Shigeto - 'No Better Time Than Now' [album stream]

When he spoke to Dummy about his new album earlier this month, Shigeto painted a pretty bleak picture of its creation. "I was in the height of my post break-up state. Cigarettes filled my ashtray. Empty whiskey bottles filled the room," he said of the writing process behind stand-out track Silver Lining. "I was in the zone to say the least." It's not a glamourous process, but it was clearly a fruitful one for Shigeto, aka Zach Saginaw, whose album 'No Better Time Than Now' turned out to be a wonderfully ambitious melting pot of soul, jazz, electronica, Afrobeat and more. "Soul" is near impossible to define or pinpoint in electronic music, but there's no questioning that it's here in 'No Better Time Than Now', in the carnival sway of Ringleader, the wide-eyed optimism of Silver Lining and the tentative chimes of Miss U. Meticulously crafted but evocative and appealing to the heart as much as the head, this warm and wallowing record is a highly recommended listen (not that we'd expect any less from Ghostly). Stream it in the widget below, via Hype Machine.