Bleep

Will Archer is a beatmaker of rare compositional scope. Sure, his Wilma Archer project’s first solo LP A Western Circular is certainly rooted in the leftfield hip-hop of Madlib, J Dilla et al. However, as anyone who clocked his recent collaborative LP with Pyramid Vritra will know, the lopsided MPC-helmed instrumentals of those artists are but a jumping-off point for Archer. Across this album we find him incorporating high-minded orchestral takes on jazz to really rather wonderful effect, pushing this album out beyond hip-hop into a space that also touches on chamber music, baroque-pop and neo-soul. A Western Circular’s impressive guestlist - MF DOOM, Sudan Archives, Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring, Laura Groves - proves testament to the standing in which Archer is held by his peers.