ill-sugi is a producer from Japan who has been releasing music for over a decade now. In that time, he’s collaborated with the likes of Fitz Ambro$e, Dregs One, Bugseed, and Brycon, just to name a few. His most recent release came back in February, when he dropped WAV MECHANICAL. Now he’s back with a new project, Brown Eye Chart.

If you’ve ever wondered how ill-sugi became this internationally known, sought-out producer, Brown Eye Chart is a great place to start. That’s because on paper, this isn’t much more than an instrumental collection of down tempo beats. Once you start to listen to it, however, you quickly realize how clever and sophisticated ill-sugi’s production is. It’s not about doing anything wildly different - it’s about finding all these inspired ways to make this subgenre the best it could possibly be. This means getting really creative with the samples and the way they are being flipped and manipulated, and it also means switching your rhythmic patterns up so you don’t fall asleep listening to the same groove over and over. ill-sugi is also adept at really developing each track, finding all sorts of interesting directions to take each initial groove and melodic line that he lays down. It all sounds simple enough, but when it’s done this well, all of a sudden what could have been a really predictable and mid release becomes really engaging, and you can keep coming back to and appreciating all of the soulful and intelligent instrumental hip hop that ill-sugi has crafted.

Brown Eye Chart is yet another sophisticated instrumental release from ill-sugi. He keeps putting in the work to find all of these smart ways to reinvent what downtempo music can sound like, and this is no exception.