Ras G

Taking its title from an underground film classic from the 1980s, Ras G's Brotha from Anotha Planet captures a similar sense of the urban surreal, with warped samples shooting up through jumbled beats like a vacant-lot ficus. Ranging from ambient sketches to more fully focused grooves, every cut feels like a wooden puzzle with interlocking pieces snapping back and forth. Ras G's shambling sense of direction has much in common with Flying Lotus (whose Brainfeeder imprint released the record), but G's psychedelia maps to a world that's clearly of his own making, and well worth a visit.