For almost a decade, Robert Glasper has been the standard-bearer for jazz music’s fusion with hip-hop, soul, and rock, turning songs like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Radiohead’s “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box” into kinetic electro-funk mashups. With his Experiment band, Glasper, vocalist/saxophonist Casey Benjamin, drummer Mark Colenburg, and bassist Derrick Hodge tend to leapfrog different genres, making music that’s rooted in jazz and R&B and impossible to peg. “My people have given the world so many styles of music,” Glasper declares at the top of ArtScience, the Experiment’s new album. “So why should I just confine myself to one? We want to explore them all.”
ArtScience follows Black Radio 2, the band’s guest-heavy 2013 LP featuring rappers Common, Snoop Dogg and Lupe Fiasco, and singers Jill Scott and Norah Jones, among many others. On it and the band’s first Black Radio album, the Glasper Experiment mostly stayed in the background, giving room to their guests to shine atop the group’s instrumentals. The formula worked: Black Radio won the 2012 Grammy for Best R&B Album, and “Jesus Children”—a Stevie Wonder remake from Black Radio 2, featuring vocalist Lalah Hathaway and actor/poet Malcolm-Jamal Warner—won the 2014 Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance.
For ArtScience, the Experiment keeps things in-house, handling all the vocal work themselves. Glasper himself sings lead on “Thinkin Bout You” and Benjamin—the group’s de facto lead vocalist—is front and center on “Day to Day,” “Tell Me a Bedtime Story” and “Hurry Slowly.” ArtScience feels less restrained than the Black Radio series—which, after two releases and a separate remix EP—started to feel safe and redundant. So perhaps for that reason, ArtScience doesn’t play like an R&B or jazz record; it pulls in ’80s funk and ’90s soul without landing any place in particular. For the first time, we get to hear the Experiment let go for a full project, not just on a few songs here and there.
A romantic tone flows through the album, using lyrics that speak to different stages of affection. “Thinkin Bout You” is a sweet ode to puppy love, a reminder that no matter the circumstance, true devotion can withstand long distance and everyday doldrums. Glasper’s voice is washed in bright synths, bolstering the song’s sentimental aura. On “You and Me,” Benjamin recalls a time when he wasn’t so trusting, when his heart was broken and “locked tight.” But in comes a new love, making everything better: “Can’t explain, what you do/How ya do, some kinda mystery.” In years past, the Experiment was more beat-driven; tracks like “Festival” and “Open Mind” emphasized the band’s great instrumental arrangements.
The lyrics aren’t overly intricate, but they offer just enough nuance to let the soundtrack remain the focal point. Songs like “Find You” and “Let’s Fall In Love” strive for mainstream acceptance—the former is a hard-charging bounce beat; the latter uses an Auto-Tuned, trap-infused cadence to perhaps pull in younger fans. ArtScience is the Robert Glasper Experiment’s most realized effort, mainly because they’ve stopped relying on outside talent to get their point across. They’ve created their own vibe, one that needed their own voices to truly resonate.
