Review of 99.9% by Kaytranada
Written by DJ Nico Troi on September 2, 2016
Wow…
Kaytranada is probably one of the most pronounced and unique beat makers of our time. Starting off the album with Track Uno, you know just from the first song that this album has a lot of different vibes in it. With this almost electro soul dance music, the genre R&B can not be the only genre that defines Kaytranada. The guy behind it all is Louis Kevin Celestin, a Haitian-Canadian producer, who started pushin his beats around 2010 under the name Kaytradamus. He has worked with huge names in the game such as Childish Gambino, Disclosure, Anderson Paak, Vic Mensa, AlunaGeorge, and Little Dragon.
Some of these are more recent collaborations on his 99.9% Album but others were done beforehand. I think the most notable tracks on the album for me is the Anderson Paak collaboration called ‘Glowed Up’ and The Vic Mensa collab called ‘Drive me Crazy’. Halfway through the ‘Glowed Up’ track the completely switch the beat up and change the vibe. Honestly Kaytranada does this a lot through out his music which always keeps you guessing on what his beat is going to drop and what’s going to come next. His beats have heavy bass but create a dance tune more then anything.
His most recent music video featuring his track ‘Lite Spots’ has a dancing robot in it that learns how to dance through out the video. The robot was made by Kaytranada of Course.
Kaytranada came to Portland about a month ago on tour for his 99.9% album at the Euphoria Nightclub. Luckily I had free tickets to the event because I most likely would have never gone because I had not heard of Kaytranada at all. After exploring the artists music a bit I decided that he was definitely something worth seeing. At the show Kaytranada’s whole visual theme back’s up his album art cover. The visuals seem to be made cartoony on purpose but still has a very lifelike and message like feel to it. Ricardo Cavolo is the artist behind the work.
Although Kaytranada works with bigger artists, he also works with a lot of fresh artists who are recent up an comers to such as River Tiber, Gold Link, BADBADNOTGOOD, and more.
My favorite lyrics in this album would have to go to the final song called ‘Bullets’ with Little Dragon. There is something in those lyrics that are almost exactly like poetry. I found myself reading the lyrics out loud to myself and realized how in depth they were and what they might represent. Overall Kaytranada is a force to be reckoned with and everyone should be on the look out for more.
On his website there is a free track that can be earned by playing a game!
http://kaytranada.com/game/
In lieu of this album coming out I made a small 15 min mix of my favorites plus some other favorites of Kaytranada. Click the download link to hear those sick tunes.
KAYTRANADA:
PSU