Dean Blunt - Black Metal 2

Sonically, Black Metal 2 tends to revisit its predecessor's A-side, with even darker and terser results.

Dean Blunt - UK2UK

A surprise 10-track mixtape from UK singer-songwriter/experimental hip hop producer Dean Blunt, featuring frequent collaborator Arca and a mysterious DJ Escrow.

Babyfather (Dean Blunt) - "Meditation" ft. Arca

Following the release of his Babyfather EP earlier this year, Dean Blunt assumes his new alias again for the above "Meditation," co-produced by Arca. The latter has a new album called Mutant out on November 20 via Mute; hear the lead single "Soichiro" here. Who can say what Blunt has in store for us with all this Babyfather biz, but after last year's fantastic Black Metal, we have every reason to be looking forward to whatever it is.

Update 2/20/16: This track will appear on a full-length Babyfather project titled BBF Hosted by DJ Escrow, out April 1 via Hyperdub. Idris Elba claims it's gonna bump hard in the whip.

Dean Blunt - "the ether"

A sobering and cinematic instrumental from Dean Blunt. Whatever, it's not slow-mo joint rolling.

Dean Blunt - Black Metal

UK singer-songwriter and musical oddball Dean Blunt releases an album that's difficult to put into words. While simple in composition and sloppy in execution, the album still manages to draw up some real feelings of isolation, melancholy, and frustration.

Dean Blunt - "King James"

Dean Blunt, best known as one half of London duo Hype Williams, has dropped a new single titled "King James." The track continues the decidedly reserved and introspective lyrical themes of the LP he put out earlier this year, The Redeemer; but the warm orchestral arrangements on that album are forwent in favor of a minimalist composition of a distant vocal sample enveloped by a cold comb filter effect.

"King James" appears as the third track on Blunt's new album Stone Island, abruptly self-released for free stream and download earlier this week on the Russian site Афиша.

Dean Blunt - "Papi"

As one half of the group formerly known as Hype Williams, a duo which now goes under the more self-explanatory title Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, Dean Blunt has specialized in obtuse, abstract electronic pop, though I use the term "pop" this loosely. With the idea of pop tends to come a relateable sort of accessibility with the potential for wide appeal, but it was this fundamental characteristic which Dean and Inga seemed determined to obscure. On last year's Black is Beautiful, the pair buried their humanness under a lo-fi haze of synth-based instrumentals. Dean Blunt is not even the artist's birth name, nor is Inga Copeland her's, with their true identities having yet to meet the public light. In removing themselves from so many aspects of themselves which artists often offer in order to be connectable to their audience, Dean and Inga were essentially creating anti-pop.

With Dean Blunt's new LP, The Redeemer, however, the veil is being peeled back tentatively yet noticeably. Samples are much higher in fidelity, with lush orchestra clips giving off a convincingly cinematic feel, and much more clearly mixed vocals revealing deeper angles of Dean's persona. An especially apt example of the album's vulnerability is the first track to drop from the LP, "Papi," in which Dean's voice subtly suggests emotional longing alongside a wistfully romantic Pink Floyd sample. As Dean is gradually exposing more of his character, his statement becomes more coherent and ultimately more effective.

Look for The Redeemer via Hippos in Tanks.