With more than 43 million songs uploaded to streaming services every year, how does one avert overload fatigue from the sheer mass of new music? It’s a modern reality that the Dutch music producer Jochem Paap has been wrestling with, with Walkman his first solo release in twenty years. The name of this record harks back to the Sony Walkman, of course, the mobile cassette player that revolutionised personal listening in the ’80s and set us on our way towards the iPod and streaming platforms listened to via smartphones.
If that gives an impression that Walkman might be a retreat into a halcyon past where analogue technology ruled supreme, then, thankfully, you’d be mistaken. Speedy J’s long-awaited new album is made up of one hour and thirty…