Sen Morimoto got his start in the underground western Massachusetts hip-hop scene, but since relocating to Chicago, he’s become a regular collaborator to a constellation of the city’s future-stars, including Kaina, NNAMDÏ, and Lala Lala. Back in 2018, he released his debut album, Cannonball!, a smooth and intriguing fusion of pop and jazz, and today he’s announcing its follow-up, the eponymous Sen Morimoto. It features contributions from the aforementioned artists, plus a couple of other guests, and the first track we’re hearing from it is “Woof,” which boasts a woozy and slick beat that snaps in and out of focus, Morimoto’s mumbling introspection providing a throughline.

Here’s what Sen Morimoto had to say about his new album as a whole:

Thematically, the album explores self-examination–the way reality breaks the distortion of subjective experience. Focusing on minutia, the album highlights the ways that our learned habits, such as shameful desires and righteous ideals, are inherited by everyday motions of modern American life. The grotesque and ignored emerging in dreams, begin to inform a cruel reality. Touring through a world on a wire, my dreams, in harrowing vibrant color, began to cross the threshold into my waking life. My self-titled album comes as a statement from somewhere in between those two worlds.

Check out “Woof” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Love, Money Pt. 2″
02 “Woof”
03 “Symbols, Tokens”
04 “Butterflies” (Feat. KAINA)
05 “Deep Down” (Feat. AAAMYYY)
06 “Taste Like It Smells” (Feat. Lala Lala, Kara Jackson, & Qari)
07 “Save”
08 “Wrecked” (Feat. NNAMDÏ)
09 “Goosebumps”
10 “Daytime But Darker”
11 “The Things I Thought About You Started To Rhyme”
12 “The Box” (Feat. Joseph Chilliams)
13 “You Come Around”
14 “Nothing Isn’t Very Cool”
15 “Jupiter”

Sen Morimoto is out 10/23 via Sooper Records. Pre-order it here.