Collection of Sounds Vol. 1

Anthony "Ant" Davis is a distinguished hip-hop producer, one-half of the renownedduo Atmosphere, and a founding member of independent record labelRhymesayers Entertainment. His decades-long career of beat-making has alsoincluded works for MF DOOM, Brother Ali, Murs, Rav, Sage Francis and a dozenothers. Raised in a military family, his nomadic upbringing exposed him to manydiverse influences and, coupled with his father's love for collecting records, laid thegroundwork for his deep appreciation for all sorts of music. Ant's latest endeavor,Collection of Sounds, is a four-volume series of instrumental works showcasing thebreadth and depth of his musical expertise.The Collection of Sounds series offers a window into Ant's creative journey, reflectinghis evolution as an artist over the years. Drawing from a vast vault of unreleasedmaterial, he's exhumed cross sections of his catalog with surgical precision,organizing songs by sound rather than mere chronology. Volume 1 is at times sointimate as to border on claustrophobia, like the creeping "Bar One," or the hauntedtwinkling of "I Was Always a Collector," while other tracks are expansive enough tofill entire venues, like the forebodinaly airy "A-Track Beyond Beat 1996."Many of the beats on Collection of Sounds: Volume 1 have pockets that arepractically begging for rappers to explore. When he first pondered releasing aninstrumental series, Ant figured he might want to make the songs more intricatethan the ones he gave to his rapper collaborators, filling up the space in the mixthat would normally be given over to their vocals. "But then it would be jazz, right?"he says with a loud laugh. "And I'm not that." Fitting, as Collection of Sounds is notabout forgetting who you are-it's about remembering, reconfiguring