Equally adept as a jazz drummer, rapper, and producer, Seattle's
Kassa Overall
makes records whose approach to musical modernism is informed amply by beat consciousness.
Animals
, his third album and
Warp
debut, is a logical next step from 2020's
I Think I'm Good
, a complex, startling jazz-hop treatise on struggles with mental illness.
Overall
surrounds himself here with a wily cast of players, rappers, and singers relentlessly combining electronic and organic beats, many guest performances, and a killer production instinct.
The single "Ready to Ball" is rendered with programmed beats and upright and electric basses.
Sullivan Fortner
's modal jazz piano underscores
's rap, critiquing the tarnished appeal of capitalism's golden handcuffs. "Clock Ticking," with rappers
Danny Brown
and
Wiki
, initially sounds like '90s hip-hop, but a closer listen reveals the harmonic angles and alternate tonalities imposed by
Kris Davis
' percussive piano playing, atop boom-bap interplay between programmed beats, live drums, and
Stephan Crump
's upright bass. Some of the most compelling music here is delivered in increments that are just too brief. "Still Ain't Find Me," with saxophonist/percussionist
Tomoki Sanders
and trumpeter
Theo Croker
, and "No It Ain't," with skittering beats and
Andrae Murchison
's dubwise trombone, are both under two minutes long. "The Lava Is Calm," with
Croker
's resonant horn, sees arranger/guitarist
Jherek Bischoff
walk the line between sweet orchestral soul and futurist tango. "So Happy" features the orchestra and stellar vocals from
Laura Mvula
Francis and the Lights
.
's programming, the sweeping orchestral strings, and the massive synth bass gently buoy the singers, making it a futurist cabaret song. "Maybe We Can Stay," with vocals by
J. Hoard
, lays out
's orchestral neo-soul blueprint with a poignant rap added for texture. "The Score Was Made" is delivered by a quartet of
,
Iyer
DJ Vitamin D
, and vocalist
Charles Overall
. Dynamic piano chords create motion atop
's drum kit accents and fills. He propels his hi-hat and snare, ratcheting tension amid sonic effects and fragmental spoken word. Closer "Going Up" is worth the price of admission on its own. A 21st century psychedelic soul ballad, its weave of
Craig Taborn
's piano,
Fortner
's synths and Rhodes, and
Mike King
's Mellotron erects the tune's harmonic body. Orchestral strings, electronic effects,
Crump
's upright bass, and
Sanders
' saxophone add a frame of depth and dimension to
Lil B
's and
Shabazz Palaces
' raps that also frame
's smooth singing.
Dozens of recorded efforts combining hip-hop and jazz have appeared over the last three decades.
's take is quite intimate and personal, as confessional as it is culturally analytical and emotionally resonant. Given that his lyrics frame individual struggles as microcosms of collective struggle, he needed to discover his own method for combining the musics he loves in depicting his inner process in sound. To that end,
's constructions serve to complement, buoy, and accentuate live instrumentation and improvisation. Ultimately,
is a compelling conversation between the creator and his psyche, his musicians, and listeners. ~ Thom Jurek