Equally adept as a jazz drummer, rapper, and producer, Seattles 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 2020s I Think Im 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 Fortners modal jazz piano underscores Overalls rap, critiquing the tarnished appeal of capitalisms 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 Crumps upright bass. Some of the most compelling music here is delivered in increments that are just too brief. "Still Aint Find Me," with saxophonist/percussionist Tomoki Sanders and trumpeter Theo Croker, and "No It Aint," with skittering beats and Andrae Murchisons dubwise trombone, are both under two minutes long. "The Lava Is Calm," with Crokers 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 and Francis and the Lights. Overalls 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 Overalls orchestral neo-soul blueprint with a poignant rap added for texture. "The Score Was Made" is delivered by a quartet of Overall, Iyer, DJ Vitamin D, and vocalist Charles Overall. Dynamic piano chords create motion atop Overalls 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 Taborns piano, Fortners synths and Rhodes, and Mike Kings Mellotron erects the tunes harmonic body. Orchestral strings, electronic effects, Crumps upright bass, and Sanders saxophone add a frame of depth and dimension to Lil Bs and Shabazz Palaces raps that also frame Overalls smooth singing. Dozens of recorded efforts combining hip-hop and jazz have appeared over the last three decades. Overalls 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, Overalls constructions serve to complement, buoy, and accentuate live instrumentation and improvisation. Ultimately, Animals is a compelling conversation between the creator and his psyche, his musicians, and listeners. ~ Thom Jurek

Rovi