BERLIN LAMA Vinilo y CD

Review: Beat-maker Berlin Lama turned more than a few heads with his first appearance on Zurich's Ish Records, a 2017 seven-inch entitled "Ego". Hopes are naturally high, then, for this long promised debut album. After beginning with the dreamy ambient jazz bliss of "This Is It", Berlin Lama flits through a wonderful range of soulful excursions, many seemingly drawing on a love of vintage '60s synth-pop, the head-nodding dope beats of Dilla, the experimental brilliance of Flying Lotus, the blunted jazziness of Guru's Jazzamatazz project and the intergalactic bliss of synthesizer heavy lo-fi soul. It is, then, a very impressive debut album that just gets better with every successive listen.