Kwes. - Songs For Midi (2018)

Nearly 10 years since meeting Mica Levi as Kwesachu, and 5 since his début LP ilp, Kwes. charmingly reminds us of his modern electronic soul on Songs For Midi - a 6 track EP written in dedication to his young niece, Midori and cousin, Connor, who both helped out on the artwork.

Clearly a personal endeavour, and very much inspired by an image of youthful innocence, Songs For Midi expresses, nay exudes, a bright optimism that really can’t be sniffed at. Kwes. gestures that it’s an effort in finding his own musical voice after working in the studio closely with everyone from Bobby Womack to Solange and Kelela in recent years, and we have to agree that he’s definitely located and rounded up his idiosyncrasies inside.

Popping with chromatic colour and beautifully freed of fixed meter, Songs For Midi is a brilliant study on the vividness of youth, as seen and heard thru a personalised prism of modern electronic jazz fusion. In freehand strokes and with balletic lightness, Kwes. keeps us rapt from ribboning sino-esque scales of Midori thru the off-kilter tangggg and pastoral lushness of Ungry/Milk, to the superbly curdled 99flake and the head-spinning Blox/Connor with its strobing pop chops and swallow-diving strings.

RIYL Mica Levi, Cy An, Maxwell Sterling