On Borderline, the second track on Alfa Mist’s fifth album, the multi-instrumentalist and MC succinctly decries the unfair assumptions, oppressive limitations and relentless hardship faced by Black British youth. “Everyday trauma, normalised – three options: music, sport or crime,” he raps in his understated, deadpan flow over an ambling beat and soporifically twinkly synths that bely his lyrical scorn.
After shelving ambitions to be a footballer, the east Londoner born Alfa Sekitoleko embraced the first option – yet his music is a world away from the cold, abrasive grime and drill stereotypically associated with such an escape from poverty in the capital. Instead, Variables is a collection of warm, subtle and often delicately beautiful jazz and hip-hop. It’s also largely instrumental: Mist’s vocals only appear on two songs – Borderline and the trippy, cello-adorned 4th Feb (Stay Awake). Elsewhere, Kaya Thomas-Dyke brings honeyed tones to the densely textured R&B of Aged Eyes, while South African folk singer Bongeziwe Mabandla leads the exquisite Apho.
It’s a shame we don’t hear more of Mist’s MCing: his lyrics are evocative, funny and cleverly laconic. Yet by making his presence felt elsewhere – on drums, piano and production duties – he avoids being pigeonholed, establishing himself as a genre-transcending talent. That said, jazz – which the musician discovered as a young rap fan by studying samples used by Black Star, Madlib and J Dilla – is a constant: fairly traditional and brassy on opener Foreword, cosmic and grungy on the title track, and accompanied by bright, chiming post-punk guitar and a comically grunting bassline on the squealing closer BC. It all hits just the right note between accessible and experimental: idiosyncratic and intricate yet straightforwardly enjoyable, Variables is unwavering in its brilliance.
