Stream Matthewdavid's 'Outmind'

Zoned In: Matthewdavid: Outmind “Los Angeles producer and sound collagist Matthewdavid is set to release Outmind, his first LP, on April 19th. His tunes are indebted to no one genre in particular, but he can riff on anything from glitched hip-hop instrumentals and hypnotic Eastern rhythms to rippling ambient soundscapes and gritty nature phonography. Known for his DJ show at non-profit radio station Dublab and his involvement in the LA “Beat Scene” (spearheaded by Flying Lotus, who is releasing Outmind on his own Brainfeeder imprint), Matthewdavid melts everything he touches into a psychedelic heat-haze, painting a vibrant and thickly textured SoCal landscape with a slew of warped samples and field recordings. This goes for both the heady ambient zones on tracks like “Group Tea (feat. Flying Lotus),” “Floor Music (feat. Niki Randa),” and “Cucumber-Lime,” and the headier, beat-heavy material on “Like You Mean It” and “Today, Same Way”.

Album centerpiece “Like You Mean It” slaps like a screwed AraabMuzik instrumental, but with so much sonic meat on its rhythmic skeleton that it’s easy to get full rather quickly. This super-thick aesthetic is what sets Matthewdavid apart— but it’s also what makes his music so challenging, throwing the ambient-leaning crowd for a loop while testing the patience of the beat contigent. It’s not so hard to imagine someone skipping through the MP3s in search of the handful of banging entries like “Noche y Dia / San Raphael” and “Like You Mean It.” But there’s a reason why Outmind is being released on vinyl; it’s first and foremost an album, one that adheres to a foggy, drugged mood throughout, and is filtered through the kaleidoscopic lens that could only be Matthewdavid’s.” – alteredzones.com