Jaywalk & the Cadillacs - Pneus à flancs blancs et harmonies

“Whitewalls & Harmonies” is the debut full-length from Jaywalk and The Cadillacs, and it sounds exactly like what happens when two producers stop caring about what genre they're supposed to be in.

The duo is made up of Ash Walker, the London producer with a gift for dusty, dank arrangements, and Illa J, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist, younger brother of J Dilla, a legacy he has never so much relied on as quietly extended. Much of this 2025 album was crafted in sessions in London, Iceland, and on the road during Illa J's solo tour, and that movement shows in the seams: it navigates between neo-soul, jazz, hip-hop, and downtempo electronica without ever announcing the lane change. Harleighblu, Ke Turner, Frank Nitt, Belle Chen and Laville are all present, but the album never feels overloaded.

“Hangover” moves at the pace its title suggests, with fuzzy keys and a bassline that’s in no hurry to resolve. “Danger” tightens things up with the album's most insistent groove, “Rain” does the nocturnal, smoky thing without any trace of pastiche, and “Dream,” with its reprise, gives the album its lightest part, a hook that appears and disappears like a half-forgotten memory.

Such an assured debut album usually takes an artist several records to achieve.