It’s preferred, at least around these pages, that an artist attempt to do something different and potentially fail at it rather than continue to stay the course just because that is what the masses want of them. There’s no doubt in these words that André 3000 could have safely presented to this world his first solo album as a rap clinic that would have been as revered as any other of his work as part of Outkast or the bars he wrote in upstaging other artists on their own tracks. Instead, 3000 is following his creator’s spirit, not only reminding us why he is the original ATLien of sound, but a true visionary in pursuing passion by finally breaking his 17-year-long album-length silence with the release of his debut solo album, New Blue Sun, as an 87-minute-long instrumental ambient album. Created alongside a community of jazz and experimental artists in producer Carlos Niño, keyboardist Surya Botofasina, guitarist Nate Mercereau, keyboardist Diego Gaeta as well as V.C.R and Matthewdavid of the Los Angeles-based altered zone label, Leaving Records, New Blue Sun is a reminder of why the outsider’s perspective can sometimes be the most inventive one. Just as he has always approached any of his art, it’s wondrous to hear he and his collaborators discover new movements and textures through 3000’s fascination with flute music, manifested in acoustic and electronic sounds where his novice acumen to the genre looks at its wavelengths in ways those who’ve spent their entire careers on the inside may have overlooked. It’s a beautiful, healing form of musical sublime amongst the discordance, like a beguiling formation of new age where definition to describe where exactly within the realms of cosmic jazz and ambient electronic music elude certainty. There will be the naysayers who look at what he’s made cynically and dismiss it as a product of vanity, but for an artist who has proven himself time and time again to staying truer to what he creates with more patience and intentionality than most, he seems to be the only one who remembers what the whole point of it all is.

Highlights: “I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time”, “That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control … Sh¥t Was Wild”, “BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears A 3000® Button Down Embroidered”

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