Free for All

Album review

Sami Baha is a Turkish beatmaker based in London, influenced by hip-hop styles such as trap and drill as well as forms of popular Turkish music, particularly Arabesk. His music is released by British IDM institution Planet Mu, and it fits in perfectly with the label's roster of futuristic electronic artists, while also serving to demonstrate the global influence of trap. Baha utilizes many of the familiar drum-machine tones and ominous melodies common to trap, but his arrangements are a bit twisted and perverted, tossing in unexpected glitches and more explosive basslines. His sonic palettes are unique, with kalimbas and frayed chiptune melodies surfacing during "Gambit," and what sound like prepared pianos and digital approximations of Turkish guitar melodies during the title track. It's easy to hear how Mike Paradinas was drawn to Baha's music while listening to tracks like "NAH," which has a slightly saccharine synth melody and could very easily pass for a µ-ziq trap tune. The album's few vocal tracks all add entirely different dimensions to Baha's sound. U.K. drill rapper Dimzy contributes a bleak inner-city narrative to "Discreet," which features a jungle-esque rolling bassline quickening its pulse. The explosive "Thugs" could easily compete with anything on American radio, with a slow, hazy rhythm and vicious yet candid verses from Chicago's DJ Nate, a fellow Planet Mu artist who was introduced to the world as a footwork producer during the early 2010s. Even more exciting is "Ahl El M8na," a head-spinner featuring Egyptian rappers Dawsha and Abanob. The album's only true misstep is "When the Sun's Gone," which features a typically insufferable mumble-rap from Swedish sadboi Yung Lean; it would've sounded perfectly fine if Baha left it an instrumental. Otherwise, Free for All is a fascinating, innovative record that provides a fresh perspective on trap and other contemporary hip-hop styles.

© Paul Simpson /TiVo