wowhd.co.uk

Your Grandparents are fascinated with time. It can neither

be created nor killed; there's never enough of it, but it can

stretch on forever. Time is a form of currency that can be

saved, spent, and gambled away. In the end, it makes

fools of us all. On their drink sum wtr debut, The Dial, the

Los Angeles trio - producer Cole Thompson and

vocalists DaCosta and Jean Carter - deeply consider

these disparate ideas. The record works as a meditation

on time, but posits that in order to truly grasp the concept

and all of it's ambient qualities, one must remain rooted in

the present. The group, who met in middle school in

Culver City and are now in their mid-late 20s, has been

making music for a decade, patiently watching the pieces

of their career fall into place. They seemed to snatch their

genre-agnostic but hip-hop-rooted songs from the

cosmos, seizing on a moment of inspiration - a loop

here, a turn of phrase there - and proceeding in a stream

of consciousness. The Dial took shape more slowly, with

what DaCosta calls "focused intentionality." Your

Grandparents chipped away at the material, careful not to

rush any one element into place. The result is stunning: a

kaleidoscopic trip through heartaches and joys, moments

of frustration and hope. Their vocals effortlessly switch

between elastic band rap flows and golden-hued melodies

as the production reaches through time, gathering up

influences - from house-meets-G-funk slink to Dilla-time

boogie to ESG-informed dance-punk - all meshed

together into a singular whole.