soso and Maki: If and Only If (Endemik Music/Audio Recon)

I don’t know about you but I like my music to come with a mood. Whether it’s an accouterment to my rainy day drives or those bike rides through the city on a sunny ass day. Whatever elevates those experiences is welcome in my headphones.  The newest offering from Canadian artists,  soso and Maki: If and Only If (Endemik Music/Audio Recon) would be the perfect sound for the former.  Troy Gronsdahl (soso) and Maki Kypriotis (Maki) have crafted a somber yet welcome listen which pairs well with almost every damn day right now.  The beats that Maki has crafted are cold, climactic, patient, meticulous, and quite fucking phenomenal. He encapsulates a feeling of heightened senses that would best be used to pull yourself out of whatever existential dread your feeling on any certain day.  soso speaks over these beats, relenting his own truths and guiding you through his mind in a way that is really quite calming and comforting. He switches it up throughout and flips from stoically conveyed raps to spoken word to singing to you but for the most part, If and Only If reminds me of songs like “Quiz Night at Lucky Lou’s” that John K. Samson from The Weakerthans had created. Bitter truths that give comfort over music that make me crave more. This is late-night music, snow-dampened street walking music, rainy day driving tunes, or music to help you reflect on your own life.  In a time when everything is served to go, created to break down and filmed to hold a 15-second attention span, sometimes we need to take a little time for ourselves and really dive into our own little truths.  This album is here to help with that.