edbl’s ‘2010 Mixtape’ is a jazzy, feature-fueled mosaic of the UK’s vibrant hip-hop and neo-soul scenes
Evan Dale // Sep 15, 2024
There’s something to be said for the analogue. In a modern music scene more sonically varied than at any time in human history, so much of that breadth is owed to our moment’s technology. Anyone with access to so little as a smartphone, let alone a laptop, can produce music – good music, at that – if they have the ear, the practice, the creativity. But, as if the textural nuance of good, old-fashioned instrumentationisisn’t already challenging to learn, it’s incredibly difficult – if not impossible – to replicate its sonic depth. The human ear can register that crackling imperfection of vinyl, that somehow makes it feel fuller than digital replications. Naturally, we also know an analogue instrument, and that there’s a human being behind it, when we hear one; just like we know the cleaner and more hollow sound of one birthed on a laptop. Brass, strings, chords, and keys carry a certain, flawed warmth, even when played by a master of their craft.
There’s something to be said for teamwork. Just as is the case with the wide range of sounds that someone can produce from only that which is held in one hand, that same someone need not for any helping hand but their own. It’s not to say one mind can’t create great music, and it’s not to say that the more the merrier is a relative catch-all in creation. But two aptly attuned ears working together to create something new expands their musical horizons with multiplicity more than one of them acting solo.
Enter edbl, the UK producer nearly always working with others, and almost exclusively working with analogue instruments (save for his drum kits), to create a unique and ubiquitous addition to the feature-laden beatscape of post-genre, collaborative production. Enter 2010 Mixtape, and feel all that such collaboration and instrumentation has to offer, especially when projected through the vibrant talent of the UK Neo-Soul, hip-hop, and R&B scenes, and beyond.
Outside of its self-titled intro, 2010 Mixtape– through its subsequent dozen tracks – is never sans at least one featuring vocalist, lyricist, or instrumentalist. And though the dizzying patchwork of guest artists undoubtedly creates an expanse of sounds that alone may challenge a listener’s sense of sonic equilibrium, that balancing act in turn becomes edbl’s focus.
Unendingly low-key, his is a compositional signature that bleeds of a timelessness burrowing simultaneously into the artist’s roots as a studio musician, and into the UK’s lineage as a hub for sequencing jazz, soul, and hip-hop textures into modernity without losing their grip on the past. Soloist exhibitions – like the key run that leads Never Stops into its closing bout – abound from the beginning of 2010 Mixtape through its 38-minute run-time. And though the instrumental variance itself expands the project’s sonic reaches, they’re held steady by edbl’s guiding hand, leading instead the featuring artists on any given track to push and pull at its stylistic direction without breaking from an established direction for the project as a whole. 2010 Mixtape emerges a dynamic yet cohesive project, seamlessly tethering so many sonic extrapolations into one unique sound.
And in that way, edbl plays parallel to a select collection of other modern producers, instrumentalists, and bands, that too, find themselves the central force of stylistically wide-ranging, feature-laden projects. He’s Kaytranada-esque in his compositional knack to curate a signature sound amongst the influence of so many guest artists. 2010 Mixtape - by way of London- feels reminiscent to any number of collections from LA prodcuer’s NappyHIGH in its contextual whole to encapsulate a geographic sound, albeit the jazz-oriented mellow hip-hop of the UK instead of timeless West Coast synths of NappyHIGH. His ability to allow featuring artists to sway the aesthetic of the project from track to track, while still holding steady its overarching heading is akin to the Free Nationals and how they bend without breaking to the wide range of their guests and friends. No matter the energetic direction that 2010 Mixtape takes, it flows.
There are upbeat heaters, like All Me, where a smattering of melodically entrenched bars from UK rapper and vocalist, Superlative likewise guide the instrumental direction of the song. edbl dots the cut with electric guitar riffs that build on Superlative’s addicting hook. And then, with a quick change of pace to the next track, Get It Right, edbl reads and builds on his next guest artist’s more quickfire lyricism. Rooted in a more old-school nuance, Lazy Eyez weaves his way through a mellow bout of instrumentation that recalls roots of hip-hop’s early days in the UK, stretched out to meet a modern sound. On and on, 2010 Mixtape rolls forward, enveloping listeners in the instrumental cool of edbl, ebbing and flowing with the mosaic of his talented friends for one of the most dynamic exhibitions of the UK’s hip-hop, jazz, and neo-soul scenes tethered as one.