(Instrumental Hip-Hop/Electronic/Experimental/Wonky) GOD.DAMN.CHAN - Slush - 2018, MP3, 320 kbps

Drenched in a sonic viscosity that infuses every beat with its own personality, Slush is the new album by GOD.DAMN.CHAN on Alpha Pup Records. It’s a surrealist playland of unexpected twists where beats slide sideways, fuzz up, float away, and clump together deliciously on top of sticky-sweet basslines.
“It’s kind of a coming-of-age record,” explains GOD.DAMN.CHAN, aka Channing Day. “It represents a change.” Day’s recent adventures have been fueled by change. In November 2017, he packed up and moved to California, driving to Los Angeles from his hometown of Portland, Maine with his girlfriend and his dog. Day’s new album Slush references the frozen home he left behind. “I moved from a place that’s really cold to a place that’s never cold. Calling it Slush is tongue-in-cheek a little bit, especially because I got out of Maine right before the winter.”
A longtime fan of Daddy Kev, the new transplant became connected with the LA beat community about a year and a half ago after submitting his music for a Low End Theory Beat Invitational. He was contacted shortly afterward by DJ Nobody, and later played the club night in May 2016.
Mixed and engineered by Day in Portland before he left, Slush represents the culmination of a year’s work. “I stuck to my guns more on this release, and also tried elaborate on everything more than I would have. All the stuff that’s on the album is pretty personal to me.”
An inherent diversity augments the album’s appeal, as it flips and glides between cool whimsy and spiked delight, lullabies and rocket blasts, droopy beats and psychedelic jams. “Syrup Bath” opens the LP with a Dali-esque brightness and chipped-out contortions. Title track “Slush” stretches open and pours out, pulling you in with nimble design and an easy, breathing bassline. Beats fly effortlessly through “Melt,” a light and dreamy dance that grabs your shoulders and shakes.
“To My Friends (feat. Fadeaway J)” is warm and sentimental, with a solid sound that stays connected through the track’s central switch-up. “Groovybby” shines with warmth and jazzy saxes, bristling with just enough off-kilter beats to give its round bounce an edge. “Smoke Break” slides right off the couch. “Deuces” capsizes into explosions from a starlight melody; its elastic nature is a fitting finale for the multifaceted release.