Album of the Week: KAYTRAMINÉ - KAYTRAMINÉ | 2023 Week 20

KAYTRAMINÉ seems like it was an inevitably. The collab & portmanteau of beloved producer & MC’s respectively Kaytranada & Aminé may have only debuted their first single last month, but they’ve been working together in one way or another for nearly a decade now. We got our first taste of this potential dream pairing back in 2014 Aminé flipped Kaytra’s At All into Not At All, while a year later on Aminé’s 2015 mixtape Calling Brio, Kaytra contributed a few beats.

Now the time is right for these two acclaimed artists in their own rights to drop their debut, self-titled album that sees the pair’s styles and sounds perfectly compliment each other rather than competing, which is also a testament to their individual diversity and versatility. Across 11 cuts, Kaytra delivers everything from broken beat to tropical house and dark trap to jazzy boom bap. Meanwhile, Aminé matches his lyrical flow and energy accordingly, with rapid fire rhymes sitting comfortably alongside r&b-style crooning.

While there’s no doubt the pair could have pulled off a dope debut full-length alone, the record features some very high profile features, all of which more than deliver. Freddie Gibbs, Pharrell Williams, Big Sean, Amaarae and Snoop Dogg all jump on a track each, resulting in a nice almost 50/50 split between features and KAYTRAMINÉ doing their thing own their own.

What’s sure to be one of the funnest danceable hip hop records of the year, we can only hope for a KAYTRAMINÉ world tour to be announced soon… and hopefully a dope follow-up album in future.

The best of the rest of this week's records:

Alex Lahey - The Answer Is Always Yes [Liberation Records] AUS

Indie / Rock

Bad//Dreems - HOO HA! [Farmer & The Owl] AUS

Alt / Rock

Great Gable - Read The Room [Rainbow Valley Records] AUS

Indie / Rock

Hannah Jadagu - Aperture [Sub Pop] USA

Alt / Rock

Mandy, Indiana - i've seen a way [Fire Talk] ENG

Alt / Experimental

Sufjan Stevens - Reflections [Asthmatic Kitty Records] USA

Alt / Folk

Temps - PARTY GATOR PURGATORY [Asthmatic Kitty Records] ENG

Alt / Hip Hop

The Murlocs - Calm Ya Farm [Uncle Murl] AUS

Garage Rock

Tinariwen - Amatssou [Wedge] ALG/MAL

Rock