www.theguardian.com/music/2018/dec/07/earl-sweatshirt-some-rap-songs-review

Beats-wise, it’s a little like one of Madlib’s Medicine Show mixes, where grainy, sample-driven productions blurt like a haunted radio searching for a frequency in the past. Soul, funk and disco samples are cut up with blunt safety scissors, leaving bruised edges and loose threads. Some are seemingly heated towards melting point, resulting in beautifully drooping tones like the organ on Cold Summers; others are dried out, like the brittle, chalky piano on The Mint. The influence of J Dilla is clear, particularly the way the late producer seemed to wrap his bass in loft insulation, and pushed the beat slightly off its grid to unlock profound funk.

(Ben Beaumont-Thomas, “Earl Sweatshirt: Some Rap Songs review — powerful, emotional poetry,” The Guardian, 12-7-18)

(c) 2018 JMN.