Mike Masch, rapper identify Second, is an artist we at YEDM actually really feel silly for lacking all these years. Hardly a brand new artist, Mash has been releaing big, boldly-produced chill vibe albums since 2015 (presumably longer; we’re simply going by his Bandcamp), however his music profession goes again even farther than that. A baby prodigy of types, Masch was performing piano recitals on the age of 5 and has a strong base in classics, jazz and blues. After a great deal of jobs within the music business from DJ to label proprietor, it appears when Masch discovered digital manufacturing, it appears he additionally discovered his residence.
Masch’s sixth album Return to the Boulevard is his jazziest and most chill but, it represents a fruits of types of his musical journey. A kind of recall of his seminal album, 2017’s jazz fusion-heavy Sanguine on Amplified Boulevard, Return to the Boulevard has the same ultra-jazzy really feel, however it’s clear there’s been a lot of progress from Masch within the final 5 years. However we’re getting forward of ourselves.
Masch’s work began out way more ravey and intense than the smoothed out journey hop we now see in Return… His first album in 2015, The New Instrumentals featured, unsurprisingly, principally instrumental/non-vocal tracks. The hip hop taste was there already, nonetheless, as this was clearly Masch’s “enjoying with digital manufacturing” album. There’s already a excessive degree of talent there, nonetheless, with robust halftime, hip hop, entice or future bass beats and theatrical sound design in all of the tracks. If he had been to make these beats now because the musical local weather has shifted to pop and hip hop/EDM fusion, he might have offered these tracks at a mint.
Coming to Masch’s subsequent album, 2016’s Genesis Daybreak, he performs extra with barely quicker beats like breakbeat and lofi home however we additionally see his different influences coming via as many tracks are laced with classical piano and background instrumentals. That is the place the fusion possible started for Masch, after which he took the leap with incorporating all his influences on Sanguine… From there it appeared there was no turning again, as his subsequent albums all had a heavy funk and jazz heart. There’s nonetheless a heavy want to enterprise out into rave, not-so-jazzy journey hop and even rock in his 2021 albums Peace and Struggle, nonetheless, so it could be cheap for followers of the ever-experimenting Masch to not have recognized what to anticipate on Return…
Returning to Return…, it appears clear that Masch needed to hearken again to his fusion days of Sanguine. The opening observe, in any case, known as “Sanguine Return” (in case the album title wasn’t a sufficiently big clue). It appears to be a fruits for Masch of all his sound play to date with the strongest journey hop or, to make use of his time period, jazz hop, vibe to date. The fusion is now absolutely fused as nicely, with the jazz, funk, journey hop and rave parts all mixing completely right into a silky easy lofi sound bathtub. It’s, certainly, immersive because the loungy observe “Immersive Funk” claims. One can virtually image a Bryan Ferry, a Skye Edwards or, for the Zoomers, a Phoebe Bridgers singing over these tracks. Jazzhop achievement actually unlocked.
It’s clearly previous time that these of us who love chill rave, journey hop and lofi to concentrate to Mike Masch, however we additionally shouldn’t anticipate him to remain on the identical vibe as Return to the Boulevard without end. Rather more than a lofi or journey hop one-noter, Mike Masch is definitely a really, very chill model of an experimental artist and composer. With that experimental nature, followers shouldn’t anticipate the identical because the final for something Masch releases, however that’s the thrill of somebody like him. It’s a really calm pleasure as a result of nature of his beats, however pleasure nonetheless. Within the meantime, we greater than advocate taking this album out for a pleasant, lengthy experience on any boulevard for max chill.
Return to the Boulevard is out now and will be streamed on Spotify or bought on Bandcamp. For these on the lookout for a extra definitively hip hop vibe, try Masch’s alter ego Second.
