By Daniel Peraza (PRZA)
Let’s start. Kaytranada. I first listened to him not from one of his songs, but a DJ set he did for boiler room in California back in 2016, a couple of months before his debut album release. A Haitian Canadian producer that was a part of the underground scene for the longest time and gaining recognition for…different and lively remixes of artists like Janet Jackson, Flume, and Solange.
BUBBA is an album that sounds like you just stumbled across Kay’s beat building sessions where he is just trying different things. It feels like a breath of fresh air for the experimental and established club scene. Nothing too complex but then again, nothing that sounds like he was phoning it in, especially in the final mix. Then you remember it was released in 2019. Everyone I would talk to about this album would just say “yeah I saw it on my recommended list” or “I’ll get around to it.” It’s been five years. So. It’s time. Quick note: this album is continuous, so you won’t feel any start and stop between tracks.
You can either choose to listen to DO IT or not (if you’re a beat head, just listen to the two-minute track) because the real first track feels like 2 the music since it allows you to step into aparty that Kaytranada is about to start. Keep that party/club mentality for the rest of the night. On the next downbeat, we are presented with Go DJ, a track that feels like a soft opening for people thinking of listening to afrobeats. It also feels like a hype track for Kaytranada himself with SiRbeing the first collaborator that I wanted to highlight on this album and chanting the main chorus. The low end drops out for about ten seconds and then Gray Area (feat. Mick Jenkins) starts.
I will always smile when I hear this song out in public. Enough about me. All I will say on Gray is that it will make you want to move your shoulders, at least, and then some more and by the time you’ve gotten to the “outro”, you’ll want to hit repeat at least once. Up until now the party has some people that are still a little timid, some are bopping their heads, and some have already started dancing. There is a nice interlude playing that feels like club elevator music. Then. The lights dim and a disco globe drops down. I don’t know why it’s there either. A small breakbeat starts and so does 10% with a now very familiar artist, Kali Uchis. Something different than Isolation but this isn’t that type of party/review. This is something uptempo and doesn’t try to drain the album’s total energy. Even the lyrics Why you tryna lie for them? / Pretending who you are / But baby, why even pretend? / You’re trying way too hard are something to keep you, the individual, something special among the crowd. The lights dim again. I know, must be a power issue. This time it’s different; the floor starts to have ocean blue hue. Need It starts with the “Tadow” famous singer Masego, in a track that lessens the focus on drums and snares instead opting for a more pulsing bassline and claps that start to make the crowd fill up the dance floor. And just as fast as the multi-instrumentalist starts to rap/sing, we move on to the next track: Taste. … And that was Taste (you can come to your own conclusions).
Alright, we’ve been bobbing, weaving, and dancing to these last songs but now is where Kaytranada pulls out the bag of tricks and starts on What You Need featuring Charlotte Day Wilson. The atmospheric track starts with a hi-hat repetition until her vocals create the mood and becomes something that you can dance to with a partner or yourself, your choice. With the haunting vocals and ricocheting piano that were inserted in the middle of the track, they lead into Vex Oh (feat. Eight9Fly), the most collaborated song of the whole album.
It has everything that would be necessary from a catchy afrobeat-inspired track: a catchy chorus from Ari Pensmith, anintroductory verse from Eight9Fly that takes you through the first half, and a heavy second verse from GoldLink that sits on top of what he turns into a support instrumental. The three-track riff doesn’t stop with Scared to Death. A song that has no lyrics but has the same energy as roller-skating on sunny day on Venice Beach, that’s the best way I can describe it. It feels like it was an early Kaytranada track that had been locked away for a couple of years until it felt right to include it in this album.
Not everything is glamour and glitz with the ending of BUBBA like Culture featuring TeedraMoses that does feel repetitive at the end of the first minute. Or FreeFall featuring Durand Bernarr that sounds like an early 2000s pop anthem that just falls flat and just needed a little bit of more “sauce” on the production end. BUT. There is a bit of redemption at the end with Midsection that pairs Kaytranada with Pharrell Williams on a track that starts with a sample from The Group NSI and starts with a bubbly beat that just makes you dance or at least makes you move your shoulders. It is the best track to exit the party that Kaytranda just threw, I like to call it: BUBBA: a Kaytranada experience. It helps you step out into the next day since the party has been going on all night. The sun hits your face as you step out into the street and you know what, you made it another day.
As the second review on an album that I ever do, thank you for reading. There are albums that people flock to when they need to listen to something familiar, this is one of those records.
Rated Eight out of Ten