Jacques Greene - Fantasy (LP) - Forest Green Vinyl

Jacques Greene has always had a knack for making club music feel intimate, like you’re standing a few feet from the booth even when you’re listening at home. Fantasy, released in March 2022 on LuckyMe, distills that feeling into a tight set that lingers long after it ends. It lands in a sweet stretch of his catalog, between the widescreen glow of Feel Infinite and the late night reflections of Dawn Chorus, and it shows how a Montreal-bred producer who broke out with Another Girl back in 2011 is still finding new shades in house and garage.

The record sounds both carefully sculpted and deeply human. Greene’s palette remains his signature: airy pads that open like windows, chopped vocal phrases that ache without saying too much, and drums that swing just enough to keep your shoulders loose. You can hear him playing with patience and release, letting a bassline tug at you for a full minute before a chord change sneaks in and changes the mood. That control is the throughline, whether he is teasing a full vocal idea or just brushing a syllable across the mix like a hi-hat.

Taurus was the track that tipped off Fantasy’s arrival, and it’s an easy favorite. The low end is warm and rubbery, the snare cuts through like a camera flash, and there’s a vocal shimmer that feels like memory more than language. It’s the sort of tune that DJs tuck into a sunrise set, not for a big drop but for the feeling of being gently lifted. Greene has always understood that the most durable club records live in that space between tension and tenderness, and Taurus sits right there.

The rest of the EP deepens the mood rather than chasing easy bangers. One cut leans into breakbeat dust, little crackles and ghosted kicks weaving under glassy synths. Another rides a simple chord vamp and refuses to overplay the hand, which gives the vocal fragments extra weight when they arrive. Greene is a champion of negative space. He knows when to pull the kick out for half a bar, when to drop the bass to a sine pulse, and when to let a reverb tail tell the story. It is dance music arranged like pop, with an ear for hooks even when the hook is just a texture.

There is a quiet confidence to the production that feels earned. By this point he had put in years with labels like LuckyMe and Night Slugs, toured the world, and refined an approach that threads Montreal’s love of melody with UK rhythm science. Fantasy isn’t a victory lap though. It reads more like a note-to-self about restraint and clarity. The tracks don’t crowd one another, and the sequencing moves like a DJ set that values flow over fireworks.

If you are the type who buys Jacques Greene vinyl, this one is a no-brainer. The low-end warmth and soft-focus highs love a turntable, and the artwork fits right alongside his earlier releases. I’ve seen Fantasy vinyl come and go at shops, so if you stumble on a copy while crate digging in a Melbourne record store, grab it. And if you live far from a specialty shop, it’s easy to buy Jacques Greene records online through the usual suspects. Collectors hunting for Jacques Greene albums on vinyl will want this next to Feel Infinite and Dawn Chorus, and fans in the hunt for vinyl records Australia wide should keep an eye on local distributors since LuckyMe releases don’t always hang around.

Fantasy also drew smart notes from critics at places like Pitchfork and Resident Advisor, not because it reinvented Greene’s sound but because it refines it. That seems right. He was never chasing shock value. He builds trust, then nudges you someplace new. The vocal science is still there, the pads still glow, but the edges feel cleaner and the ideas land faster. It plays well alone on headphones, and it slots into a set with the kind of understated confidence DJs appreciate.

More than a bridge between big albums, Fantasy stands as a reminder of why people fell for Greene in the first place. It’s generous, it’s detailed, and it respects the listener enough to let small choices carry big feelings. Put it on late, let the room go quiet, and see how it changes the way you breathe.