The actor and former half of superstar hip-hop duo Outcast makes a very surprising return after 17 years – a lengthy low-key, instrumental album built around his love of flute playing – minimal, meditational and relaxing. It’s hard to know what to make of this release. With many of the eight tracks around 13 minutes long, it’s certainly not radio-friendly, sounding more a dream-like journey into distant medieval woodland or a very obscure sci-fi soundtrack. Brave perhaps, oddball certainly, but at times beautifu,l with some excellent collaborative musicians, perhaps it’s also one also addressing his well documented struggles with fame, anxiety and mental health (see evident track titled BuyPoloDisorder's Daughter Wears A 3000).
Flute meister André 3000
Slow to get going, and just as slow to continue, twittery and ambient, it’s certainly an indulgence, but given time, and treated for the gentle healing, meditational music that it is, rather than something like the supreme Outkast track Hey Ya!, this is still something that can have a pleasurable effect. The titles too are revealing, humorous, dark, long and unconventional, not least the opening one - I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make a “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time - epitomises the unconventionality of it all. Or you might prefer the hauntingly surreal That Night in Hawaii When I Turned Into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild. Biggest surprise album of the year by far. Epic in length, and out on Epic Records.
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