Prefuse 73 has had a long and varied career, making his mark as an instrumental artist in the early ‘00s with releases like Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives and One Word Extinguisher. There’s also been tons of collaborations and side projects like Savath and Savalas, Piano Overlord, Diamond Watch Wrist, and his latest, Fudge, which featured Boston emcee Michael Christmas, which came out two years ago. Now it’s time for Prefuse to get back to basics and release this, Sacrifices, his first solo album in three years.

When Prefuse 73 was establishing himself in the early 2000s, it was with this dense, glitchy style of music with these really interesting off-kilter drum beats. It was his bread and butter, but it was also a style that countless producers tried to emulate. As we fast forward to his most recent release, and we find Prefuse stripping things down and giving us an album that is more spacious and minimalist than we’ve seen in previous solo albums. It’s not like Prefuse is going to give you a straight ahead downtempo album – Sacrifices still has a lot of his signature glitches and drum sounds – but he is giving you an album that is a bit more deliberate and meditative in its pacing. What’s especially interesting in the way this album is composed, is that if you isolated a lot of different elements on this album, they might sound weird, abrasive, or dissonant, but Prefuse is so careful and clever in his compositions, he is able to turn each of these odd elements into beautiful moments of imperfection that work well with some more obviously gentle bass or synth lines. On top of that, Prefuse does a really fantastic job of always keeping his compositions moving, even if they’re moving at a slower pace than normal. You’re never stuck in a loop, because Prefuse is always building and expanding, introducing different elements, or changing up the chord structure. It’s the difference between a downtempo album that lulls you into some gentle head nodding beats, but won’t really grab you, and an album that while peaceful, always keeps you on your toes and actively engaged with the music. It’s exactly what you want from a producer with as long and accomplished a resume as Prefuse has.

Sacrifices might sound like Prefuse might be pumping the brakes a little to slow down and look around for a minute and reflect on where he’s been and where he’s going, but he’s certainly not stuck in neutral. It’s a gorgeous album full of all sorts of twists and turns that manages to sound different than anything he’s done up to this point, while still sounding like a Prefuse 73 album.