Alfa Mist: Variables review – his own universe of genre-transcending music
On Borderline, the second track on Alfa Mist’s fifth album, the multiinstrumentalist and MC succinctly decries the unfair assumptions, oppressive limitations and relentless hardship faced by Black British youth. “Everyday trauma, normalised – three options: music, sport or crime,” he raps in his understated, deadpan flow over an ambling beat and soporifically twinkly synths that bely his lyrical scorn.
After shelving ambitions to be a footballer, the east Londoner born Alfa Sekitoleko embraced the first option – yet his music is a world away from the cold, abrasive grime and drill stereotypically associated with such an escape from poverty in the capital. Instead, Variables is a collection of warm, subtle and often delicately beautiful jazz and hip-hop. It’s also largely instrumental: Mist’s vocals only appear on two songs – Borderline and the trippy, cello-adorned 4th Feb (Stay Awake). Elsewhere, Kaya Thomas-Dyke brings honeyed tones to the densely textured R&B of Aged Eyes, while South African folk singer Bongeziwe Mabandla leads the exquisite Apho.
It’s a shame we don’t hear more of Mist’s MCing: his lyrics are evocative, funny and cleverly laconic. Yet by making his presence felt elsewhere – on drums, piano and production duties – he avoids being pigeonholed, establishing himself as a genre-transcending talent. That said, jazz – which the musician discovered as a young rap fan by studying samples used by Black Star, Madlib and J Dilla – is a constant: fairly traditional and brassy on opener Foreword, cosmic and grungy on the title track, and accompanied by bright, chiming post-punk guitar and a comically grunting bassline on the squealing closer BC. It all hits just the right note between accessible and experimental: idiosyncratic and intricate yet straightforwardly enjoyable, Variables is unwavering in its brilliance.