The Jefferson Park Boys is a group consisting of Los Angeles producers Kenny Segal, Mr. Carmack, and Mike Parvizi. The three artists have known each other for a while now, and have collaborated before, Casual Horns, Dogs, marks their first official release as a group.

One of the first things that hit me as I listened to this release is just how great their chemistry is together. The biggest reason for that is that these three artists weren’t just emailing tracks back and forth, or taking turns laying beats down, they were actually in the same room together, feeding off of each other’s musical ideas, playing instruments, recording found sounds, and so forth. The result is an EP that is just brimming with energy and ideas. A lot of instrumental releases these days take some patience to listen to, and a lot of them never really deliver on the goods. They just fade to the middle as decent-but-forgettable music. With The Jefferson Park Boys, each track sounds incredibly fresh, with different tempos, rhythmic patterns, and instrumentation driving each composition. They can play a downtempo track without getting complacent or boring, and then they can come back with some jazz-funk, or some turntablism for good measure. Most importantly, they find a way to bring everything together and sequence everything so that the music takes you on a journey from start to finish and makes sure you had a good time along the way.

We all knew that Kenny Segal, Mr. Carmack, and Mike Parvizi were each very talented musicians and producers. What we didn’t know is just how well everything would sound when they came together as The Jefferson Park Boys. Now that Casual Horns, Dogs is here, I can safely say that they exceeded expectations and delivered and varied and compelling instrumental EP. I hope this is not the last we hear from them, because this feels like we’re only at the tip of the iceberg.