Houston producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist & one of the greatest audio engineers of all-time Mike Dean continuing to further establish himself as an artist by releasing his 5th full-length studio album. Pioneering the dirty south sound in the 90s as an in-house producer for Rap-A-Lot Records, one may also know him for engineering nearly all of Kanye West’s output up until his 2022 antisemitic meltdown. 4:20 was a 90 minute exploration into progressive electronic & the nearly 2 hour sequel 4:22 continued towards that trajectory. Smoke State 42222 went for more of a straight-forward electronic sound with additional elements of space ambient & even Mike’s last LP 4:23 went head-on synthwave, landing a spot on my Honorable Mentions of 2023 list as a result of being more well-put together than his last couple solo efforts. Considering that, I went into 4:24expecting it to reach the bar its predecessor had set.
“Subdivision of Time” begins by incorporating these synthesizers that only get grander & grander in the span of a little over 3 minutes whereae “3 AM” goes into space ambient territory starting off reminding me of the scene in one of my top 5 shows of all-time Rick & Morty where Rick’s traveling universe-to-universe searching for Rick Prime, but feels like an out-of-body experience during the 2nd half. “It’s in the Water” gives off a straight up progressive electronic vibe that I can imagine hearing in a sci-fi movie trailer just before “Don’t Fast Forward Life” incorporates some jazz influences towards the end that I love.
Concluding the first half of the album, “Distorted Time” brings the synthwave influences back into full effect leading into “Space Brains” admirably venturing out into electronic rock a bit. “Black Holes Echoing” returns to the large, throbbing synthesizers & upbeat percussion that retro electro is known for that is until “Swimming Pools & Movie Stars” presents these cinematic synths for a minute & a half. “Fast Forward Life in Rewind” pushes near the end of 4:24 by going space ambient again for 6 minutes, but then “I Like” closes the LP shooting for a ghostly atmosphere.
Everything that made 4:23 more enjoyable than Mike’s first couple albums manages to make their way onto this new one here & I find it to be as tightly crafted as the predecessor over a year ago already. He puts a bigger emphasis on the progressive electronic style predominantly throughout his solo catalog once more in the midst of maintaining the synthwave & space ambient elements although in a lesser capacity.
Score: 4/5
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