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Lushlife (feat. dälek and Irreversible Entanglements), 'Dépaysement'

As we near the year's end, #NowPlaying recommends songs that slipped through the cracks, but remain in our headphones.

According to the Collins Dictionary, dépaysement refers to "the feeling of disorientation that occurs when you find yourself in a country that is not your home." Rapper and producer Lushlife — along with dälek — captures this feeling by constructing waves of surrealistic bars over a dreamy boom-bap beat. A chopped up children's choir sample adds to the song's ethereality, but when free-jazz titans Irreversible Entanglements are added to the mix, "Dépaysement" explodes into a fiery nine-minute avant-garde epic. By tapping into the adventurous spirit of free improvisation, "Dépaysement" ushers us past the limits of our comfort zone, taking us on a journey far beyond convention.

Copyright 2021 XPN

John Morrison
John Morrison is a writer, DJ, and sample-flipper from Philadelphia. As a writer, his work has appeared in NPR Music, Bandcamp Daily, Jazz Tokyo, Grammy.com, and more. He is also the host of Culture Cypher Radio, a hip-hop radio show on NPR member station WXPN.