Producer and crate digger extraordinaire RJD2 releases a new single, “Catch The Exit Door,” from his new album, Visions Out Of Limelight, out June 14th via RJ’s Electrical Connections. Following lead single “Through It All (feat. Jamie Lidell),” “Catch The Exit Door” is a funky instrumental highlight — electric bass percolates up and down the neck under wah-wah guitars and horns straight out of a syndicated cop drama.
 
RJD2 explains of the song: “If you’re familiar with the idea of synesthesia, then you have probably heard of people experiencing sounds as colors — I often have a similar experience with rhythm and geometry. Rhythmic patterns feel like shapes to me. If you know the satisfaction of a great move in Tetris, that is the closest approximation I can provide to how I feel when putting just the right rhythmic patterns together. ‘Catch The Exit Door’ is in many ways entirely built on this concept.”

For Visions Out Of Limelight, RJD2 found inspiration in sources that can be taken for granted by less-discerning listeners. Thanks to time at home, RJD2 was completely immersed in the “incredibly composed and skillfully complex” TV theme songs of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. The producer was also determined to build tracks around interesting bass lines and to make a modern album that puts these bass lines in the forefront.

Most of the songs on Visions Out Of Limelight were recorded with live instrumentation while others were chopped and re-assembled via sampler “like the olden days,” RJD2 says. Good luck figuring out which drums are live or samples: with over 15 years of studio experience, RJD2 can create drum sounds that evoke the same grit and urgency of classic hip-hop breakbeats.
 
And the producer really did bury himself up to his neck in the dirt for the album art. It’s a dual homage to Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain and Redman’s Dare Iz A Darkside, two artists with enduring catalogs of no-bullshit, rock-solid music. RJD2 aspires to create a similar body of work, from his 2002 opus Deadringer on to the future. RJD2 has stitched together an impressive career out of many projects: instrumental albums, international tours, credits for Mos Def, MF DOOM, Phonte, and beyond. Visions Out Of Limelight channels the underground veteran’s many influences — soul, funk, hip-hop, and more — into another sublime entry in his expansive catalog.