OutKast all the time appeared extra interested by probing the depths of their pursuits over settling into one concept.
For 14 years, the Atlanta duo synthesized their voracious musical appetites, constantly blurring the boundaries of Southern rap—a style they may very well be credited with inventing.
The 2 performed off of one another completely. Large Boi was the grounded, West Savannah realist, rapping in exact rhythmic figures about retaining each ft planted on Earth. André 3000 was involved with the cosmic, his move untethered and exploratory, reaching additional into the ether with every breath. He’d all the time understood that being human is an attention-grabbing evolutionary accident, the results of a diffuse set of molecules coming collectively simply so: “Me and all the pieces round me is unstable like Chernobyl,” he rapped on ATLiens deep reduce “Millenium.”
On later OutKast data, as Large Boi usual himself as a Georgia funk auteur, André developed from silver-tongued poet to paisley-patterned pop star. By the point he obtained to The Love Beneath, he was channeling figures like Prince and Sly Stone.
As soon as OutKast went quiet and Large Boi started issuing his personal formidable solo work, followers started to yearn for a 3 Stacks document. He’d pop up each once in a while on another person’s tune with an unbelievable verse, then fade again into the mist. In 2019, when individuals reported seeing André enjoying a Mayan double flute in airports and cities the world over, it solely deepened his lore. He was a sage descending from the mountain, materializing to ship a momentary blessing. Each joyful confirmed sighting had an air of winking amusement, acknowledging how applicable it appeared; “Taking part in a flute within the airport is peak André 3K,” tweeted one fan.
Given the unpredictable trajectory of André’s work, it’s not surprising that New Blue Solar, his first album in 17 years, is a group of diaphanous New Age music, an ambient jazz document during which he performs a digital wind instrument. It’s a lush, stunning document within the mildew of John and Alice Coltrane’s non secular excursions or Laraaji’s orange-hued interior house journeys. The mix of natural and digital textures locations André alongside artists like John Hassell or Justin Walter, “Fourth World” composers who infuse their warped sounds with heat, making the unfamiliar really feel inviting. It’s a daring reinvention from somebody identified for daring reinventions.
There are not any phrases and no beats, and the one reference to André’s earlier profession is the title of the primary observe: “I Swear, I Actually Needed to Make a ‘Rap’ Album However This Is Actually the Method the Wind Blew Me This Time.” Nonetheless, New Blue Solar feels inextricably related to the music André made with OutKast. His command of rhythm is sinewy and elastic as ever, and sure moments, just like the round repeated motifs within the aforementioned observe, really feel an 808 and handclap away from a silken Organized Noize manufacturing. Maybe most significantly, André is aware of weave out and in of an ensemble, utilizing his enjoying in service of the music somewhat than looking for the highlight.
The document is a group of lengthy improv jams. Carlos Niño, the Los Angeles percussionist and producer, helped facilitate the classes after an opportunity assembly with André at a grocery retailer. The 2 started jamming and Niño, a staple within the LA experimental jazz scene, introduced in a few of its key gamers to flesh out the troupe: Surya Botofasina on synthesizers, Nate Mercereau on guitars and reside sampling, Leaving Data’ Matthewdavid on “mycelium electronics,” and extra. Collectively, they entwine like tendrils of smoke, gently hovering round one another in house.
As a result of it’s improvisational music, the seams usually present. You comply with them on their meandering journey as should you’re sitting within the room with them, watching them study to function as a unit. In case you hear with headphones, you may hear musicians respiration, urgent guitar pedals, shifting in seats. In case you let it play within the background, it helps an hour and a half drift by languorously, like a cat following the afternoon solar.
The album’s strongest moments come when André and firm lean into their extra hallucinatory inclinations. Midway via “BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000® Button Down Embroidered,” the group meshes collectively in a psychedelic haze. Botofasina’s synths stretch round André’s snaking solo and Niño’s shimmering percussion, a crescendo that builds right into a blissful swirl. On “Ants to You, Gods to Who ?” André sends his digital flute via a trippy slapback delay. The remainder of the gamers attain to the sky, mixing their devices right into a billowing mass earlier than dissipating like early morning fog. Every tune has moments that really feel just like the microdose has taken impact, and it’s exhausting to not really feel more and more extra relaxed because the document goes on.
Regardless of New Blue Solar’s magnificence, it’s exhausting to know think about the document. If it didn’t bear the identify of one of many biggest rappers to ever reside, how would we react to it?
Some followers are predictably aggravated by André’s left flip, and feedback on-line from these thrown by the style have run the gamut from eye-rolling dismissal to outright anger. If his identify was eliminated, it will simply be one other stellar ambient jazz launch within the vein of the Moon Glyph data roster or Nala Sinephro’s House 1.8.
The context is inseparable right here: Sure, New Blue Solar is receiving a wholesome quantity of reward as a result of it’s André 3000, but it surely’s additionally a really fantastic piece of music. André doesn’t owe us something—the truth that we’re getting a brand new album from him in any respect is a blessing.
It’s courageous in the way in which that André has all the time been, a reminder that essentially the most brave factor you are able to do is self-expression.
