Tenderlonious
Hard Rain
a22
Ed “Tenderlonious” Cawthorne clearly doesn’t want to be thought of as one thing only, so very soon after the wonderful Shakedown album with his 22archestra he is back with solo effort, Hard Rain.
This one is all about Futurefunk with a retro feel – he’s got J Dilla on his mind and wants to walk in Theo Parrish’s, er, footsteps.
I’m instantly hooked. 
Across 31 minutes, Tenderlonious takes us through musical hallways where Carl Craig’s portrait probably hangs, where Madlib’s DJ RELS persona is still lurking, where playful broken-beat funk cuts (opener, Casey Jr.) mix and mingle with chilled late-night post-techno vibes (Buffalo Gurl).
The title track is reminscent of the Sasha/John Digweed Northern Exposure excursions, but it’s immediately followed by GU22 which is more like the production space occupied by drummers like Karriem Riggins and Questlove. And in fact this is the shifting tone of this slight album, ever so slightly hip-hop at times (Workin Me Out) but deeply, defiantly techno at others (Another State of Consciousness). Through it all a flow emerges, and sometimes even converges (Aesop Thought).
Workin’ Me Out is pure Riggins/Dilla/Quest and closer Almost Time has that deep Parrish vibe to it.
