Sentient – DeepShakez (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Proving that pop music, to use a very broad term, can be every bit as progressive, cross-genre, and exploratory as anything you might find in more rock-related realms, DeepShakez‘s latest album, Sentient, gathers sonic strands from across the musical landscape and weaves them into a wonderfully fresh sound.

Neo-soul, chilled dance grooves, eclectic club beats, rap salvos, soulful vocals, and much more are blended to define the album.

For every soul-infused trip-hop seduction, such as opener “Lost Here,” you find a high-octane dancefloor filler, such as “Tempting Addiction.” And for every track that feels like a new take on rap, as with the futuristic cyber-hop narratives of “Distant Experiment,” you can find a more traditional take on the genre, such as “Evil in Us.”

But perhaps what is most forward-thinking, literally, about Sentient are the discussions that it opens with the listener. Rather than the usual rap self-aggrandizement and talk of the “game,” here we have tracks that either directly or sometimes in a slightly more vague way, discuss the human condition and what the future might hold for us all.

This album cuts through the demarcations of music genres and redefines what some of those genres can be about as music continues to evolve. Progressive indeed.