Christoph El’ Truento

Christoph El’ Truento is an Auckland-based beatmaker/producer. He’s a member of @Peace, has produced tracks for Home Brew and Hollie Smith, collaborated with the likes of Parks, Riki Gooch and Julien Dyne (Some Other Planets) and his latest solo album continues to hint at the strong influence of Sun Ra, though this time taking a more cartoon approach. It’s instrumental hip-hop as late-night soul music, broken-beat and clipped funk. We Fly With The Moon As A Guide feels like DJ Shadow remixing Sun Ra, elsewhere it’s Sun Ra as distilled through Flying Lotus.

This is not acid-jazz, rather a case instead of acid-trip jazz, Mr. Scruff tinkering away with Matthew Shipp, say. Or the Aphex Twin of Drukqs minus the moments of frenetic drill’n’bass swill. And with all that circling melodic loveliness and loneliness bending in on each other, blending in to form something that soothes and grooves, never alienates.

A series of oopsie daisies is cosmically clingy, it gets in under the skin, tracks like Game Swim have the madness of Mr. Bungle shadowing them but it’s Every Dies Dog Body that has me hooked; it’s like I’m hearing a different song each time. It’s impossible to pin down, the flavours and colours swirl and it’s always moving, a shape shifting slow-blur, the corners blunted down, smoothed out, stoned over and it’s all awash with moodiness, loveliness. Spinning and spiralling and snaking through a garden of light, it’s a day trip inside three minutes of perfect sonic creation.

This album is (often) magical. And then through the headphones it’s just that little bit better again.