| Sound Ancestors | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 29, 2021 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 41:15 | |||
| Label | Madlib Invazion | |||
| Producer | Madlib | |||
| Madlib chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Sound Ancestors | ||||
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Sound Ancestors is a studio album by American musician Madlib. It was released on January 29, 2021, via Madlib Invazion. Produced by Madlib, it was arranged, edited and mastered by Four Tet. The album debuted at number 153 on the Billboard 200 in the United States.
On November 24, 2020, Four Tet announced that he was in the process of making a collaborative album with Madlib during a YouTube livestream. [1]
Four Tet then announced on his Instagram account that he and Madlib were ready to release the studio album for January 2021. [2]
The album's tracklist was revealed on January 11, 2021. [3] [4]
On December 14, 2020, the first single to be released was "Road of the Lonely Ones". [5] The official music video was released on YouTube the same day. [6] Rolling Stone described the single as a "simple but immersive track built around vocals that seem pulled from some forgotten soul 45 gathering dust in a crate." [7]
The second single "Hopprock" was released on January 4, 2021. [8] The music video was released on YouTube on January 9, 2021. [9] Stereogum described the single as "a warm, hazy instrumental that Madlib and Four Tet wrote together. The track has a neck-cranking beat, a warm bassline, and a few samples chopped into the mix." [10]
The third single "Dirtknock" was released on January 22, 2021. [11] [12]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.6/10 [13] |
| Metacritic | 87/100 [14] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Albumism |    [15] |
| AllMusic | [16] |
| Beats Per Minute | 80/100 [17] |
| Exclaim! | 7/10 [18] |
| God Is in the TV | 8/10 [19] |
| Pitchfork | 7.9/10 [20] |
| Rolling Stone | [21] |
| Spectrum Culture | [22] |
| The Guardian | [23] |
| The Line of Best Fit | 8/10 [24] |
Sound Ancestors was met with universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 87 based on ten reviews. [14] The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? has the critical consensus of the album at a 7.6 out of 10, based on twelve reviews. [13]
Tayyab Amin of The Guardian praised the album with perfect five-out-of-five stars rating, claiming that "Madlib channels a deep, intertwining lineage of Black music through Sound Ancestors like folklore oration, storytelling with the sorcery of a beatmaker who knows how to make an instrumental really sing". [23] Seb Grech of Beats Per Minute described the album as "a realisation of what the Madlib and Hebden are capable of in tandem. It's bold, different, and takes the genre of instrumental hip hop to the next level". [17] Richard Wiggins of God Is in the TV found "this record further cements his status as one of the most creative and inspirational producers of today". [19] Jeff Ihaza of Rolling Stone wrote: "Like Akomfrah's Data Thief, Madlib sees the connections between the past and future. On Sound Ancestors, he manages to give us a sense of what those connections feel like". [21] Leo Culp of The Line of Best Fit wrote that the album "isn't anything new from Madlib, but it only further cements his status as one of the great producers, artists, and minds in hip-hop". [24] Andy Cush of Pitchfork wrote: "Hebden's arrangement of Sound Ancestors shows deep and intuitive engagement with Jackson's weed-scented sensibility, which has no use for presumptive distinctions between the beautiful and the funky, the silly and the profound". [20] Jesse Ducker of Albumism stated that "Madlib has certainly started 2021 on the right foot musically". [15] AllMusic's Paul Simpson wrote: "while Sound Ancestors as a whole seems as lifetime-encompassing as Donuts , it doesn't feel quite as focused. Still, it sounds recognizably like both Madlib and Four Tet while taking their music into directions where neither artist has ventured before, and its highlights are life-affirming". [16] Daryl Keating of Exclaim! called the album "a mixed bag if ever there was one. It's funky, it's psychedelic, it's jazzy, dirty, clean, and mean. It's Madlib". [18] Max Heilman of Spectrum Culture gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, resuming: "Sound Ancestors amounts to cool sonics that fail to leave a lasting impression". [22]
| Publication | List | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Guardian | The 50 Best Albums of 2021 | 25 | |
| Paste | The 50 Best Albums of 2021 | 19 |
All tracks are written by Otis Jackson and Kieran Hebden
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "There Is No Time" (Prelude) | 1:16 |
| 2. | "The Call" | 2:05 |
| 3. | "Theme de Crabtree" | 2:16 |
| 4. | "Road of the Lonely Ones" | 3:38 |
| 5. | "Loose Goose" | 2:21 |
| 6. | "Dirtknock" | 2:14 |
| 7. | "Hopprock" | 3:27 |
| 8. | "Riddim Chant" | 1:58 |
| 9. | "Sound Ancestors" | 2:50 |
| 10. | "One for Quartabê / Right Now" | 2:42 |
| 11. | "Hang Out" (Phone Off) | 2:15 |
| 12. | "Two for 2 – For Dilla" | 2:51 |
| 13. | "Latino Negro" | 3:36 |
| 14. | "The New Normal" | 2:28 |
| 15. | "Chino" | 1:57 |
| 16. | "Duumbiyay" | 3:13 |
| Total length: | 41:15 | |
| Chart (2021) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [27] | 116 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) [28] | 25 |
| UK R&B Albums (OCC) [29] | 10 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) [30] | 42 |
| US Billboard 200 [31] | 153 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) [32] | 21 |
Kieran Miles David Hebden, known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting and critically acclaimed albums such as Rounds (2003), Everything Ecstatic (2005) and There Is Love in You (2010). In addition to his twelve studio albums as Four Tet, Hebden's work includes a number of improvisational works with jazz drummer Steve Reid and collaborations with Burial and Thom Yorke.
Rounds is the third solo album by British electronic musician Kieran Hebden, released under his alias Four Tet on 5 May 2003 by Domino Recording Company. Wanting to make a more personal record, Hebden recorded and produced the album in his North London flat over ten months using a desktop computer and a home hi-fi system. Its ten tracks feature elements of hip hop, jazz and folk; apart from a guitar part recorded for "Slow Jam", the music is composed from between 200 and 300 samples, many processed beyond recognition.
There Is Love in You is the fifth studio album by English electronic musician Four Tet, released on 25 January 2010 by Domino Recording Company. The lead single from the album, "Love Cry", was released as a limited edition 12" on 2 November 2009.
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