Lando Chill

Lando Chill surely deserves a thread...

Just-released 'Black Ego' is remarkably good, and last year's 'The Boy Who Spoke to The Wind' is even more fantastic (and I'm sad I missed it till this year). Among the best things I've heard in music rooted in hip-hop in recent years (and, like other Chicago-rooted musicians like Saba or Noname, disinterested in any pre-defined limits of genre). 20 years ago I suppose he'd be classified as "conscious" (or today perhaps "woke") but honestly the music is so much freer of stock lyrical tropes and musical stylistic assumptions and emotional constraints than anything was back then (much as I love a lot of "conscious" stuff from the 90s). The production and the flow are nonchalantly hyper-eclectic, again brooking no real limits of genre or emotion, related as much to non-hip-hop contemporary transgenre work like Serpentwithfeet, Spellling, Sampha, Moses Sumney, et al, seamlessly organic and electronic. The sounds and moods reflect the chaos and uncertainty of the day, but when hope shines through it's not maudlin or naive. There are connections to Chicago, but he's made most of his music in Tuscon, AZ so far; is now based in LA--and in a good way, he sounds like he's from all of these places (plus a healthy dose of Detroit-via-Dilla and Atlanta-via-Outkast and maybe even a little London-via-Dizzee but not in direct or imitative ways)--this music is way post-regional and timeless, in flow and production. I take it Lando Chill is pretty young, so I'm excited to see where he'll go, but for me he's already producing landmark work.

Start with 'The Boy Who Spoke to The Wind':

https://mmg-lando-chill.bandcamp.com/album/the-boy-who-spoke-to-the-wind

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0079419831_10.jpg

and then seek out 'Black Ego,' which isn't perhaps as musically cohesive and enveloping, but is possibly stronger lyrically:

https://mmg-lando-chill.bandcamp.com/album/black-ego

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0044425856_10.jpg

Bump, because people need to hear this...

indeed, this is fucking great!

Getting a nice feature on Bandcamp now:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2018/10/18/lando-chill-black-ego-interview/

Thanks for the rec Sounds, this is good stuff

OMG I listened to The Boy who Spoke to the Wind and only after realized this guy Lando has been collaborating non-stop with Lasso, which is this obscure bandcamp act that sort of blew my mind years back with Lasso'd (2011). Check it.