THE DIAL (ANTIQUE VINYL)

Your Grandparents are fascinated with time. It can neither
be created nor killed; there's never enough of it, but it can
stretch on forever. Time is a form of currency that can be
saved, spent, and gambled away. In the end, it makes
fools of us all. On their drink sum wtr debut, The Dial, the
Los Angeles trio - producer Cole Thompson and
vocalists DaCosta and Jean Carter - deeply consider
these disparate ideas. The record works as a meditation
on time, but posits that in order to truly grasp the concept
and all of its ambient qualities, one must remain rooted in
the present. The group, who met in middle school in
Culver City and are now in their mid-late 20s, has been
making music for a decade, patiently watching the pieces
of their career fall into place. They seemed to snatch their
genre-agnostic but hip-hop-rooted songs from the
cosmos, seizing on a moment of inspiration - a loop
here, a turn of phrase there - and proceeding in a stream
of consciousness. The Dial took shape more slowly, with
what DaCosta calls "focused intentionality." Your
Grandparents chipped away at the material, careful not to
rush any one element into place. The result is stunning: a
kaleidoscopic trip through heartaches and joys, moments
of frustration and hope. Their vocals effortlessly switch
between elastic band rap flows and golden-hued melodies
as the production reaches through time, gathering up
influences - from house-meets-G-funk slink to Dilla-time
boogie to ESG-informed dance-punk - all meshed
together into a singular whole.