'Soulscapes & Jazz Breaks' - Pat D & Lady Paradox (album review)

Pat D and Lady Paradox have returned with a brilliant LP by all accounts. Any one of this album’s elements on its own would have me championing the record but the fact is that everything I look at – beats, rhymes, content, guests etc – is all of such a high quality. It’s the album’s positivity that binds its essentials into a super-cohesive body of work.

Pat D’s ear for an accessible Jazz sample combined with his coordination of real life musicians makes for evocative, laid back yet heavy productions – and that goes for each of the 12 tracks – it’s all first-rate.

Lady P’s rhymes are insightful, thoughtful and thought provoking and in no way does she resort to clichés. ‘Dear Negativity’ paints negativity and positivity as people who appear in our lives and ‘Juicy Grub’ and ‘What’s It Worth’ celebrate music of all genres, displaying a real love and knowledge of music from Hi-Dialect, US MC Melodiq and Lady Paradox. Her flow is simple and clear and her voice is different to that of your average femcee. Her thoughts and way of expressing herself are in the same vein as Jehst and Lewis Parker.

The featured artists complement the overall feel and sound of the album with the standout guest being poetry/spoken word hero Benjamin Zephaniah on ‘New Dawn’, a story of love on which Zephaniah translates his poetry well over the trumpet-led production. Elsewhere Efeks, Izzy G, Shaheen, Praverb, Selone and Eva Lazarus feature.

‘Soulscapes & Jazz Breaks’, probably one of the most aptly-named albums ever, will be out soon and is sure to be album of whichever month it drops in (December 8th)! It’s being released on A Bridge Too Far Recordings. There will be a 12" EP version and a CD version of the full LP. The album can be streamed here and now.