The dancefloor is unified when I. JORDAN is on the decks. On their debut album, I AM JORDAN, the UK electronic producer gleefully celebrates collective ecstasy as a mode of self-discovery. “This album is about joy”, Jordan says. “It’s about my joy as a trans person, and trans joy generally, working with trans people, making all this fun music together.” With this goal, the record captures the bliss and dynamism of a wild I. JORDAN set. Using their 14 years of experience as a DJ and producer, there are giddy tributes to northern dance sounds like donk and hardstyle, euphoric trance and house, and plenty of space for exploration. Crucially, the record acts as a personal dance music diary, marking a period of upheaval. 

“There’s so much of my transition in the album,” Jordan says. “One of the first tracks I wrote for it was during the first month I called myself Jordan, so it’s at the embryonic side of things. All of the music written falls under the I AM JORDAN era”. 

“Trans people get spoken about so negatively. We’re constantly seeing members of our community killed, or our access to healthcare being taken away from us…I wanted to write something with this album that says: ‘We’re all here, having fun. We’re all happy and being ourselves, and we’re allowed to be ourselves.” 

Following collaborative tracks with Fred Again.., PLANNINGTOROCK and SHERELLE, remix work with Fever Ray, Romy and Eliza Roze, and a handful of hotly received EPs, the album remains I. JORDAN’s greatest undertaking, thanks to its personal weight and musical breadth. It also follows high acclaim for their work as a DJ in 2023, including a Best DJ Award nomination from DJ Mag’s Best of British Awards 2023, an AIM Breakthrough Artist 2023 nomination, and a #8 placement for Mixmag’s Top 25 DJs who Defined the Year 2023.

The diaristic nature of the record can be heard on a track like ‘People Want Nice Things’, a warm, blossoming dance track. Jordan gradually added voice notes while making it to document the changes in their voice. “Starting testosterone, it would be a disservice to the transness of the album if I didn’t speak about how that has helped me as an artist. ‘People Want Nice Things’ is a celebration of my voice changing over time on T. I wanted to make sure that was documented and archived in that way…Feeling more confident in myself because I’m on T, that’s just making me feel more confident as an artist.” 

I AM JORDAN oozes confidence with its playful approach to sound selection and songwriting. Its high-energy moments were written with a high-pressure club environment in mind, such as the dizzying ‘Round n Round’, which was written for a Boiler Room performance, and is in conversation with Jordan’s early material like their ‘WARPER’ single. “It’s one of the only sounds I’ve continued throughout my release history,” they say. “I grew up with Garage and Bassline, so that sound has been important for me to make now and again. If I don’t make it, I get a bit of an itch I need to scratch.” 

The record’s sole vocal contribution comes from Sex Education actor and performer Felix Mufti, who has danced for Jordan at Glastonbury and Homobloc. Now friends, the two collaborate on ‘Real Hot n Naughty’, a queer dance track full of Scouse raps and endless charm. “A large part of the reason why Felix and I have instantly bonded is because of our queer working-class backgrounds, and our pride around that as well,” Jordan says. “Our aim with this track is to make a real queer northern dance anthem. A lot of working-class, northern humour is ‘things are a bit shit, but whatever. We’ll take the piss.’

The pair performed it together in an unplanned moment at the sold-out ‘I. JORDAN & Friends’ at Corsica Studios, a party with a majority trans lineup (Felix Mufti, PLANNINGTOROCK, Romy, Sister Zo, FAFF, and Tee). There, Jordan was able to see a crowd that reflected their experiences.

“The crowd were super queer and super trans. But the people that weren’t were respectful, and they knew their place; they weren’t at the front taking up loads of space. Some of the security at Corsica said it was one of the loveliest crowds they had worked with. “What I’m trying to achieve as an artist, I want to engage the right people and have the right following, and bring the right people along with me.”

That ethos is there in the success of Jordan’s REFLECTIONS tour with SHERELLE across UK and Europe, which aimed to promote inclusivity beyond just the lineup and see that reflected in the space itself. After a year of constant change, the sold-out show at FOLD in February 2023 made Jordan certain they were on the correct path. “Doing that party with Shez at FOLD, it felt like I was in exactly the place I needed to be - the right people, the right sound, the right venue. Everything just felt right.”

‘Butterlick’ (made with New York house producer Sister Zo) also originally formed out of Jordan’s in-demand status as a DJ, made for a curated night at Glastonbury 2023, closing the festival with a 4-way b2b with SHERELLE, TAAHLIAH and HAAi. It was originally titled ‘FOR GLASTO’. “Glastonbury for the last two years has been an anchor point for me”, says Jordan. 2023 was I. JORDAN’s biggest performance year yet, with tour dates in The US, Australia, Mexico, Europe and Asia twice in a year. This travel heavily inspired the writing and ethos of the record. 

On ‘The Countdown’, Jordan teams up with acclaimed Scottish producer TAAHLIAH, who they met while playing Shoot Your Shot in Glasgow. With its whips, kicks and vocal samples, the track is a campy, hard nosed donk track with all the fun and bluster you could hope for. On this track, and others such as ‘The Woodpecker’, Jordan is proud to be championing dance styles like hardstyle, which haven’t always gotten their dues, on a platform as renowned as Ninja Tune. “It feels fun to make my mark on a label that has been important for me while using my sound and my inspirations as a working-class northerner,” Jordan says.

Now that the album is finished, the importance of collaboration is clear. “The I. JORDAN and Friends thing has just extended to the album”, Jordan says. “All the collaborations, like Zo, Felix and Taahliah, we’re all just friends. That feels important to me. I would never go into something as an artist not having a relationship with someone. Especially for the album, it feels so personal that the friendship element needs to be embedded in that.”

‘When Lights Flash’ - made in a “jetlag haze” after flying to Australia - is named after a sign that they saw while on public transport in Melbourne. “There was a bus that had ‘When Lights’, a space, and then ‘Flash’. That deliberate pause and then a flash, I found it to be so dramatic.” ‘Casino High’ was also made during this same trip, in Melbourne. 

With its emphasis on loose melodies and stillness, ‘When Lights Flash’ is an introduction to a new side to Jordan’s art. “That is me saying to myself ‘You can do this,’ because when I make music, I want to shove everything in there. I think maturing as a producer is refining things and taking things out… That’s me expressing my emotions in a very pure form”

Also written in motion “Reification Pathetic Fallacy” was created on a cloudy, rainy train from Manchester to London. “I’d just completed a week-long TransFormation residency with a load of trans artists up in Newcastle and was really inspired by that” Jordan reflects. “I just had all these feelings from that residency, and the train was wet and gloomy and packed. There’s something really melancholic and romantic about that feeling I think." 

Despite being self-titled, I AM JORDAN  is a product of its community, as Jordan explains. “Everyone is interconnected, and the idea of being an individual is a bit of a myth…I wouldn’t be who I am without everyone else around me. My friends, especially friends who have supported me through all the transition stuff, my trans friends that I’ve relied on, Reddit and groupchats - it’s all so important. In trans community, none of us do this on our own.” 

“As trans people, the importance of community is so much more enhanced, because we can’t be reliant on any sort of other system, because it’s not really for us. We have to rely on each other.” 

With this record, I. JORDAN has made a lasting document for themselves and their community, and it’ll soundtrack many nights to come.

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