The spacey yet hardscrabble L.A. hip-hop producer Madlib has lent his midas touch to projects straightlaced (his recent gangster-rap triumphs with Freddie Gibbs), outré (his legendary 2004 Madvillain LP with MF Doom) and in between (his solo material as Quasimoto and the J. Dilla collaboration Jaylib). Along the way, he’s done a lot to perfect and expand on the grimy boom-bap template, so nothing that spills from his omnivorous muse should be exactly surprising at this point. Still, it’s crazy and exciting to hear he’s tackling the African rock music of the 1970s on his upcoming LP Rock Konducta Vol. 1. Single “Black Widow” bustles ahead on a briskly surging bed of sounds that resemble a hip-hop remix of a retro garage rager, but lyrically it’s led by a soulful vocal and hypeman ad-libs. There’s perhaps a touch of the Avalanches in there too? It’s certainly an avalanche of sounds. Hear it below.

(via Hypetrak)

Rock Konducta Vol. 1 is out 12/1 via Rappcats. Have some tour dates with that:

10/19 London, England @ Boilerroom.tv
10/29 Budapest, Hungary @ Trafó House of Contemporary Arts
10/31 Brussels, Belgium @ Europalia Festival
11/2 Manchester, England @ Warehouse Project
11/11 Glasgow, Scotland @ SWG3 Warehouse