New Sauceman: Tori

The proliferation of crackly, loop-centric beat tapes seemingly designed to soundtrack anime girl homework sessions has made me hesitant of anything merging sample-centric repetition with drum-machine-generated boom bap. Leave it to an artist closer to Japan’s footwork scene to upend those expectations. Sauceman’s Tori gathers 10 tracks that often rely on a scant amount of sounds — a few samples, a beat — to create something that frequently coils about into unexpected shapes. The opening number features horns, pianos and more, all guided by some thumping — yet that beat morphs and mutates over the next few minutes, turning everything around it into a new form and adding a sense of uneasy movement to the songs. This isn’t an album for math work, basically. Sauceman’s footwork background goes a long way to helping Tori click, as the skittery beats of that style already disrupt whatever you throw against it. So whether Sauceman brings in woodwinds, sampled yelps or organ, they find a way to make it come off unexpected. Get it here, or listen below