1988

LA producer/songwriter Glen Boothe’s second album as Knxwledge for the venerated Stones Throw label is the kind of thing you put on, let run, and don’t think much about until you reach up to play it again—and again, and, yeah, all right, why not, again. Fragmented as it is (most of these tracks are under two minutes), the overall feel is smooth and narrative, each moment like an interlude hinged to an interlude, an association to an association. The gospel of “do you” leads into the more carnal slow-jam pleasures of “Thats Allwekando.,” and “Listen” into “Learn,” with bits of conversation and interview samples playing like a meta-commentary on what you’ve just heard or are about to hear. Boothe is funny like that, and clever. And, as a guy raised in the Pentecostal church but saved by rap tapes, a little conflicted, mixing up the sacred and profane impulses of R&B and hip-hop in ways that, like all great beatmakers, use bits and pieces of other people’s work to lay bare a journey that feels deeply personal. Come to think, there’s a word for this: flow.

The L.A. producer’s music is a fog of samples and clips warped into peculiar shapes that defy recognition but prickle with familiarity, like memories from a past life.

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These are but a few of the offbeat, deeply soulful zigs and zags that 1988 takes across its 22 tracks (most of which clock in at less than two minutes).