The first album from JIM — AKA house producer Ron Basejam, AKA Jim Baron, co-founder of UK house outfit Crazy P — is a wonderful debut, toning down his dance floor production chops and presenting a shimmering, melodic confection of Laurel Canyon-style singer-songwriting, blue-eyed R’n’B, yacht-rock and acoustic soul, full of strummed acoustic guitars, rich vocal harmonies, and with a gentle, introspective feel.  

Unlike his other work, it’s not a club record, although there are signs of Baron’s years producing dance floor records, especially in the danceability of instant Balearic classic Still River Flow and the uptempo slick, poppy Canyon-step Oxygen, and in the slick, super-tight rhythm sections on the mid-tempo Sea of Unbelonging and Then We Do It Again, both of which could have been big ’70s American AM radio hits in another parallel timeline. 

Elsewhere though there’s straight-up acoustic balladry and open, honest, unadorned songwriting á la Nick Drake or Paul Weller at his most intimate. Love Makes Magic is a near-perfectly accomplished project, a place of musical tranquillity and a thing of beauty.