drums were stripped from this track, it would sound like a lost single from Oneohtrix Point Never’s Garden of Delete. It’s noisy, and bizarre, but also maintains the frenetic energy of Chicago’s fabled South Side club scene.
While Pariah used Jana’s background with Dance Mania to push footwork in a new direction, Painful Enlightenment catapults Jana into a new world of experimental music. The midpoint of Painful Enlightenment is “Disturbed,” (above) an upbeat track that uses a gospel vocal singing
“I need someone”
as it’s centerpiece. This album is uniquely emotional for the footwork genre and naming the brightest track “Disturbed” is a testament to Jana’s unique perspective considering the vocal sample used. Chicago’s footwork scene is massive, and it can be hard to sound like an individual in the midst of a subgenre defined by a repetitive bass drum melody and consistent tempo. Jana Rush may be an integral member of this airtight local community, but the creative enlightenment found on her second album is sure to push her name far beyond the heartland of the U.S.
©Total Trash Ltd, 2021
