Jai Paul is a 21-year-old from north-west London currently getting a lot of blog and A&R attention. We can see why. He’s a warped pop star in the making; or rather he’s what you imagine a pop star signed to the Warp label might be like. Of course, Warp already have a freak-funk future pop act on their roster, Jamie Lidell, who seems to alternate between straight commercial funk – as though he were a slightly edgier Jamiroquai – and out-and-out experimental electronica. Jai Paul appears to be using his music to combine both extreme approaches. “Don’t fuck with me, don’t fuck with me,” he coos in a light, airy falsetto on BTSU, the most acclaimed track on his MySpace, over mad 8-bit sonics, bursts of burbling bass, crisp dubspace beats and weird, warped – that word again – harmonies. But somehow, JP manages to make it all seem like a pop song.

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