Inside The Credits 025: Jay Mooncie
Jay Mooncie aka J(ay) Moon’s Voyage To A 2024 Emir Taha Takeover
I put Jay Mooncie aka J(ay) Moon on my list of producers to highlight on ITC right when I heard his production all over British/Turkish singer Emir Taha’s masterful Mazza Mezze EP, which dropped earlier this year in January. I have been enraptured by Taha’s music since 2020, when I heard his bilingual blend of traditional Turkish music with contemporary and alternative r&b styles. Mazza Mezze was his most complete body of work I had heard up to that point and one of my top Ep’s of the year thus far. Then after I began this search through its main producer’s catalog, I found that I had missed a full album released by Taha just three months later. E.T. Phone Home is Taha’s first full length album and his most intriguing composition he’s ever released. There are more transitional moments than previously existed in his song structures and an elevated presence of his roots tweaked rhythmically. Moon produced the overwhelming majority of the songs on the project cementing a 2024 takeover. Taha and Moon together have arguably one of the most forward pushing distinct sounds in music right now. I had to find out how Moon got to this place of ingenuity and which other artists he built with to pick up tactics for growth.
The first artist Moon collaborated with is UK crooner Col3trane. He is credited as a producer on half of the songs on his debut album Tsarina, the entirety of his follow up Ep BOOT, and half of his next Ep Heroine. The duo had an impeccable initial three year run. If there's one thing that’s clear right from the beginning, it’s that Moon is a master of the winding yet smooth crescendo. On he and Col3trane’s first ever track listed on Tsarina “Penelope,” they chronicle a romantic journey with multiple beat switches which add verve and a slight genre change with each sequence. At the beginning, you get a contained croon over minimal wistful instrumental sounds and by the end there is a pulsating hip hop laden canvas. The crescendo never quite climaxes into slapping intensity, yet its sleek build is still captivating.
A contained and yet thumping climb is where Moon thrives most. He knows distinctly how to set up singers with high melodic proficiency by laying sounds beneath which motivate them to ramp up to something undeniable. Col3trane’s natural talk-sing creep into songs before he begins to flex on his first three projects became a natural proving ground for Moon. He experimented with a slew of different rhythmic patterns while still maintaining the same structural ethos Col3trane needed to bloom.
The next two years for Moon would be transitional as he produced consistent one-offs for Col3trane, but also expanded his horizons before he locked in on a full project again. He maneuvered his solidly built r&b pocket for the likes of Reuben James, Joy Crookes, Duckwrth, Jim Legxacy, and even co-produced a song for Demi Lovato. These artists helped him take his sounds into the genres of jazz, dance, trap, and pop while still maintaining his core. Yet, the most lasting of Moon’s collabs from 2019 to 2021 were his first four songs with the introspective silky vocalist Kamal. “Homebody,” “Blue,” “About the Party,” and “Autopilot,” all maintain a steady groove of melancholy that allowed for Moon to create from a place of restraint rather than flourishing. Kamal is one of the most tender modern lyricists and Moon showed how effective he could be if he pulled back his assertion and made his tweaks more subtextual.
Next came a fully produced Ep produced by Moon for Kamal in war outside. Some of the tracks are the most bare bones Moon had been musically up to that point, while still being transitionally intriguing. On the closing track “curfew,” he found the purest equilibrium between his early Col3trane work and what he had built with Kamal. The song has a build within its elements, but all they do is make the soundscape feel more full. This seamlessly tracks the fluctuating epiphany inside Kamal’s mind, that holding himself accountable for his actions is the only true path forward. Moon figured out how to allow the space for pure vulnerability to be present.
The next year involved two slick pulsing one-offs with pop singer Gracey and r&b powerhouse Alicia Keys, but also marked Moon’s first work with Emir Taha. On his debut ep Hoppa pt. 1, Moon started back right where he left with Kamal, in full melancholic equilibrium, but added weaved moments of underbelly. On “Huyu Suyu” there’s a first sequence of dark depth that feels as if he took his Kamal work into a dark lounge. Soon after, Hoppa pt. 2 came, and Taha stretched Moon even further. He incorporated even more Turkish rhythms amidst his calm reverberation. Moon used his initial producer instincts and added a well of layers that made his compositions feel like they were truly breathing for the first time.
Next, there was a three-project-build before the full 2024 Taha x Moon takeover. First, Lush Life by Col3trane very clearly took Moon out of the murky UK and brought him fully to Los Angeles. The cover art even reminds me of the film The Graduate. This would be used as a stepping stone to mix dark and light with Taha, but also cemented a fruitful trajectory with Moon’s original partner in sound. They both elevated themselves enough to experiment successfully outside their comfort zone. Next, came a few tracks for a section of former One Direction bandmate Louis Tomlinson’s 2022 album Faith in the Future. This move solidified a more pop leaning pocket than Moon had ever crafted for a full part of an album. Taha always had potential to use more pop sounds as vessels between his Turkish and r&b sounds. His 2024 projects are even more expansive purely because of this new proficiency from Moon. Lastly, Kamal’s full length debut so here you are, drowning was a necessary reminder of the gloom Taha would further require. Yet, this time, Moon gave Kamal some of what he learned pop-wise as well as more punchy rhythmic elements. They allowed him to grow out of the corners of his psyche and into a more interactive worldly existence.
What Moon and Taha achieved with their two 2024 projects is never allowing the listener to gauge where they’re headed. Their Turkish sounds and lyrics intertwine with their r&b textures and English wordplay as if they are all part of one cohesive sonic space. You truly can’t tell where one style ends and the next begins. There is a stark difference between intriguing fusion and pure coexistence. Now all of Taha and Moon’s influences live amongst one another in a harmonious collage.
Inside The Credits 025: Jay Mooncie- The Playlists