Brycon is a producer from the Bay Area who has been releasing music for over a decade. In that time, he has collaborated with a lot of other artists, usually also from the Bay, such as Equipto, Professa Gabel, or Dregs One, just to name a few. However, two years ago, Brycon extended that reach across the Pacific to work with Japanese producer iLL Sugi on a project called Music For Indoor Cats. Now the two have come back together to create a new album, Devastating! Forces of Nature!

Sometimes album titles can be very literal, other times they can leave you scratching your head. With Brycon and iLL Sugi, Music For Indoor Cats was a very appropriate name for an album, what with all the gentle instrumental hip hop that you could easily imagine scoring the day in the life of an indoor cat, also coming out at a time when must of us were stuck inside. With Devastating! Forces of Nature! You might be expecting something hard hitting, perhaps on the darker side of things based on the title, but instead what we’re really getting is much more in line with what you’d expect from a second volume of Music For Indoor Cats. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Title aside, this is another album full of beautiful and creative downtempo instrumental hip hop, the kind filled with all sorts of creative and subtle musicality. Brycon starts with the first half of the album before handing over the keys to iLL Sugi, who then takes us all the way to the end. Both sections are really warm and gentle in their approach, and the difference between the two producers isn’t so obvious that the changeover is jarring. Instead, if you’re not paying close attention to the tracklisting as you’re listening along, it might take a track or two to pick up on the little variances in rhythm and sample choices to realize that you’ve made it to the second half. Any way you slice it, though, you’ve got some really wonderful and soulful beats from two producers who are putting their music in conversation with each other in a really interesting way.

Devastating! Forces of Nature! is an excellent addition to the ongoing collaboration between Brycon and iLL Sugi. It’s full of creative and gorgeous instrumental hip hop that is just really easy to get lost as the music swirls around in your head.