Low Jack

Philippe Hallais, the French electronic music producer known as Low Jack, spent his early years in an isolated Breton village far from any local scene. During adolescence he passed long stretches on internet forums that acquainted him with grime, backpack hip-hop—above all the Def Jux crew—ghetto house, and Detroit electro. After several years studying in Rennes he settled in Nantes, where he began shaping these strands into his own singular sound. The 2012 Slow Dance EP, a broad set of singles ranging from jacking house to experimental techno, first brought him wider attention. Once in Paris he established himself in the lively, creative 11th arrondissement, already a gathering point for friends tied to the city’s emerging scene. There he crossed paths with noise techno agitator Ron Morelli, newly arrived from New York; Morelli’s L.I.E.S. label issued the 2014 debut album Garifuna Variations, a collection of grimy, atmospheric industrial techno.

With longtime friend and obsessive crate-digger Jean Carval, Hallais launched Editions Gravats to highlight rising producers from Brittany. His second Low Jack album, Sewing Machine, followed in 2015 on In Paradisum, another imprint rooted in the same Parisian network; the brief, fierce set of vicious noise techno proved even more punishing and percussive than its predecessor. Lighthouse Stories, his 2016 third album, appeared on cult U.K. imprint Modern Love—the label’s first release by anyone outside the tightly knit Manchester scene. Drawing on Hallais’s teenage memories and the uniquely melancholy diaries of lighthouse keepers, the record departed from prior work and aligned more closely in mood with his earliest singles. Fractured and dreamlike, it reworked elements of hip-hop and footwork through abrupt cuts that at times approached musique concrète rather than any contemporary dance music style.