Vritra is a 32 year old rapper, producer & visual artist from Baton Rouge, Louisiana known for formerly being 1/2 of The Jet Age of Tomorrow, 1/3 of The Super D3Shay & a member of the influential Odd Future collective before focusing on his own crew that he’s the de facto leader of NKR. He’s also released 7 LPs, 19 EPs & 4 mixtapes as a solo artist with the best ones being Pyramid & the Stones Throw Records-backed Indra. Matt Martians put out his latest solo EP Matt’s Missing a month ago & that was the best thing he’s done by himself in a while, so Vritra releasing his 20th EP over the weekend had me wondering how it was going to hold up.

Things start off with a trip hop instrumental sequel to “Wool Glasses” off the Jet Age of Tomorrow’s only album God’s Poop or Clouds? whereas the self-produced “Walking” gives an experimentally glitchy approach continuing to venturing out of his department. “Tether Me” featuring Jay Cue brings these synths into the fold talkin’ about being down for the block like it’s Tetris prior to jazz/soul fusion “Silverado” stripping the drums advising to let it burn similarly to the way the doobie is.

After the “Non Fiction” interlude, “Proximity” by Wilma Vritra begins the 2nd half of the EP by bringing a psychedelic flare to the beat acknowledging that people around his vicinity are getting bold while “Grey Matter“ sonically feels like a breezy, summer day admitting he didn’t know how to approach the situation initially. “Insomnia” draws inspiration from industrial music addressing a woman he goes insane thinking of & lastly, “Running” featuring Eyedress is a jazzy closer talking about stacking cheese & counting proceeds in the back.

Hal said himself on Twitter shortly after Amber was released that it would the last body of work of his to be put out under the Vritra moniker & however he reinvents himself artistically going forward, I can tell you that he gave us the strongest EP in his discography since Palace a decade ago already. He sounds recharged after taking a year off & his experimentally cloudy, west coast sound has additional undertones of drumless, jazz, soul, glitch hop & trip hop.

Score: 3.5/5

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