Pattern of Excel [Vinyl]

What moves faster than the internet? OK, maybe light. But besides that, it’s hard to find something more fleeting, rapidly changing and dynamic as the voice of the online community, which ultimately shapes the contemporary creative landscape both on and off the screen. As it happens, sometimes the artists who are most celebrated by the collective interweb are the same ones who later are in the throes of its fickleness. In the case of Lee Bannon, he’s managed to slip into the elite of so many disparate (yet all discerning) scenes that even the speediest of hype surfers can’t seem to keep up with his sonic shapeshifting.

After an initial rise in the world of hip-hop (self-releasing beat tapes, collaborating with rap royalty like Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics and producing and DJing for Joey Bada$$ and the Pro Era crew), Lee Bannon turned his attention to a more ambitious, unconventional and decidedly anti-fad cause: taking influence from Goldie, Aphex Twin and the legacy of drum & bass and jungle to craft his debut LP Alternate/Endings. The album, released in January 2014 on Ninja Tune, was percussively dense, somehow both raw and razor-sharp, and featured enough peaks and plummets to blow the snapback right off the expectant hip-hop head’s skull. Despite (or perhaps because of) the bold shift from previous work, the album was released to critical acclaim with words of praise coming from Rolling Stone, Resident Advisor, FACT, Pitchfork, The Guardian and more.

Never one to stagnate, Lee Bannon has spent the subsequent months further honing his skills as a hotly-tipped collaborator (working more with Joey Bada$$, Wiki and producing Mick Jenkins’ newest single, as well as more credits to come later this year), touring extensively (including a run with Trash Talk and Ratking in North America) and turning his attention once more to the studio for solo work. His sophomore LP on Ninja Tune, Pattern of Excel, again signals a movement away from the ground he’s alre