Ackryte is a producer from Minneapolis who has been making compelling instrumental hip hop for years, along with collaborating with artists such as Rich Garvey. His last solo effort came just last October, when he dropped Hiatus. Now he comes back with another project, Minor.

Over the course of his career, Ackryte has been able to separate himself from the rest of the pack of instrumental artists by taking some broad strokes that sound like everyone else, namely jazz and downtempo, but then going off in different directions and handling his compositions with more care and nuance than most producers. Nowhere is this clearer than on a release like Minor. With ten tracks all under two minutes in length, this release has all the indicators of a throwaway beat dump that too many producers release all the time. However, with Ackryte, you always get something much more interesting. Even on a track with a title like “hideous loop,” you actually get a really compelling jazz piano melody that is being pitch shifted and looped just slightly off kilter, and then developed with counter melody on guitar, and a really nice groove between bass and drums that shuffles at just the right tempo to get your toe tapping and your head nodding. A track like “familiar” actually sounds pretty unique as jazz guitar plays off a beat that sounds like if Prefuse 73 made a jungle beat, and then you slowed it down until you had a slow jam. Again, it’s always the little things that sets Ackryte apart, even on a shorter release like this one.

Minor has Ackryte doing all he can to lower your expectations, but he can’t help but make some quality, challenging beats that exist just outside of the norm. Each short track on the release features an interesting hook or development that makes the music stand out, which is why we like Ackryte in the first place. Doing the little things makes all the difference when it comes to instrumental music.