Process

About

It’s tempting to view the numerous accolades garnered by Sampha Sisay’s debut album as inevitable—the wholly predictable capstone to the south London-raised singer and producer’s frictionless 2010s emergence as a favored feature artist among hip-hop and R&B’s creative elite (a group that includes Drake, Solange, and Frank Ocean). But <i>Process</i>, released in 2017, was born amid the existential threat of all manner of personal obstacle. And if the album draws its heft, drama, and mournful magic from anywhere, it’s from the fact you can not only hear this tension—you can <i>feel</i> it. Shaped by familial grief, health worrie, and enforced deliberation, <i>Process</i> is the sound of an artist leaning into the skid of personal tumult, and finding lasting beauty amid the chao. This is most obviously evident in Sampha’s voice: A husked, glittering marvel that cracks at its uppermost register, whether it’s anchoring a piece of bustling, piano-driven soul (“Blood On Me”) or a sketched chamber piece (“Take Me Inside”). Then there’s “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano,” the emotional highlight of <i>Process</i>, and a song that distills the loss of both his parents into a spare, pulse-slowing meditation about bereavement, family, and the life-altering, secondhand upright piano that Sampha’s dad brought home when the singer was three years old. But while <i>Process</i> spotlights the mercurial, distinctive capabilities of That Voice, the album is also a showcase for the musicianship and production-savvy that marked Sampha’s early day, back when he was uploading post-grime instrumentals to his MySpace account. “Kora Sings” swerves from glitchy electronica to intricate, West African polyrhythm. “Plastic 100°C”—inspired by Sampha’s struggle with a rare condition that left him with a literal lump in the throat—duels intimate plucked strings with the momentousness of the moon landings (via radar bleeps and Neil Armstrong samples). And “Timmy’s Prayer” is a garment-rending plea for romantic absolution, built upon swaying organ and glinting, hard-edged drum. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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