Summer is upon us like a package delivered to our doormat. Let’s unpack quickly Timeless, the generous third album by Quebec composer of Haitian origin Kaytranada: this one will liven up our barbecues throughout the summer. In seventeen songs, the musician refines his art by using orchestrations previously unheard of in his work, inviting a host of singers and rappers to transform his grooves in songs (for better and for worse), which he himself attempts by singing for the first time on one of his productions.
Readers of the Rolling Stone will have noted that the American magazine had put Kaytranada on the front page; in the long interview he gave to his journalist, the Quebecer made two revelations about Timeless. First, he announced that he was inspired by the new wave sound of the 1980s to create this album. An astonishing piece of information which, ultimately, does not transform the musical identity of the composer: let his fans be reassured, Kaytra always deploys his grooves by affixing his personal rhythmic signature and now recognized on all the dance floors of the planet, this subtle assembly of percussions which causes a swaying of the hips just before the big drum hits.
From the first to the last of the four bonus songs, and even in the slower moments (the strange, but innovative Feel a Waywith singer Don Toliver), it’s pure Kaytranada, but actually more colored by synth timbres from the 1980s, like this synth-funk keyboard note that flies over Weird, with the theatrical voice of Durand Bernarr. More explicitly new wave, note Stepped Onexceptional, because we hear Kaytranda himself singing in a soft, almost muffled voice, swollen by a studio effect.
The song is not memorable, just like Call U Up, the collaboration with his brother Lou Phelps, placed at the beginning of the album – in fact, of the dozen guest singers, only a handful of them offer memorable performances, the others being downgraded by the finesse of the productions of Celestine. R&B singer Rochelle Jordan looks good on Spit It Out and the heady single Lover/Friend which closes the album. From the excellent Childish Gambino, we expected nothing less than this magnificent Witchya discreet house rhythm coated in strings, diaphanous synths and the sound of cymbals – absolutely beautiful.
Likewise, the most percussive Hold On, a collaboration with the esteemed Dawn Richard, delivers its promise, driven by one of those melodious and fleshy bass lines of which Kaytra has the secret. The revelation, however, comes from this collaboration with the Canadian singer Charlotte Day Wilson: a splendor that this song entitled Stillits swaying but sustained rhythm, this simple chorus which unfolds over jazz drum samples and the opulent piano motif.
Thus, the other revelation contained in the interview granted to Rolling Stone concerns the method with which Celestin produces his grooves: artificial intelligence (AI) is now part of his toolbox. How ? Attached to the processes of beatmakers hip-hop of the 1990s, Kaytranada composes on a bass sound samples carefully chosen from his discotheque of funk, soul, jazz, etc. However, AI now allows it to isolate certain instruments, certain sound elements, from a chosen song – a form of sampling surgical which enriches the orchestrations. The composer makes lace with his grooveswhich possess a harmonic depth that we did not hear on his previous albums.
The second album Bubba allowed Louis Kevin Celestin to win two Grammy awards, including Best Dance/Electronic Album. Such consecration necessarily comes with its share of pressure, and Timeless will inevitably be compared to the brilliant record before. Fans will recognize Kaytra’s touch, and her desire to move away from the grooves imagined for the dance floor to better approach the composition of a pop song. He doesn’t always succeed, but when the right vocals, the right chorus and the right rhythm section come together, magic happens.