Saskatoon producer Factor Chandelier has been making music for over two decades now, collaborating along the way with artists like Ceschi, Myka 9, AWOL One, Def3, and Kay the Aquanaut, just to name a few. He’s released concept albums, compilation albums, and instrumental music. He’s released some bangers, and he’s released some experimental projects as well. In taking stock of all this, Factor realized that it was going to be the twentieth anniversary of his first solo album, Time Invested. With that in mind, Factor went about creating a new album that could be in direct conversation with his younger self, Time Invested II.

The original Time Invested was a vocal compilation album, comprising of guest spots from fellow Canadian artists like Kay the Aquanaut, but also featured some spots from Living Legends Eligh, Luckyiam.PSC, and Sunspot Jonz. Mostly, though, it was just an album about dope beats and dope rhymes from a bunch of different artists who rock different styles. As Factor went into Time Invested II, twenty years of producing tracks and albums and touring have given him access to an even deeper bench. That means on this album we get appearances from Myka 9, Eligh, Open Mike Eagle, Moka Only, Sunspot Jonz, Paranoid Castle, Common Grackle, AWOL One, Ceschi, Kay the Aquanaut, Taylor Jade, Def3, Dope Knife, and Evil Ebenezer. Ultimately, Time Invested II is still just a commitment to making dope beats and having a bunch of friends who happen to be dope emcees rhyme over them, but a few things set this album apart. One is that over the years, one of Factor’s strengths has become just how well he can shift his production style to fit the artists he is working with, finding just the right balance between giving them something in their sweet spot and pushing them outside of their comfort zone. Another thing is that after working with a lot of these artists multiple times over many years, a lot of them are really comfortable with the working process with Factor and they aren’t afraid to take some risks with him. That means that yes, you do get some bangers with some trash talking, such as “Tiger Fight (Sunloa)” with Sunspot Jonz or “Moonwalk” with Dope Knife that will have you turning the volume up while you make stank face. However, you also get some experimental tracks like the deeply weird and oddly charming “Garbage Island,” with Common Grackle, Awol One, and Ceschi (Reuniting the power quartet from Factoria’s “Noise Band” – the heads know), or the beautiful “Sleight of Hand,” featuring the soaring and vocals of Taylor Jade, taking us back to the shoe gaze of early 4AD releases. This is all to say that even when Factor goes “back to basics,” his album ends up anything but “basic.”

Time Invested II is a great check-in for twenty years of releasing albums from Factor Chandelier. He has fun with his friends and fellow artists and gets to celebrate and make some dope hip hop, but he also still manages to find room to push the envelope and give us some really experimental and genre-bending tracks as well.