We can all do with a dopamine hit right now, given the current lockdown, and those feel-good hormones kick in the instant you hear Yussef Dayes’ tight backbeat on the opening title track of What Kinda Music. A collaboration between drummer and producer Dayes and fellow south-east London-based producer and singer-songwriter Tom Misch – whose "Disco Yes" was one of Barack Obama’s favourite tracks of 2018 – the album is released today via the iconic Blue Note Records.
The duo’s judicious mash-up of electronica, hip hop, jazz and prog – containing echoes of everything from Sweetback to another genre-defying, guitar-playing singer-songwriter, Lewis Taylor – is heard to captivating effect in the shimmering backdrop of “Nightrider”, which features US rapper Freddie Gibbs. “Festival” supplies sonic ear candy in abundance, from Kaidi Akinnibi’s repeating three-note sax motif which haunts the track to the ever-present, yet almost subliminal, reverb-heavy textural layerings.
Featuring samples from Aretha Franklin’s drop-dead gorgeous take on Ashford and Simpson’s “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing”, the all-too-brief “The Real” transports you to wherever you need to be. Bassist Rocco Palladino lays down the groove on the high-flying rapture of the purely instrumental “Lift Off”, which builds to a crescendo of life-affirming proportions. Check out the impressively sepulchral video below, shot in Kyiv and directed by Douglas Bernardt.
Best of all is the marmoreal smoothness and deeply satisfying pocket of the Misch/Dayes co-write “I Did It For You”. With Misch’s lead vocal set so far back in the mix that it feels more like another instrumental line being whispered from within the overall textural fabric, it's a song which immediately engraves itself on your heart.
Watch "Lift Off"
