Three years ago, a young producer from Berkley named Mr. Hong gave us his debut EP, Colors. It hinted at some great promise, but he fell relatively silent as he finished his college degree. Fortunately, he remerged last year with one EP, long days.short years, that reflected on those college years, and then followed that up with another EP, Three Days Off, which reflected his life as he entered the workforce. Now he comes back with another EP, One Year Later, which reflects specific points over the past year of his life.

One of the most exciting things is being able to get in on the ground floor with an artist and being able to watch them grow and fulfill their potential. I was certainly intrigued by Mr. Hong’s first EP, but I come across a lot of instrumental EPs that are decent and hint at some potential, but most of them either never follow up the release, or even worse, stay content with where they are and never do anything different or get any better. With One Year Later, the first thing I thought was, “Wow! This is fucking gorgeous.” The second thing I thought was, “Wow – Hong has grown so much since his first EP. He’s really come into his own.” The EP is divided into five tracks, with each one meant to represent either a specific occasion, such as his graduation, or dominant theme, such as fear or hope that filled a particular date. How these translates in musical terms is that Hong approaches each composition with a great amount of care and uses live jazz guitar and piano combined with hip hop production. Now, the way that Hong has composed these tracks could have easily veered off into some sort of Starbucks easy listening territory, but what saves this EP is the tenderness and care put into the melody with guitar and piano, and just how much focus Hong put on the composition itself. This isn’t your basic groove sampling, plug in a downtempo beat music, this are well developed songs that grow and develop and take you on an emotional journey. On top of the great instrumental work, Hong also does some really clever work in referencing a couple of well-known songs without sampling them, and then uses them as jumping off points as he turns melody and chord structure into his own thing. It’s a subtle and beautiful EP that really takes you through some ups and downs before all is said and done.

One Year Later is far and away Mr. Hong’s best work yet, and really marks a moment where he took the next big step and a composer and producer. The amount of care, and the attention to detail, is top notch, and the tenderness with which he treats his instruments all comes together to produce some of the most beautiful music I’ve heard this year.