You'll know him best as Pessimist, but in recent times Kristian Jabs has begun to operate under a new alias - Soft Boi. To prepare for the project’s imminent debut LP So Nice, Jabs has delivered an hour of Soft Boi anthems on his Bleep mix. Those expecting the slamming techno beats or industrial-strength jungle breaks of the Pessimist records should leave those preconceptions at the door - from the soulful selections down to Jabs’ scene-setting voiceovers, this set plays more like a lover's hour on pirate radio. While there is a uniform emotional flavour to the selections here, stylistically this is a very varied collection of music. Beginning with Ponderosa Twins Plus One’s ‘Bound’ (one for the Yeezy heads there) and closing on Codename John’s wistful jungle joint ‘Dreams Of Heaven’, Soft Boi also runs deep house, dreamy ambiences, trip-hop, G-funk and plenty else besides.
"Soft Boi isn’t a DJ act so I thought I’d do something weird, seeing as Soft Boi is weird. I wanted to create a listening experience, a musical collage to join the dots between the eclectic styles and influences that helped shape the Soft Boi alias, with a hazy and trippy feel."