Minneapolis is well known for cultivating a strong independent hip hop scene, but as with most cities, instrumental producers have a harder time getting noticed than emcees and groups. Well, if you haven’t been paying attention, you’d do well to start. There is a serious talent from the Twin Cities in Ackryte, and his best hasn’t even come yet.

Shades is a compilation of older material Ackryte has put together before he drops his debut album with HW&W later this year, so consider this your late pass. As it is, though, Shades plays really well on it’s own, so I have to give it up for the sequencing and mastering done on this record. One of the first things that will hit you is how sexy and romantic his music is, or as someone else listening to this record put it, “It sounds like Christmas lights making love.” However you slice it, these are well-built, laid back grooves that can’t be denied. There is a warmth that comes with the tracks, as Ackryte brings in elements of jazz and R&B, with smooth bass lines that sneak up on you while instruments like sax, guitar and Fender Rhodes provide many of the melodic lines. Nothing plays out too long, but you never quite realize how short the songs are that short until you reach the end of the album, when you find yourself asking “Why did the music stop?”

Shades is a great introduction to an artist that more listeners need to know about. It’s some wonderful instrumental hip hop, and if ever there was an album for the after hours, it’s this one. I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for us.