Yesterdays New Quintet
Angles Without Edges

THE REVIEW

Madlib is a strange type, he is multidimensional, unlabelable, transversal.

He is first and foremost a musician, but also a producer and an MC with guts, when he decides to hide behind bizarre pseudonyms, vaguely "Notre-Dame-esque".

Madlib likes to vary, change, surprise, and experiment. Hybridize, mix, mingle, fuse. Madlib is among the most prolific and innovative figures in the global hip-hop scene, he records for the renowned Stone Throw and has memorized the entire Blue Note catalog.
Madlib likes jazz, and a lot, you can hear it in the beats he produces in his countless collaborations, especially those with the late Jay Dee or with that other quirky character Mf Doom.

Madlib likes Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hutcherson and Andrew Hill, Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon, and Herbie Hancock, but he doesn’t at all disdain the soul of Stevie or the funk of James, on the contrary… In 2001, Madlib decided it was the right time, the right time for an album entirely played by him, that wonderfully fused hip hop with a sort of improvisation and approach typical of jazz, and where his Fender Rhodes could unleash all its magic and energy. He even decides on the fictitious names of his hypothetical fellow adventurers, since the album is played solely and exclusively by Mr. Otis Jackson aka Madlib, aka Quasimoto, and the name for his new project would be Yesterdays New Quintet, and then what does he do? He produces one of the most influential and impactful albums of the last years in the hip-hop and nu-jazz scene. A real must.

A concentrate of jazz, soul, and fusion with killer grooves built by the vibraphone, the enlightened piano solos, and the typically West Coast sound. An album of absolute quality, with a deliberately vintage sound and really chock-full of style.