Kaytranada – 99.9%

At the age of 14, this Haitian born and Montreal raised producer was introduced to music production software by his brother, and he has since been pumping out beats and slowly fine tuning his own unmistakable sound.

Now at the age of 23, he has refined his sound to the point where he is prepared to release his debut album, 99.9%, which fuses hip-hop with mesmerising melodies containing touches of jazz flair. All of the tracks start with a wonderfully satisfying hip-hop bass line before then being carefully layered with high levels of musicality in the melodic instrumentals from piano and guitar (just to name two).

Throughout the 15 track offering a number of well known and immediately recognisable voices make cameo appearances, all adding yet another layer to already immense tracks. Everything here is welcoming to audiences who would normally shy away from hip-hop, as Kaytranada clearly focused on injecting a highly soulful element into the album. (JA)

****1/2