Album Reviews

Leicester might not be the first place you think of when it comes to exciting future funk, but in the East Midlands city’s 23-year-old producer, Scott Xylo, there is a new rising star. Following a string of releases that won critical acclaim last year, the wildly talented Brit has been snapped up by taste-making imprint Black Acre for his debut album. Find Us When

You Get There is a wonderfully diverse, genre-defying record that delights with every twist and turn. The highly ambitious and creative debut takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey that encapsulates a heady mix of escapism, surrealism and Afrofuturism. Xylo has created an unpredictable soundscape, fusing elements of jazz, hip-hop, soul, afrobeat, psychedelic rock, pop and funk. Yet, despite all its experimentalism, the record maintains a laidback, groovy and low-slung vibe driven by a bristling undercurrent of African rhythms and funky drum patterns. Energetic but breezy, Xylo’s found a delicious balance between modern synthscapes, ambient grooves and retro psychedelic funk, while channelling a kind of Fela Kuti spirit. It’s an expansive album that is at once loose and trippy but layered with exquisite skill; the patchwork of samples and machine-driven textures matching the improvisational feel of the many jazz influences that infiltrate the record. Innovative, adventurous and utterly inimitable, Find Us When You Get There is indicative of this fresh and exciting new talent.

ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST:

Hold On, Mothership Connekt, Pyramid|