Harvey Lindo

The name Harvey Lindo is a hip-hop moniker for producer Dominic Jacobson, who’s back from a significant label-induced absence after recording broken beat and future soul under the name Modaji. There are a few tracks that sport that same ambience here, but for all intents and purposes this is a record strongly focused on the boom-bap. Helping Jacobson in his cause are some respected underground MCs such as Count Bass D, Lacks and Maspyke. The tracks featuring the latter are clearly the strongest here and continue to beg the question why the Maspyke trio are so underrated. Jacobson’s airy jazz funk beats push the MCs out of their usual comfort level of rhyming over menacing low-end beats and finds them delivering fine narratives ("This Lonely Girl”) and hip-hop laments ("A Slow Decay”) with precision and style. In between, Jacobson slips in a few jazzy instrumentals and vocal tracks with vocalist Philippa Alexander, the best of which is the soulful "Lifeforce.” While the album is a mishmash of styles, progressive would be one of the best ways to encapsulate Jacobson’s approach and his work on Kid Gloves certainly makes you want to wait a lot less to hear new music from the man.