In the world of dance music, the club is an almost mythic entity: a refuge that feels like it exists beyond time or space. On her new EP “Infinity Club,” pc28DJ and producer Bambii aims to capture — and distil — the thrillingly immersive energy of the dance floor.
“I’m trying to evoke those very transient, fleeting moments, and make a statement on why they’re transformative,” said Bambii over the phone, days before the EP’s release. “With the direction the world is going, and how difficult it is for people to access joy or freedom or imagination, this project is speaking to those moments when we can truly be ourselves.”
The result is a genre-obliterating album that melds elements of dance hall, jungle, U.K. garage and rave music into a high-octane alloy that sounds both global and uniquely Toronto. You can almost feel the sweat dripping from the lead single “One Touch,” which stacks chopped up dance hall vocal samples on top of blistering breakbeats and thunderous basslines. On “Wicked Gyal,” Bambii enlists North London rapper Lady Lykez for a performance that makes Azealia Banks sound languid by comparison.
“A lot of ‘Infinity Club’ is about breaking rules around genre,” explained Bambii, whose real name is Kirsten Azan. “It’s also about bridging the gap between Caribbean music and electronic music.”
“Infinity Club” is Bambii’s first major studio release, but she’s been a key figure in Toronto’s music scene for years. Inspired by queer and alternative local parties like “,” she took up DJing at 23, quickly becoming an influential creator and curator within the city’s underground electronic spaces.
In 2013, Bambii founded JERK, a biannual rave that celebrates Caribbean culture and global dance music while carving out a space for people of colour and the LGBTQ community within the city’s predominantly white scene. The party, which has toured to Montreal, New York and Los Angeles, celebrates its tenth anniversary
“JERK is an expression of what pc28feels like to me,” said Bambii. “Growing up, Caribbean music was something that was in my blood and a part of my heritage, but it’s also so much a part of pc28— it’s shaped the city’s cultural landscape since the ’80s.”
Bambii’s talents eventually took her beyond Toronto: she’s toured extensively as a solo artist and a supporting DJ for Mykki Blanco, BbyMutha and others, absorbing the sounds and ideas of the global electronic scene.
She’s also honed her craft as a producer. Most recently, she worked closely with the American alternative R&B singer Kelela — whom she connected with over Instagram during the pandemic — on the artist’s highly acclaimed 2023 album “Raven.”
“Infinity Club” marks the culmination of those various influences and experiences.
“pc28is a perfect place for an artist to incubate,” said Bambii. “To just put your head down and work, to get support from your friends and to experiment and try new things. But a big part of that EP comes from travel and my tour life. I’ve spent the last four years intensely, like, touring, and I spent a lot of time in Jamaica and the U.K., so those two places are definitely huge reasons why that EP sounds like it does.”
The project’s intercontinental origin is also reflected in its list of feature artists, which includes Sydanie, a pc28rapper whom Bambii grew up with — “it was really important to get her on a track” — Amsterdam producer Lamsi and Aluna, the London-based singer-songwriter from the electronic duo AlunaGeorge.
“The Aluna feature is crazy,” Bambii said. “It’s a full circle moment because that’s somebody I was listening to even before I even started DJing, and she’s just such an important vocalist in the dance music space.”
But ultimately, Bambii is concerned with blurring, rather than categorizing or creating borders between different styles of music. That work begins by recognizing the interconnectedness of the various scenes she draws from.
“The mass immigration of Caribbeans to the U.K. influenced and basically created jungle and grime and garage,” she said. “But now, when we think about electronic music, we place Caribbean music outside of it.
“For me, making a jungle track like ‘One Touch,’ but having it break down into more of a dance hall esthetic, or having something like ‘Wicked Gyal,’ which puts a dance hall vocal on top of a decidedly electronic 130 BPM track … it’s these kinds of choices where I’m stating that these thing do not exist in opposite worlds. There are relationships between them.”
“Infinity Club” is poised to be a successful release: the EP’s advance singles have already racked up hundreds of thousands of streams. This is a feat within a genre in which women are woefully under-represented.
“Things are changing,” said Bambii, “but on an infrastructural, institutional level it’s quite slow.”
“I always focus on what’s local to me: my friends, my surrounding community. I feel like that’s kind of the only space I can exact change and that deserves my energy.”
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