Listen to over 300 hours of Mumdance mixes

Mumdance has turned his website into a portal for musical discovery. The producer has also shed light on his exit from the music industry in 2019.

The UK artist, real name Jack Adams, returned to social media today (10 February) for the first time since 2019. In a statement shared to his various channels, Adams offered an explanation on his silence in the years since. He also shared a link to a vast digital archive containing mixes and other work conceived over a period of 14 years.

On his exit from the industry, the artist explained that he withdrew in order to focus on addiction recovery. “It would be nice to say that it was a noble choice to go into recovery,” he writes. “But the truth is that my behaviour became increasingly erratic and my actions were causing harm, upset and discord.”

He goes onto state that after hitting “rock bottom” in 2019, he attended a community treatment centre and went through its reintegration programme. He also underwent other processes, including a 12-step fellowship and finding a sponsor. In doing so, he says, he was forced to “take a long uncomfortable look” at himself. Now in his third year clean and sober, Adams explains that he remains an active member of the recovery community. He also sponsors others.

Discussing the ways in which his recovery impacted his love for music, he says: “When I went into recovery I didn’t listen to music at all for around two years. My only artistic engagement was some commercial work, alongside getting a normal job.”

More recently, he’s “slowly started to remember what [he] used to love about music”. However, he’s not putting pressure on it. Instead, he claims he’s “grateful to have the beginnings of a healthier relationship with listening and creating.”

As part of this process, he’s sharing an extensive selection of work with fans via a digital collection housed within his website. It features 316 hours worth of mixes – “many of them previously unheard” – along with equipment lists and sleeve notes for each track in his discography.

In February 2019, Adams collaborated with long-time production partner Logos – with whom he ran the underground label and event series Different Circles – on a track entitled Zoned In for the latter’s album, Imperial Flood. It served as one of his final releases prior to his retreat from music.

The year prior, in 2018, he released a mix project and compilation entitled Shared Meanings. It featured contributions from the likes of Nkisi, Space Afrika, Chevel, ZULI and JK Flesh. Other notable collaborations in the Mumdance vault include his link-ups with Novelist, his collaborations with Pinch and his work with Dawn Richard.

Check out the archive here and read Adams’ statement in full below.