electronic/breaks/downtempo/occasionally dancey

Almost true to the album title, this is a collection of twisty percussive loops and strange atmopsheres, odd rhythms that slowly morph into different odd rhythms that often land almost but not quite where they started. Break beats cohere into 4/4, 4/4 disintegrates into breaks, breaks turn into different breaks. Lots of hazy dimly glowing textures, this stuff is chill and a little dubby even when it’s intricate and busy. Lots of it feels like it splits the difference between what FlyLo was doing on “Los Angeles” and his later jazzier tendencies.

RIYL: Flying Lotus (esp circa “Los Angeles”), Madlib, J Dilla, Daedelus

1. dreamy, dusky, low-key. bright watery bells and shuffling percussion (beat has a slight soca-ish feel). metallic bassline slowly starts coming up around 1:00. other shaken bells in the background, less melodic and quieter, along with other sort of metallic melodic smears. bass and melody hiccup and glitch subtly later on. 4:45
2. clattery low fi drums, warm soft rising synth whine in background, intermittent chirp, occasional additional drum clatter. hi-hat gets ticky and other elements peel back around 1:00. other synth lines weave in and out through the rest but it stays pretty low key. 4:32
3. drums reminiscent of “los angeles” flying lotus, esp the kick/woodblock interplay. groaning bass, tumbling keys on the high end. 3:04
4. halting mid-range lead keys, kicks insistent but not heavy, other percussion stutters in and out. metallic undulating pads in background, different keyboard lines tumble in and out. squirmy synth bass enters around 2:00, ebbs and flows. steel drums added later, or maybe a synth gradually gets turned into something that sounds like steel drums. most drums except congas drop out for a while in the end. very accurate title. 6:28
5. funky rolling hand drums and snares, bass line enters at :30, wintery night time keys briefly just before 1:00. new snare rhythm folds in around 1:30, really dry cymbal or something at 2:00. keys for a bit longer and everything gets stripped down around 2:30 for a bit. pads got turned up somewhere. also an accurate title, (in a good way). 5:34
6. heavy clanking, like kick drum and factory floor and chain, or something. spooky atmospheric videogame pads, slowly strobing squelchy synth bass in background, slowly shifting frequency back and forth. some cymbals and snares get folded in later and there’s a little more momentum. 6:03
7. opens with woozy watery (seemingly) offbeat synth, then 4/4 kicks in and frames it. other synth smudges show up intermittently, with quiet springy mid-range tone and choppy dry cymbals. blocky bassline enters around 2:00 and drums get breakier and things slowly start crumbling. synth starts feeling a little plaintive, drums get a little more urgent. a more dramatic synth line enters around 4:00, along with bells, and strange low crying/buzzing. brushes itself off like nothing was wrong for a bit, but cracks again a little around 6:30. sad mini-epic, down but not out. 7:38
8. warbly piano and hiccupping drum machine, bouncing low bells. reminds me a little of daedelus, has that clockwork shuffle. snappy cymbal in the second half. a bit wired, but not totally manic, keeping it together nicely. 4:06
9. swirling bouncing midrange synth, housey kicks (slowly stray from 4/4), springy echoed hand drums. different layers of complementary synths slowly swap in and out. slow build in intensity, many permutations of loopy spoken word sample in middle. drums drop out near 5:45, come back as rougher break at 6:20. keeps building, slow fade from 8:00 on. 8:28
10. glitchy loping drum machine and sci-fi synth washes, grainy rising woozy synth. 4:04
11. boomy kick, filtered R&B keys, bouncing springy synth. jumpy soca-ish rhythm. drums drop out briefly around 1:30, come back more subdued. intermittent ring mod effect on some element(s) gives ringing reverby accents, but not obtrusively. glitches out but never falls apart. 4:01
12. punchy kicks that feel “late”, like they’re squeezed into the end of the bar. dully shimmering synth anchoring the midrange, while other brighter synths weave in and out. ticking cymbals. later, squelchy bass. futuristic trunk rattler. 5:29
13. gently lurching shuffling rhythm, small metallic flashes. lukewarm gently glowing pads get a little warbly later. ticky insistent hats appear and add some momentum around the mid-point. towards the end, more metallic clanks, more echo and echo folds in on itself a bit, beat gets a little off-kilter for a bit but rights itself again. 7:35
14. insistent claps, darkly shimmering pads, jumpy percussion, quizzical tuba. occasional indecipherable robot chatter in background. kicks and snares tumble over themselves, the robots seem perturbed when they show up. false wind down in middle leaves spiraling bassline for a few bars (happens again a couple times, including longer stretch towards the end). springy pitch bent keys low in the mix intermittently. 6:45

recommended: 7, 5, 2, 4, 9, 11, 14