By Diplo, Mad Decent 2018.
California continues the trend of Diplo naming his releases after the city he recorded the album in.
Diplo’s debut album was named after his birth state, Florida.
The EP’s six tracks finds Diplo collaborating with old friends and some new discoveries amongst who are: Lil Xan, Tripple Redd. DRAM, Lil Yachty, and emerging star February James.
It’s been a big year for Diplo.
Major Lazer’s documentary, Give Me Future, shot at the group’s 2015 Havana concert that was attended by 400,000 fans, premiered to rave reviews and the band also released a companion album to the film plus an EP entitled Know Better.
Diplo’s music is a mix of a lot of differing styles. There’s a good dose of hip hop, soul, and blues, but there are also discernable jazz overtones.
There is very little spoken word content on this EP, however the music still displays most of the hallmarks of that musical form.
The mix is very good for the lyrics are easily understood.
Diplo is one of the most in-demand producer’s currently in the business so it stands to reason that his own records would be exemplary models of good craftsmanship.
One thing I do like about this EP is the variety of guest artists and also the emphasis on melody.
Regular readers will know that a lack of melody is one of my main bugbears with a lot of electronica and particularly hip hop.
While the album is good it’s not breaking new ground, nor attacking inequalities, nor exploring contentious issues.
It hasn’t set out to do so.
Musically it’s also fairly conservative.
Modern easy listening.
