MACHINEDRUM, the Ninja Tune artist who delights in pulling hiphop, electro, R’n’B, grime and other such musics into curious new shapes, is releasing his first album in four years and his ninth in total for beats purveyors extraordinaire Ninja Tune next Friday.
And he’s dropped a little taster of the new album, A View Of U, in the shape of “Spin Blocks”, two-hander with Atlanta rhymer Father.
It’s chill, has light breaks with a spin in their step, and a swirly, smoky delirium of flute-led 70s’ easy over which Father lets the science ride.
“I made the beat for ‘Spin Blocks’ some time in 2019 when I was getting back into sampling again,” says Machinedrum, known to family and friends as Travis Stewart.
“I sampled this beautiful song called ‘Ujimma’, by The Lightmen Plus One, and I played some guitar on it as well. I had my homie Miguel, aka Holly, come in and do some extra production bits and sound design to add some spice; then I sent it over to Father and he smashed it!
“I’m a huge fan of his so it was really thrilling to get him on this track.”
Father also enjoyed the collaboration: “Working with Machinedrum was effortless. There were no limitations of what I could do and he really supported that for the track. I was able to just be myself and it worked out perfect.”‘
Machinedrum has gathered a glittering host of the great and the good for A View Of U, including Tanerélle and Mono/Poly, Freddie Gibbs, Sub Focus, Chrome Sparks, Tigran Hamasyan, Jesse Boykins III and Rochelle Jordan.
The album comes on smoky marbled vinyl LP in a gatefold sleeve, CD and digital formats and can be pre-ordered from the Ninja Tune shop, here.
You can also follow Machinedrum on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud.
