Blessing In Disguise

Blessing in Disguise, the new album from the Guelph-bred producer Elaquent, merges the digital with the physical in a way that makes each seem new, and each seem very alive. It's technically innovative music that reminds you, at every turn, that it's been crafted by a living, breathing, upright human. It's beat music informed by the past with an eye toward the future. And as it's title implies, Blessing in Disguise also grapples with one of life's central questions: how do you recover from your lowest moments to not only move forward, but to become stronger? Blessing in Disguise was recorded largely during a trip to Jamaica-Elaquent's first true vacation since he was a child. At first, the process moved slowly; he was mired in a creative funk that had dogged him in his regular life up north. But before long, the slower, idyllic setting opened up and inspired him to make the freest, most innovative record of his career. From the slinking "Valhalla" to the playful "Airplane Mode," the jazz textures in "Moment of Weakness" to the inverted boom-bap of "Trapdoor," Blessing in Disguise is the culmination of years of trial and error, failure and improvisation. It's a testament to dedication and an indomitable will. And it cements Elaquent as one of his genre's most vital voices.