Veteran underground French producer Wax Tailor has been making versatile beats on a fluid spectrum ranging from trip-hop to boom-bap for 15 years now. He’s set to drop his fifth studio album, By Any Beats Necessary, this fall. The album features underground stalwarts Tricky, R.A. The Rugged Man, and Token. Here’s what Tailor had to say about it:

Without going too deep into politics, the album’s title reflects my determination to use all kinds of sounds and textures to get to something musical. The word “beat” also draws a line towards the Beat Gen- eration, Kerouac’s famous novel On The Road, and the quest for an better place. And so, in this time when each of us needs a little escape, I conceptualized this album as the soundtrack to a better elsewhere that I imagined to be the south western part of the USA.

The lead single is “Worldwide” featuring Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan, and it comes with a matching set of animated visuals. It’s a funky, smooth joint interspersed with 8-bit video game blips and bleeps and cleverly syncopated boom-bap drums as Ghostface spits braggadocios bars about his global cachet. As for the video, crude drawings of Tailor and Ghost leap off the paper in a stop motion-like fashion as the rapper’s lyrics appear on screen in several inventive ways. The French producer has been criminally slept-on for quite some time, hopefully he’ll get some much-deserved attention for this newest full-length. Watch.

Tracklist:

01 “Hit The Road (Intro)”
02 “I Had A Woman”
03 “For The Worst” (Feat. IDIL)
04 “Back On Wax” (Feat. R.A The Rugged Man, Token, A-F-R-O)
05 “My Burn” (Feat. Sara Genn)
06 “Ecstasy”
07 “The Chase” (Feat. Raashan Ahmad & Mattic)
08 “Clock Tick”
09 “The Road Is Ruff” (Feat. Lee Fields)
10 “Bleed Away” (Feat. Tricky & Charlotte Savary)
11 “Diggin Saloon”
12 “Buckwild” (Feat. IDIL)
13 “Worldwide” (Feat. Ghostface Killah)
14 “The Phonograph”

Tour dates:

01/17 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
01/18 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
01/19 New York, NY @ Webster Hall
01/20 Boston, MA @ Royale
01/21 Montreal, PQ @ Metropolis
01/22 Quebec, PQ @ Imperial Bell
01/24 Toronto, Ont @ Adelaide Hall
01/25 Detroit, MI @ The Crofoot Ballroom
01/26 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
01/27 Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
01/28 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe
01/31 Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
02/01 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
02/03 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
02/04 Seattle, WA @ Showbox
02/07 Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
02/09 San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom
02/10 Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theatre
02/11 San Diego, CA @ Music Box
02/13 Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
02/15 Austin, TX @ Empire Garage
02/16 New Orleans, LA @ House Of Blues
02/17 Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
02/18 Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel

By Any Beats Necessary is out 10/14.