Ladi6's distinctive voice takes centre-stage on Automatic.
From the moment it opens, with deep, slowly shifting beats that make you feel like you're bobbing in gently rolling waves, and you float upwards into the bubbly world of Ikarus, Ladi6's new album is a sonic-stunner.
The beats are crafted with impeccable taste, somehow both inventively crunchy and raw,
and like a beautiful tonic for your ears in the same instant. They weave seamlessly with Ladi's distinctive voice, somehow bringing out the soul queen, the vulnerable world-weary woman, the fierce citizen. But mostly they create an audio landscape to sink into and get lost.
"We can get high, you can get lost, into my arms, as I enclose you" she sings on the first album single Ikarus, making you feel warm and weightless.
Produced by Parks (Brent Park, Ladi's partner) and Detroit-based beat-maker/producer Waajeed (a friend of J Dilla), there's an ear-turning diversity in the beats, which benefit from multiple listens, and yet a cohesion in the palette of sounds - spacey synths, deep bass pulses, soft cymbals - and their use of space. Similarly, the lyrics range in subject matter, but keep a theme of strength and survival throughout.
There's no rapping from Ladi on her third album, but she has rising Detroit star Invincible feature on Slow Ride, and cousin Scribe on Ready To Fly, and there are plenty of hip-hop inflections in the production, making it one of the best hip-hop sounding albums of this year so far.
