Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker
's first album as
Gifted & Blessed
(aka
GB
) in seven years,
Heard & Unheard
is very different from the one that preceded it,
Emotional Topography
, a tranquil set of ambient wash suitable for daydreams of escape via floatation tank. It's also a turn from
Yamaheaters
, his more rhythmic and brighter self-released 2022 EP. Released by
Stones Throw
, home to the musician's pursuits as
Frankie Reyes
(solo-synthesizer Latin lingo translations) and as one-half of
the Steoples
(avant-soul with
Yeofi Andoh
), this is the type of home-listening machine soul that in the early '90s would have been tagged IDM. Hardly an exercise in dabbling in a specific sound with the intent to revisit an era,
Heard and Unheard
is wholly contemporary, if crafted with an Oberheim synthesizer and Roland drum machines, all analog gear that first hit the market in the '80s. It's also personal rather than studiously distanced, with
Reyes-Whittaker
fueled by the contemplation of spirituality, mysticism, and developments in his life. There's a stern, highly concentrated quality to most everything, yet it's all positive, sedately churning and rippling away, brightened with shafts of light. Most emotive is "Yellow Ji," where
flashes back to doors that have opened for him as an artist. Its steady pulsing gait and streams of melodic and atmospheric elements could just as easily soundtrack an animated sci-fi journey revealing unexpected pathways. The tracks that are either weightless or not beat-oriented -- the middle sequence of "The Waiting Breath" and "Neutrino Stream," and flickering finale "Guidance" -- are just as strangely comforting as anything by
Neil Ollivierra
's
Detroit Escalator Co.
or
King Britt
's solitary
Fhloston Paradigm
flights. That said, this is very much its own captivating thing. ~ Andy Kellman