JMAY, left, and King Ramesy. –Photo from the artist’s Facebook

If your average Brooklynite found a flyer that said "afrobass" on it, chances are they wouldn’t know what it meant. And even if one were familiar with the type of music, there’s only one thing that can reliably be expected from it: giant drums meant for sweaty dancefloors. JMAY, a local music producer, is using the term to describe his sound. It draws from a number of global cultures, is idiosyncratically paced, and offers a diverse instrumentation.

The music JMAY plays and creates under the afrobass banner combines pan-African percussion and vocals with Brazilian club music and anything else he thinks will make a song better. Like tablas and other Indian drums, for example.

“When I start an afrobass track, the only thing I can say is that it will be hard,” he notes. “Even the tempo is up in the air.” This switch in tempo is uncommon for dance music, where speed often plays a major role in defining genres. A similar style of music that spans a broad stretch of BPM, or beats per minute, is called "barefoot." That was created by an Austrian producer called Stereotyp.

The move from Portland to New York four years ago significantly broadened JMAY’s interests. “My style has changed so much since I moved here," he says. "The first neighborhood I moved to was mostly Middle Eastern, and I just got obsessed with syncopated drums and layers of beats because of it.”

He also emphasizes how much he needed that change. “I was making a lot of money writing commercial hip hop beats that basically just copied whatever was popular back then. But I felt like I was losing my artistic vision.”

Hip hop is still a passion of his, however, and the Washington state native is currently doing production and management for a Brooklyn rapper named Scienze. JMAY is also working on a number of other projects with vocalists in different styles, particularly "baile funk," which is a Brazilian style of club music that prominently features emcees. He’s been involved involved in the New York baile funk scene for a while, and works with his favorite deejay of this style in the country, DJ Comrade of the Xao collective.

JMAY says he’ll be traveling to London in October, and Brazil in January, to promote baile funk and afrobass. But he’s looking to expand the sounds here in Brooklyn because he doesn’t think it works as well in the big Manhattan clubs yet. “These DIY warehouse parties happening now are the perfect venue for more obscure styles of music,” he gushes. On a related note, he’s helping to organize a warehouse event on June 12th called Brooklyn Basement Sessions, which focuses on hip hop. Details for that are being kept under wraps at the moment.

“Fire in the Dark” may be a good introduction to this vision of afrobass for our readers. Big warrior drums come in almost instantly and lay a foundation that the track revolves around. A lighter layer of drums slowly emerges which is quickly joined by another crisp layer. This cycle of revolving layers continues on throughout and features the vocals of King Ramsey, who’s actually a trained actor performing in a Rwandan accent.

“Fire in the Dark (feat. King Ramsey)”