Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Jai Pauls 2007 demo version of his songBTSTU(featuring production from his brother, Anup A.K.
Paul) first caught fire in 2010, when music blogs discovered it on his MySpace page.
Dudes on some shit, concluded theFader.
It was a fluid era of dissolving hierarchies.
Pauls weird, wonderful single fit right in.
BTSTU received an official release on XL Records in April of 2011, titled BTSTU (Edit).
It felt like an immediate classic.
The song presses on further into the smudged lane established by its predecessor.
Warm guitar shimmers as if glimpsed beneath a lake.
Sub bass rumbles within a thick coat of side-chain compression.
Jais voice seems to come from somewhere impossibly near and distant at the same time.
Jai Pauls influences were obvious enough: Prince, DAngelo, maybe a little Panda Bear.
But the way he combined them was not.
He used production techniques that prioritize dramatic ambience over sonic clarity, imbuing weird sounds with warm analog grain.
Paul stands alongside Burial as a modern master at creating digital textures that feel viscerally real.
Excitement for Jai Pauls debut album built steadily over the following year.
One weekend in April of 2013, it seemed to arrive.
A release containing 16 untitled tracks appeared for sale on Bandcamp to immediate online fanfare.
Some songs were fully formed and brilliant.
Others, less than a minute long, felt unfinished.
Celebration was short-lived; the album was taken down within two days.
Statement to follow later.
The statement never arrived, and neither did an official version of the release.
The truth about what happened remains shrouded in mystery.
In late 2012, XL sent some in the media amusical Christmas cardthat played an unreleased Jai Paul song.
Unofficially titled Str8 Outta Mumbai, it appeared as part of the leak the following year.
Jais influence can still be felt across the current landscape.
Paulcollaborator) Mura Masa and, in his poppiest moments, experimental singer Yves Tumor.
If you squint, trace elements can be detected in mainstream pop songs like Zayns Rainberry and Halseys Hopeless.
He also co-wrote songs withSam SmithandJessie Ware.
Its more crisp and defined than Jais material, but it retains the same emotional warmth and sensuality.
Jai Paul is yet to release any new solo material since his debut was leaked.
Behind the scenes, though, Jai and A.K.
have continued working, producing, and releasing music from like-minded young musicians.
At first, the Institute was just a mysterious web page with an email address.
But a week later, A.K.
released his debut solo single through the Institute.
Jai Paul has only appeared in a handful of photos.
Whether intentionally cultivated or not, an air of mystery surrounds him.
So approximately zero people were prepared for thereportthat appeared in an obscure British real-estate magazine calledPropertyWeek in 2017.
The story which included a photo of Jai and A.K.
Over the past two years the nature of the Paul Institute has become clear.
Think Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for the Central St. Martins set.
To date, the label has released music from four artists (plus A.K.
In an interview withDazed, Palladino said she met up with Jai after he reached out.
I was totally aware of that mystique, but thats just internet stuff, she said.
Hes a normal person.
Its funny that people think hes a magical being.
The music is clearly indebted to pop and R&B touchstones like Prince and Kate Bush.
But its not faithful retro-fetishism; the songs combine vampy 80s synths and drums with a chromed-out future-facing sheen.
Its as if the Pauls have built a wormhole between 1987 and 2022, ignoring everything in the interim.
In 2017, Palladino released her Paul Institute debut single Mystery.
Palladinos voice is strong and clear, harmonizing with Pauls wispy falsetto.
Its a startling introduction to her gifts, and her 2018 single Shimmer is even better.
She produced it herself, while Paul contributed electric guitar and synthesizers.
It starts with Palladinos delicate harmonies emerging from a waterfall of sparkling electronics.
Then galloping drums come in and she kicks into gear.
By day, Ruthven is a London firefighter.
When hes not rushing into burning buildings, hes making slinky jams.
In 2018, the Paul Institute added two new faces to the fold, REINEN and HIRA.
The latter is a British R&B singer whod previously collaborated with A.K.
on a song called Eve.
The Institute really started showing its range with REINENs 2018 track Masquerade.
A devotee of Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, REINEN exudes theatrical maximalism, crooning over martial percussion.
I had a feeling of being submerged in a pulsating, kaleidoscopic ballroom, the singer toldDazed.
Its totally possible that Jai Pauls name may never appear on another solo record.
