JWords is a producer from Brooklyn who came on the scene a couple of years ago, both as one-half of the group H31R alongside Maassai, and as a collaborator with Nappy Nina on the album Double Down. While she’s been doing that, she’s also been dropping all of these dope instrumental projects as well, with both Self-Connection and brainecho coming out last year. Now she’s back with another inventive project, moods.

In lesser hands, a short instrumental release called moods would almost certainly signal “filler” or “beat dump” to me. However, given JWords’ short-yet-intense track record, I was most definitely going to give this release the benefit of the doubt and see what she was up to. The answer is that once again she is pushing house and hip hop production in all sorts of interesting directions. Over the course of seven tracks that seamlessly blend into each other, JWords keeps finding all sorts of interesting ways to hit you with unexpected rhythmic patterns, melodies that stay with you, and develops the songs so that you’re always in motion with her. It’s because of this that you can tell that JWords is not just a bedroom producer, but someone who plays out live and has a sense of how to get people moving and take them on a journey. The best part is that JWords continues to push herself and her listeners, and you learn that while she’s not going to spoon feed you any sort of dance music, if you trust in her, she’s going to take you to some interesting places that will intrigue your intellect while also keeping your body in motion.

moods is yet another excellent release from JWords, who has emerged in the last couple of years as one of the most promising producers working today. She continues to experiment with her sound and challenge herself and her listeners to try something new while also delivering something fun and danceable.