A few days ago Madlib released a new single called "Hopprock", the second taste of his Four Tet assisted upcoming LP, Madlib-Sound Ancestors. "Hopprock" swings with an infectious boom-bap rhythm that's very much inline with his last single "Road of the Lonely Ones", but "Hopprock" has a more visceral feel to its quantized grooves. After about a minute of chimes, cello, and a voicemail recording, "Hopprock" kicks off in earnest, and within seconds it locks into an infectious groove that he gets plenty of mileage out of. Four Tet helped mix and master the entire record, and so once again his immaculate touch imbues "Hopprock" with a pristine finish that allows every sound plenty of space to flourish.
The vocal samples aren't quite as sweeping as those featured on "Road of the Lonely Ones", but they provide welcome pockets of succinct melodic phrases nonetheless, and the juxstaposition between the funky low-end and the high-pitched chants is alluring. The percussive loops alone sustain the initial momentum all the way through, while the vocals add just enough additional texture to keep the mix from growing stale. M- SA is shaping up to be an immensely satisfying, and deceptively low-key, soulful beat tape with some of Madlib's strongest instrumentals on this side of Madvillainy. After years of strong collaborations with various rappers, it's nice to hear just Madlib (with some technical support from Four Tet) doing what he does best.
