Factor Chandelier is a producer from Saskatoon whose career goes back over two decades now. In that time, he’s balanced a career where he’s made collaborative albums with artists like Myka 9, Ceschi, Def3, Kay the Aquanaut, and AWOL ONE, alongside a steady production of solo albums. His latest solo album came out just last year, when he dropped Time Invested II. Now he’s back with a new solo album, Moving Like a Planet.

Like most Factor Chandelier solo albums, Moving Like a Planet balances instrumental tracks with vocal tracks, featuring a range of guests. This time, Factor shakes things up in terms of the guests. Ceschi is the only longtime collaborator on the album, who melds perfectly with Factor’s production on the song “Sky High.” After that, we only get two more emcees, AJ Suede and Eligh. Both sound great, and both bring really distinct styles to the album that alongside Ceschi help to round out the album on the hip hop side of things. Where the album gets really interesting, however, is that Factor is pushing himself further into this shoe gaze/indie rock-meets downtempo space, and in doing so he collaborates with Alex Bent + the Emptiness and Dex Riley, who shape the album in this entirely different way. The key to making this project work is Factor Chandelier himself, who uses his instrumental tracks to bridge the musical divide between these guest artists and the make all the music have a real conversational flow from start to finish. Because Factor has been at this a long time, he’s able to make this whole project sound effortless, but the truth is that this is not an easy feat to pull off. He took the time to be really thoughtful not just with individual compositions, but in crafting a sound that pushes and blends genres in really unique ways, all while sounding really accessible and pop friendly. It’s quite the achievement.

Factor Chandelier is so talented and experienced, he can make big musical statements like he does on Moving Like a Planet and make it feel completely natural and expected. Don’t take it for granted, though. He’s been able to maintain his career for this long because he always puts in the work to find the artists for the right songs, and finding the right music to fit the right project.