Hugo Kant is a producer from Marseilles, France who has been releasing music since 2011. His most recent album came three years ago, when he released the excellent Out of Time. Now he returns with one of the most interesting projects of his career in The Seven Seas.

The Seven Seas is an EP that is being released as part of a series called The Outlaw Ocean, in which hundreds of musicians were invited to create music inspired by Ian Urbina’s book of the same name. So far, other participants include everyone from Why? to Shrimpnose, but new albums are being released every other month. For Kant’s entry, we get a masterclass in how to make a politically charged instrumental hip hop project. His music was always a little cinematic anyway, but it’s especially welcome on a release like this, where Kant is essentially scoring the film adaptation of this book in his head. He brings in strong doses of classical and jazz in his compositions, creating these lush soundscapes that sound urgent over his hip hop and progressive electronic beats. What sets this project over the top is the ways in which Kant is able to bring in vocal clips from Urbina’s reporting. It’s an obvious choice, but the challenge comes in deciding what clips to use, how long of a clip to use, and how to pair it with the music that makes sense. This is where Kant shines, as he moves from track to track, giving you just enough information to understand that issues like smuggling, human trafficking and climate change are serious and affected by the lack of laws on the open seas, with the music serving as a boost to help you connect the emotion to the information being presented.

The Seven Seas is an incredibly interesting project, and it does an excellent job in presenting another musical project from a talented producer in Hugo Kant while also giving you enough information about the larger Outlaw Ocean project to get you interested to learn more.