L.A.’s legendary Diplo has found the pandemic shutdown as oppressive as anyone. Perpetually productive in normal times, the producer behind Major Lazer and many other crazy club sounds offers only his new album MMXX for 2020 – and it’s more than enough to grateful for, as uncharacteristic as it is.
“It’s all I had inside me,” he says. “I didn’t want to have Zoom sessions, I didn’t want to write pop songs. I was just stuck in my house with keyboards and a guitar I barely ever used. I would walk outside in Los Angeles and see empty streets and see nervous people and this is what I heard…”
What we hear is a patient, nourishing immersion into emotive ambient, an extended expression of hope and a need to heal. Give it a listen, and enjoy the luxuriant visuals.
