Ackryte is a producer from Minneapolis who has been releasing music for over a decade now. Over the years, he’s collaborated with artists like J’Von and Prof.Logik, but mostly he’s been releasing amazing instrumental solo releases. Most recently, he dropped his album Focus just about one year ago. Now he’s returned with a new solo album, Spirits Up.

If you’ve never listened to Ackryte before, Spirits Up is a great place to start, because you just get a crash course in all the things that make his music so interesting and enjoyable. Over the course of ten short tracks, he’s laying down some beautiful melodies, usually built around some jazz piano, and then laying down a foundation of boom bap drums and warm bass lines. He’s then finding all of this space to complicate the music and work in all of these interesting elements that sound like mistakes when isolated, such as a sample that’s being slowed down as you listen to it, or something played backwards or out of time. The key here, though, is that Ackryte is taking such time and care with his compositions, that when he works in these elements to these songs and you take a step back and just listen to the whole thing in real time, everything just sounds beautiful and soulful and funky. As a result, Spirits Up becomes an album that you can absolutely vibe out to and just ride the blissful grooves, but it’s also an album that you can listen to closely over and over again and keep discovering all of these interesting and unexpected musical treasures sprinkled throughout.

Ackryte has been one of the best instrumental hip hop artists working over the last decade, and he shows no signs of slowing down with Spirits Up. It’s an absolutely beautiful album with a lot of depth and no wasted moments.