After releasing an EP last year with Lowriders Collective, the talent of this Dutch producer was apparent. His unique blend of hip hop, dubstep, and skwee (a new subgenre of electronic music emerging in Europe) quickly allowed him to establish himself as an individual artist. The only question left was whether or not he was up to the challenge of producing a full-length album. With Boesoek, it is apparent that Bryce is more than up to it.

Listening to this album, it shows that Bryce fully grasps the difficulty of making a successful full-length instrumental record. Not only are there individual songs with interesting rhythms, well-developed melodies, and colorful textures, but the way they are sequenced makes the album really come together. From beginning to end, we’re taken on a captivating emotional journey that’s constantly rewarding.

The opening track, “Drift,” creates tension with swirling 8-bit samples that recalls Flying Lotus, but Bryce takes it in a different direction as he arranges the samples over a downtempo beat and a subtle synthesizer bass line. From there we transition into the title track, which features a disjointed Prefuse 73-esque drum shuffle that falls into a nice groove and has a great melody line that gets traded off on different synthesizer sounds. “Dub Rap,” featuring DJ Mace has Bryce toying with a simple melody while allowing for plenty of space to breath while the dub groove is laid down. I imagine “It’s a Skwee Thang” will become an entryway into the emerging genre for many listeners who will learn to love the layers of synth built over a simple electro-boogie beat. “Wobble Trouble” is the most danceable song on the album, and one that I keep finding myself turning up the volume to every time it comes on. From there, the dance party keeps going, as I usually turn up the volume once again when I get to “Corrado,” featuring Kelpe, which has a great electro-boogie funk to it that seems to be channeling the Gap Band or even some Off the Wall-era Michael, while throwing in some more current house music as well.

I don’t want to overstate anything and regret it later, but this is about as solid a debut album you’ll come across from an instrumental producer. It’s interesting, varied, and fun, and I feel like I get something new out of it with each listen. Time will tell how well it holds up, but it is definitely one of the strongest instrumental albums out right now.