Handbook is a producer from York, UK who has been releasing music for over a decade now. He made a breakthrough in 2012 when he made his debut on Cascade with the album Handprints. Most recently, we heard from him in 2020 when he teamed up with Ian Urbina’s Synthesia Media to release the EP Blurred Horizons. Now he’s back with Cascade Records to release his new full-length album, Neighbourhood.

The music for Neighbourhood was inspired by Handbook’s impending move from one house to another about a year or so ago. It wasn’t necessarily the biggest move, but as someone who really likes to feel his sense of place and be comfortable in his surroundings, Handbook began to ruminate on what makes a place feel like home, and what makes a neighborhood feel like a community. How this translates musically is that we get a lot of really thoughtful and soulful midtempo and downtempo hip hop across the album. Handbook has a knack for finding these really great introspective jazzy and funky riffs, the kind that just immediately fill up your headphones and get your head bobbing. While not constrained to it, the majority of the album is built around drums, bass, and Rhodes, giving the album a bit of a jazz combo feel mixed in with some killer hip hop vibes. Over the course of the album, we get a few guest appearances, from Supreme Sol, Hunam, Rich Garvey, and LK de L’Hôtel Moscou. Everyone contributes nicely with their own flavor, but it’s Minneapolis emcee Rich Garvey who really steals the show by saying a lot with a little. He delivers a big and memorable hook, and then goes in with some really clear and deliberately paced lines that are packed with heartfelt and heartbreaking lyrics that will stick with you long after the album is over.

Neighbourhood is a great return for Handbook. He is a contemplative producer and songwriter, delivering some really heartfelt hip hop that reflects his feelings about building a home and a community around that home. So put this album on your headphones and walk around your neighborhood and get lost in your own thoughts as you consider everything about where you live.