Whip Music

In all-caps on the cover, "The album by K, Le Maestro" signifies the top position of Whip Music in the proliferating output of its maker. Before this, producer K (short for Kieran Mandiangu) built his reputation on sample flips and edits of other artists' tracks. Over time, he broadened his technique to process and filter a multitude of sounds, such as those of Brazil, Japan, and video game soundtracks, through his hip-hop perspective. There wasn't much indication -- possibly just the laser gun synth instrumental appended to the digital version of his 2019 Street Corner Music beat tape Lab Sounds -- that he'd one day unload a chiseled LP of modern synth funk. If Whip Music wasn't so accurate a description and statement of intent, the album could have been titled Pacific Coast with a double meaning. While K is a Kinshasan in London, and his seven featured vocalists are spread across the Eastern and Southern U.S. and Europe, all of the involved sound like they're on an intimate joyride down the western seaboard. The ten productions here, four of which are fully formed instrumentals, generally bounce, smack, and shimmer with muscle and finesse, as if K spent quality time in and around Los Angeles with Battlecat, Dam-Funk, and Terrace Martin. Amaria and Nápoles, soft and sweet singers heard respectively on "Out Late" and "Backseat," fill their lyrics with thoughts of escape through a romantic drive. Nimble and low-profile Chester Watson proposes a similar getaway and wholehearted companionship with his rhymes on "Come Around." The album isn't without tension. Mike Nasa, the other rapper on the set, is in bully mode on "Ride with Me," breaking the mood of seduction brought by fellow featured artist Liv Averie. MAAD scolds a flaky and impatient lover on "Telephone," cushioning her blows with a deft hook. K saves his most slinking track for last with "Slow Down," joined by Magi Merlin, who deals out threats with a teasing lilt and adds a pleading secondary vocal that works up from restrained to desperate. Going by his past, K doesn't seem likely to stay in this lane, but another volume would not be unwelcome. Few have done it to such pleasurable effect. ~ Andy Kellman