New Audio: Jerk Returns with Funky and Soulful “alarmed”

Prolific Brooklyn-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Joni Kinney is the creative mastermind behind, the rising recording project Jerk. And with Jerk, Kinney has released five albums and several EPs that feature a sound that draws from J. Dilla, Madlib, Patrice Rushen, Earth, Wind & Fire, Louis Cole, Knower, and Roller Trio. Never content with just music as a creative output, Kinney is also an avid writer and video essayist. 

Late last year, the Brooklyn-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist released the first part of a two EP narrative cycle, as night falls. The two EP cycle sees Kinney using the project’s sound into new territories, taking listeners on a journey through a fusion of electronic influences, midnight funk and forward-thinking jazz. 

as day breaks, the second EP of the narrative cycle is slated for a May 15, 2026 release through DeepMatter Records. as day breaks EP will see a limited vinyl release, alongside last year’s as night falls. 

While the first EP of the cycle explored the darker side of human nature through a blend of midnight funk and electronic-tinged jazz, as day breaks, which was created with long-time friend and collaborator Martine Wade, is a journey through daylight anchored around uplifting, soulful, instrumentals paired with house grooves, breakbeats, bird song and the sounds of NYC. “This joint album project is the essence of Jerk — neither day nor night, but something more ethereal,” Kinney explains.

as day breaks EP will include the swaggering, funky “steppin’ out,” the slow-burning and meditative “wait,” and the EP’s final pre-release single “alarmed.” “alarmed is a Bob James-like bit of jazz funk that opens with a intro that evokes the beginning of the day with a bop-like strutting opening before morphing into a free-flowing improvisational section with a soulful and explosive sax solo from Kinney.

“The track is made up of two distinct sections, with an A section meant to evoke those first moments of consciousness, as well as a B section meant to evoke the baggage we all carry day to day,” Kinney says of the new single.

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