Frequent collaborators for over a decade, Raw Poetic (Jason Moore) and Damu the Fudgemunk (Earl Davis) have produced several albums of insightful, genre-fusing hip-hop. They reached a new audience with 2020s Ocean Bridges, a completely improvised collaboration with Moores uncle, jazz hero Archie Shepp. Recorded around the same time as that album, Laminated Skies features some of its same musicians, namely bassist Luke Stewart (of Irreversible Entanglements) and guitarist Pat Fritz. The rest of the parts were played by the two top-billed artists, including guitars and keyboards by Moore and drums, vibraphone, and turntable scratching by Davis. The albums sound is an organic brew of atmospheric synths, rapid-paced melodic rapping, and versatile drumming that shifts with the mood of the moment. "Chewing Gum" starts as a steady, mid-paced walk, but it heats up to a racing drumnbass-style rhythm as the rhymes become faster and more intricate. The busy drumming constantly evolves along with the early-morning vibes of "Ralph Ellison," as Moore alludes to the authors classic novel The Invisible Man. "Guide" hits a sweet spot with a beat thats driving but not overpowering, and powerful, highly encouraging lyrics. "Hey Autumn" is another inspired mix of soul-searching lyrics and propulsive drumming, and it drifts outward, seguing into the instrumental "When Autumn Replied" through hand drumming, kalimbas, and scratching. The last two songs on the album are some of its warmest, with "Cadillac" being a reflection on a journey with a life partner, set to swirling, melodic indie rock guitars. Raw Poetics work, whether its his self-released solo efforts or his recordings with Damu, has always dissolved boundaries, but Laminated Skies contains some of his most focused abstractions as well as his most heartfelt songwriting. ~ Paul Simpson

Rovi