Biography

The word ‘naive’ comes from the Latin ‘nativus’, meaning native, or natural. Today, to be naive is often seen as pejorative, a lack of experience or judgement, but in the art world the word retained some of its original meaning: a quality acquired through birth, a childlike innocence and wonder that produces spontaneous, unaffected art. For Mitchel Van Dinther, the Dutch producer known as Jameszoo, it is this quality that lies at the heart of his debut album, Fool, which he calls “naive, computer jazz.” Van Dinther emerged from the small town of Den Bosch in the southern Netherlands in the late 2000s. First as a DJ – with wide-ranging crates of avant-garde jazz, prog and kraut rock, electronic experiments, and beat oddities – and then as a producer capable of impressive sonic and rhythmic incongruities. In 2016 Van Dinther joined Brainfeeder with an album that fits right into the label’s expanding take on the modern evolution of jazz music.