Maker

It seems that all up-and-coming hip-hop producers tend to come out with a minimal, down-tempo breaks record before they really start making waves. Chicago’s Maker has been providing beats for lyricists for the past few years, but it was time for this very talented cat to take centre stage and drop something he can call his very own. Shooting the Breeze is nothing short of beautiful, with so many moments of warmth that may draw comparisons to Bonobo and Blockhead thanks to Maker’s desire to sample from live instruments such as guitars, various keys and proper drum breaks. There’s a definite romantic aspect to Shooting the Breeze as Maker simply creates a straight-up jazz number in "Love Tomorrow” — a delicate slow jam that doesn’t manage to lose its fragile state when paired with a soft yet funky drum loop. "Broken Promises” will likely make you take notice with its use of a female chorus that is sampled nicely alongside a hip-hop break, making for a nice human touch to an otherwise all-instrumental recording. The same can be said for "La Saluda,” which also takes a vocal snippet, this time of a non-English chant, and is stretched evenly to flow over Maker’s drums. "Train Til’ Nowhere” may be the finest moment on this debut for its use of a Chemical Brothers’ siren over a lazy piano backing, but trying to pick one track over another is a pointless task, as weak spots are few and far between. Shooting the Breeze might suffer a little for lack of diversity within numbers with most joints using similar drums and overall arrangements but Maker will surely expand in the years to come, and then there’s absolutely no reason why this dude shouldn’t be as large as RJD2.