Bleep

Every release by LA producer Madlib has seemed like a wildly successful litmus test for the versatility of beat-making. With esoteric electronic maestro Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet working some magic behind the scenes, Sound Ancestors might just prove to be Madlib’s most accomplished release to date; a heady iteration of past experiments renewed by his insatiable hunger to move beyond the times.

A quietly afrofuturist cadence is weaved throughout this LP, as Madlib twists tribal drumming rhythms, funk rock, dub-inflected vocals and electronic music much in the way that J Dilla approached his Donuts swansong. The result makes for some outstanding examples of Madlib’s finest grooves getting the breathing space they truly deserve. ‘Loose Goose’ is a showcase of his playful best, as a circular horn jaunt gets down and dirty with ghostly backing vocals and an expertly placed snippet of Snoop Dogg’s eternal catchphrase: “fo shizzle dizzle”. Meanwhile, ‘Road Of The Lonely Ones’ and Madlib’s touching tribute ‘Two for 2 - For Dilla’ come off as tenderly melancholic odes despite their funk-filled, slipstream-smooth boom bap energy.

Sound Ancestors is Madlib through and through, as you’ve always known him; constantly innovating. Backed by the arrangements of enigmatic force Keiran Hebden - a future classic no doubt.