mndsgn - Yawn Zen

mndsgn
Yawn Zen
2014
Spotify

If you are asking whether this stellar album from mndsgn Yawn Zen came out of no where you are actually kind of right. Los Angeles based producer mndsgn (Ringgo Ancheta) grew up for the majority of his life on a real deal commune. He never heard pop or hip hop music until He was old enough to hitchhike into New York and explore the modern world outside of his hippy upbringing. Someone's personal history always colors their music but it is never as distinct or as varied as it's done on Yawn Zen. Mndsgn seems to have no boundaries, no prejudices and even no real preference for the type of music He is going to make. It is part hip hop, part pop, a heavy dose of psychedelia and a chill wave just to wrap it all up. You would think with this many influences you would get something confusing, but not in the slightest, He is direct and has a sound that He wants to caputre with each and every new track. While most of the album has no lyrics you could see these beats eventually making their way into the hip hop world, or even the more electronic dance side of things the possibilities seem to be nearly endless. There are times when Yawn Zen tends to meander rather than get to the point, but the journey is so damn pleasant that you are more than happy to just sit back and go along for the ride.

Besides "Exchanging" most of the tracks are kept under three minutes which gives them this precise quality where from minute one they pull you in rather than waste time letting you figure them out. The Neo-Soul influence can not be understated, where the warm fuzz of a record is used to capture that same emotion that the Roots did in the early 2000s. However He doesn't let one genre or another ever take over, he is happy to play around with them for awhile but his influences are so varied that sticking with one thing or another just doesn't make sense. He never goes full Lo-Fi, using the effect just enough to add that classic sound. The record however is not without it's faults. Often when producers sing their own vocals the results are mixed at best, and that is the case here as well. The lyrics are passable, but more guideposts for the music to dance around. There is so few tracks with lyrics though that it barely makes an impact, it just goes to show you that with some real vocal talent mndsgn could have some real great stuff on tap. By the time you have inhaled and exhaled another deep breath the album floats away as inauspiciously as it arrived, leaving you wanting more yet totally satisfied by what you've been given. It's delicate and beautiful, and not one to miss.

8.0 out of 10