Tony Njoku – H.P.A.C.
H.P.A.C. takes some time to get into its stride with many of its best tracks are tucked away at the end, but as it concludes it's difficult not to dive back in
Two years ago, Tony Njoku released In Greyscale, a collection that flirted with jazz and psychedelia within its winding electronic production. Now he’s back with H.P.A.C. which, at its core, charts the journey of a young man with a troubled past in pursuit of something more enlightened and redemptive.
It’s also a record that takes the elements that Njoku developed on In Greyscale and both builds on and distils them into an often absorbing and thought-provoking assemblage, from the urgent warped beats and eerie melodies that surround Njoku on opener To Enter the Light. He is at his most powerfully emotional on the likes of Remain Calm, in which the undulating rhythms and melodies reflect the shifting and unpredictable nature of trauma, and the twinkling yet orchestral Through This Darkness.
H.P.A.C. does take some time to get into its stride though. Many of its best tracks – including the strident, R'n'B-tinged As We Danced and the hip-hop-infused Surely This Is As Good As It Gets (which also includes a dramatic, almost completely out of nowhere climax) – are tucked away at the back end of the record. Across 12 tracks though, he crafts a kind of spiritual sanctuary and as closer On Lorca’s Balcony feeds directly back into To Enter the Light, it’s difficult not to dive back into Njoku’s sonic architecture.
Listen to: Surely This Is As Good As It Gets, As We Danced