Every other year, club culture is allotted one perfect track that punctures the underground-commercial barrier; one god-tier banger uniting both the 6 a.m.-arriving Nowadays member and the casual Friday-night goer-outer. In 2024, it was Nick León and Erika de Casier’s “Bikini.” Before that, the now platinum-certified (in four countries) “B.O.T.A.” This year, Jump Source, the duo composed of two of Montreal’s finest producers, Francis Latreille (aka Priori) and Patrick Holland (aka Project Pablo), are vying for the crown with their stellar debut album, Fold.
Entering 2026, Jump Source were in prime position to connect the dots between North America’s niche club music scenes and the mainstream. Over the past decade, the two have worked individually across the spectrum of electronic music, and their joint output as Jump Source largely served as a factory for churning out reliable, dubby, minimal house tools. After a string of consistently high-quality (yet somewhat contained) releases, the duo opened its door to collaborators, like contributing production to james K’s 2025 album Friend.
They’ve also started incorporating elements of their solo work in Jump Source, including Priori’s knack for textural world-building and Holland’s whimsical sound design. This led to a creative jolt and the release of three EPs over the span of 14 months—including their first true vocal cuts, featuring Frankie Teardrop on “Get It Done” and Martyn Bootyspoon on “On.” Jump Source bring this combination of club-music renown and their pop sensibilities to Fold. Just listen to “Shattered,” a garage-inspired serotonin dump with crisp, shuffling percussion, singalong-friendly vocals from Montreal songwriter Helena Deland, and a synth lead so bright it could leave an audio equivalent of a pixel burn in your speakers. This is how one might make the leap from Panorama Bar to Primavera.
While Fold consists almost entirely of four-on-the-floor rhythms, each track feels like it’s built for a different chapter of a larger, arcing DJ set. If “Shattered” is the album’s clear peak-time highlight, “Endlessly,” with avant-pop songwriter BEA1991, feels like an earlier moment when you lock in and root down into your spot on the dancefloor. While a warm, four-bar bassline chugs alongside dubby stabs and bouncy swells, BEA1991’s vocals switch from nonchalant monotone to falsetto in a way that sounds like an involuntary yelp of joy. The title track, with its glassy melody and woozy, almost stumbling groove, deploys wholesome, end-of-the-night, comedown energy not unlike Bicep’s most beloved tracks.
Latreille and Holland also expertly execute the curveball tracks on Fold. “Empty Bars,” with rapper billy woods, is a shadowy, introspective cut that sounds like peak Galcher Lustwerk but with more polished production. “Museum Fatigue” drifts into melodic IDM territory with a soft focus reminiscent of prime Vegyn or Loukeman (the latter of whom is featured on the similar “Affect”). The album’s closer, “Close,” with Japanese trip-hop artist POiSON GiRL FRiEND, deviates most from Fold’s general framework: a downtempo lullaby built off aquatic keys, slowly rocking sub-bass, and vocals that register just above a whisper. It’s a soothing end to an LP of dancefloor music, but it also feels like a kind of cliffhanger, teasing the softer realms of the Jump Source universe.
In the past, Jump Source have described their collaborative work as a means to “take the artist’s vision and not try to imprint ourselves on it at all.” Instead, their goal is “to take things further.” They opened these channels with their collaborators; they’ve done all that and more for themselves.
