Straddling worlds is what BAMBII does best. The second installment of the Caribbean Canadian DJ and producer’s INFINITY CLUB EP series does more than simply genre-hop between dancehall, electro, ragga, techno, and pop—it’s a fluid, non-stop atmosphere constructed with almost fanatical meticulousness. On one hand, BAMBII scorches through the sounds of her Jamaican roots via turbo-charged riddims and booming bars delivered in barrel-chested patois; with the other, she tempers the fire with frosty electronica and mechanical garage, casting a delicious chill over the dancehall heat.
When the first INFINITY CLUB EP appeared in 2023, it had been almost 10 years since BAMBII first made her name as a DJ in Toronto’s Black queer scene. As host of the influential party JERK, she developed a performance style that reflects the defiance and self-possession required to create your own cultural spaces. (Consider a recent Boiler Room set, where she bluntly chastised the crowd for having their phones out before dropping a 2-step remix of Darude’s “Sandstorm.”) This sense of curatorial control comes through on INFINITY CLUB II, which boasts more songs, more features, and a wider breadth of production styles than its predecessor. If INFINITY CLUB was the perfect introduction to BAMBII’s digitally mutated take on Caribbean dance music, INFINITY CLUB II dives deeper into that cross-section of identity by layering even more genres and themes into its shuddering bashment and pulse-raising jungle.
Balancing all of these ideas is “Mirror,” a collaboration with Jessy Lanza and Yaeji. All three are accomplished DJs and producers; BAMBII and Yaeji in particular are kindred artists, both using Western club music as a medium to explore cultural heritage and immigrant experience. Inside “Mirror,” borders dissolve: BAMBII’s feathery vocals swell between the notes of a sparse, R&B-shaded bassline as Lanza’s crystalline harmonies are chased by a skittish jungle drumbeat. By the time Yaeji’s signature deadpan raps filter through, it’s as if we’ve teleported through a Y2K Darkchild production and emerged in the middle eight of a K-pop song from 2015. But BAMBII’s production never feels chaotic; on the contrary, every track seems purpose-built to keep you under her spell.
In moments when BAMBII leans harder into dancehall, INFINITY CLUB II transmutes toward a danker sensuality. Jamaican American rapper BEAM scores features on two of the most immediately danceable tracks: On “NSYNC,” his staccato delivery hopscotches through the EP’s filthiest, borderline industrial bashment beat. “Spit” adds the talents of Lady Lykez, the North London rapper who previously contributed her cocksure flow to “Wicked Gyal,” a highlight from the first INFINITY CLUB. Here, she and BEAM roleplay as possibly the horniest couple ever, trading lines like, “Dash out ya meat/My body mek mon run call police” and “Me raw that dog like Anubis dog/Osiris god with a Horus rod.” Anyone who’s ever spent the night sweating to a Jamaican soundsystem knows that good dancehall is about shameless hedonism, and BAMBII transposes this sex-positive liberation onto her own tightly woven sound without missing a cavernous, quivering beat.
Although INFINITY CLUB II runs to 12 tracks, BAMBII refers to it as an EP; indeed, its songs clasp together so neatly that it often feels more concise than it is. Even a conceptually lighter track like “Bad Boy,” a collision of jungle and ragga that sends massive horns ploughing through the Think break, is representative of the record’s deft production work. Its sound recalls the type of early ’90s UK raves BAMBII couldn’t have attended personally but whose DNA courses through queer Black dance history, and thus through her music. This is the real infinity club—not just in Toronto, not just in Jamaica, but beyond boundaries, where music traverses space and time.
