Kaidi Tatham is a producer/deejay/multi-instrumentalist from Belfast. He’s been releasing music since the ‘90s, first making his mark on the broken beat scene as part of the group Bugz in the Attic. He’s been doing the solo thing for a minute now, and he’s really hit a stride later in his career after signing with First Word Records. We last heard from him just about a year ago, when he dropped his album, Don’t Rush the Process. Now he’s right back with another full-length album, The Only Way.

The great thing about Kaidi Tatham is that not only is he a fantastic musician, he keeps pushing himself to try different things. This is apparent from the opening track, “Reason We’re Here,” which begins the album with an unexpected instrumental ballad. From there, we get some broken beat, yes, but we also get some hip hop, jazz, funk, and this time through, some Brazilian influence as well. What’s especially great about this and all Tatham projects, is the way that he’s able to blend all of these different influences together and sequence the album so well that he creates this seamless flow from start to finish. It’s the type of album that you need to listen to all the way through in one sitting, because the music is just that intentional in the way it all comes together as one artistic statement. While Tatham is doing most of the heavy lifting on this album, he does bring in a few friends to spice things up, including Lukey Dukey, Uhmeer, Trian Kayhatu, and Matt Lord. Each artist brings their own unique flavor to the album and Tatham puts them all in position to succeed. In particular, Uhmeer has great chemistry with Tatham as he steps to the mic to record their third track together, this time on the title track, where he drops some rhymes that pay tribute to hip hop in its fiftieth year.

The Only Way is both expected and unexpected from Kaidi Tatham. He’s been working for so long at such a consistently high level, it’s easy to take projects like this for granted. Then, as you listen to this album, you realize just how much he continues to push himself and expand his horizons, but never loses a sense of who he is as a musician.