An introduction to Bambii's electrifying Polaris-shortlisted album, Infinity Club

Toronto producer Bambii's first EP, Infinity Club, is one of this year's 10 Polaris Music Prize-nominated albums, and CBC Music's Shortlist Shortcut series is back to help music fans learn the key details about the shortlisted record.

Dig into the stories behind the album, the tracks you need to know, and the perfect summer activities to complement your listening. You can also listen to The Ten radio special on Infinity Club here.

Artist:

Bambii.

Album:

Infinity Club.

Polaris Music Prize history: 

This is Bambii's first EP and first time on the short list. 

Story behind the nominated album: 

Over the past decade, Bambii has become a fixture in Toronto's underground electronic music scene. First as a DJ, known for genre-splicing and electrifying sets that challenged everything you thought you knew about music, and more recently as a producer. She has dropped singles sporadically since 2019's "Nitevision," her very first release, but it wasn't until August 2023 that we received her first full-fledged EP, Infinity Club. 

As a DJ, she has toured internationally for years, from northern Canada to Vietnam and everywhere in between. In the four years before releasing Infinity Club, she was traveling back and forth between her homebase of Toronto, the U.K. and her motherland of Jamaica. The influences of the latter two are rampant across the EP's eight tracks. Dancehall, drum and bass, jungle, breakbeat, house and more come together fluidly, as she blurs the lines between the distinct genres. She has always kept Caribbean music at the forefront of what she does, from DJ sets to her own beats, and she told the Toronto Star that something that she was thinking about while making Infinity Club was "the mass immigration of Caribbeans to the U.K. influenced and basically created jungle and grime and garage," she said. "But now, when we think about electronic music, we place Caribbean music outside of it." You can hear that reclamation and recentering on tracks "One Touch," "Slip Slide," and "Wicked Gyal." 

Bambii earned early praise in April 2023 after the lead single "One Touch" was released, its breakneck drum and bass, dancehall MC vocal and pristine production positioning her as a producer on the rise. When the entire EP dropped four months later, favourable reviews from Pitchfork, the Guardian and Resident Advisor began to roll in, a testament to how truly global her sound is. The EP would later go on to nab the 2024 Juno Award for best electronic album of the year, making Bambii the first Black woman in the award's history to win. She gave an impassioned acceptance speech, pointing out the ways the Canadian music industry neglects the racialized, queer underground at its own peril.  

Infinity Club is a release. It's a sweaty, clandestine dance floor full of gyrating bodies. It's a space to access your freest self. In the same interview with the Toronto Star, she said "with the direction the world is going, and how difficult it is for people to access joy or freedom or imagination, this project is speaking to those moments when we can truly be ourselves." 

Notable players:

Bambii enlisted a whole slew of collaborators to bring her first project to life: there are production credits from Dutch wunderkinds Jarreau Vandal and Lamsi and Montreal's Gabriel Davis (a.k.a. Horace), and features from Toronto rapper Sydanie, and British tour-de-forces Aluna, Ragz Originale and Lady Lykez. 

Standout songs: 

'One Touch'

Named "Best New Track" by Pitchfork upon its release in 2023, Bambii's first single off of Infinity Club made a big splash. It takes no time to ease you in, hitting like a freight train with a clash of sounds that accelerate your heart rate. The past, present and future exist simultaneously as old school drum and bass meets alien-like vocal pitching and lazer synths to create a sound that is undefinably beyond genre. 

'Hooked' feat. Aluna

Slinky and sexy, Bambii tones things down with the production of "Hooked." Horns and drums with intense reverb glide over the booming bass as Aluna's heavenly vocals entice and tease. A surprise dancehall riddim at the end of track keeps the fluid energy flowing. 

'Wicked Gyal' feat. Lady Lykez 

U.K. vocalist Lady Lykez comes prepared with raunch, grit and the right amount of sass on the high-octane "Wicked Gyal." Surround-sound bass and rapid-fire drums whip the song up into a frenzy. Lykez spits most of her verses in Jamaican patois, warning anyone who dares to get in her way that it will be their downfall, it's simply "a wicked gyal ting." 

Recommended if you like:

Kelela, Kaytranada, LSDXOXO, Myst Milano, Moonshine, Amaarae, Debby Friday, and Jamie xx. 

Summer activity pairing:

These songs are perfect for your pre-party, at-the-party, and after-party playlists. The album caters to all raving needs. 

Don't miss Shortlist Summer: a season-long showcase of the 10 albums shortlisted for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize. Read the weekly Polaris Shortlist Shortcut feature at cbcmusic.ca/polaris and tune into The Ten radio special every Sunday night at cbc.ca/listen.