"Why does the union of one producer and one MC always yield the best music?" L'Orange & Jeremiah Jae are back after their robust 2015 debut, The Night Took Us In Like Family. The self-proclaimed "sampledelic North Carolina cubist" presents an impressive musical canvas that summons many moods: from "afro-futurist space orbits and carnival whimsy, rain-slicked melancholy and straight up guard-your-grill boom-bap." Accompanying the cinematic soundscapes is abstract poetics and caustic bars "wreathed in fog, static and high voltage" from JJ. On the album, he assumes the point of view of a man of crime who is caught and conscripted into an army, and the rapper completely zones in; he even buzzed his hair and subjected himself to a soldier's workout during the writing and recording process. The end result is a true reflection of the commitment the duo approached the project with, and the records, deepy rooted in the "warped dust" of history, also are "innately relevant to the schizophrenia of modern existence." Check out "Behavior Report," "Cool Hand," "Dead Battery," "Summer Camp," "My Everything is Bulletproof," and "Devil's Piano."

• clear w/ orange and black splatter
• music label: Mello Music Group 2019

reviewed by singing in japanese 11/2019