Teebs

Mtendere Mandowa returns – as Teebs – with sophomore album, Estara. And though you may mourn for the adventurousness of his debut, this shows a thoughtful progression from yet another Flying Lotus protégé. Okay, so there’s still plenty to suggest the album’s sound was formed from the wind beneath the wings of that Flying Lotus (Hi-Hat feat. Populous) but just as often the sounds here feel like they might have been wrung from the squelch of Boards of Canada (SOTM) or lifted and further treated from the ideas of so many other treated-piano players/composers (Piano Days/Piano Months). At every stage it’s the sound of Teebs further progressing his voice as composer/arranger/producer – and the waft of Wavxxes (featuring Lars Hornveth of Jaga Jazzist) is a definite highlight; in itself a cut’n’paste collage of chillout music-meets-beats-meets a thousand leftover/hungover ideas.

Prefuse 73 assists on NY Pt. 2 adding a nice, light bossa-nova feel and the hypnotic glitch’n’glide feel of Gratitute feels like the perfect closer.

It’s perhaps a little too gauzy all up, so reverb-drenched, too slick, too slippery to get a proper purchase on – but there’s something in the way this flows. It may never truly challenge, it feels a bit – at times – like the recent Brian Eno collaborations (though we’re spared the spoken word) but through it all there are hints and glimpses of magic, little mini-miracles of sound/in sound. Well, there’s enough to keep me listening anyway.