Respecta.is - The Ultimate Hip Hop Portal

The New York Times’ Jon Caramanica once quipped, “It’s never not 1995 in Lushlife’s life.” Sure, you’re instantly be transported to the golden era when you hear dude spit his deep-in-the-pocket syncopated flows. But, in a broader sense, his entire universe - one where genres melt into one another and experimental production is somehow masked with a radio-ready pop sheen - is informed by the adventurous world of independent music in 1995.

By the late ‘90s, Lush was already spending hours daily behind the turntables and multitrack recorder, drawing inspiration from a variety of artists across contemporaneous labels like Mo’ Wax, Grand Royal, 4AD, Warp Records and more.

Back when he was still zeroing in on his unique sound, bouncing between the MPC prog-funk of DJ Shadow, late-nineties chillout, and Cornelius-inspired exotica, he probably couldn’t have imagined he'd be touring with Mo’ Wax stalwarts, Blackalicious in 2016. To celebrate how far he’s come, Western Vinyl presents Lushlife’s No Dead Languages EP, an earnest homage to the golden days of instrumental hip-hop and psychedelic beat music that hugely informed the sonic breadth of his work.