Vol. 2 is the one that doesn't decide for you. Some sessions have a fixed emotional address — you arrive there and stay. This one moves. It shifts from Mac DeMarco's underwater reverb to the loose-limbed warmth of Benny Sings, from the propulsive Afrobeat of Kokoroko to something from the Swiss disco-funk orbit of L'Eclair that you'll be Shazaming within seconds of it coming on.
Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes belong together in a way that felt obvious in retrospect — two musicians whose instincts for pocket and patience are unusually well matched. Their collaborative album What Kinda Music is one of the more complete things released in recent jazz-adjacent territory, and Tidal Wave is one of its best arguments.
Childish Gambino's Feels Like Summer is the most unambiguous song on the list — it wears its heart on its sleeve in the way that only works when the craft is this tight. Hypnosis by Holy Hive arrives after it and does the opposite: opaque, patient, a little strange.
Butcher Brown close out the session's middle with their own version of Tidal Wave — not a cover, a coincidence of title — and the contrast between the two interpretations of that word is worth sitting with. Blue Lab Beats and Offthewally bring the session home before Kokoroko's Abusey Junction arrives like a door opening onto something much larger. L'Eclair end it the way a good late-night set ends: with something danceable that doesn't demand you get up.
Whatever you're carrying into this one — the session will meet you there.
It doesn't ask you to be in a specific mood. It finds you wherever you are and adjusts accordingly.
What thirteen tracks can do that ten can't — they can afford to be contradictory. Vol. 2 uses the extra room well. It's happy to make you move and equally happy to keep you completely still. On the same listen, if the session goes long enough.
Roll a smoothmix herbal blend somewhere in the middle — around track seven, when the Savana Funk version of Ghibli arrives with its loose, Italian groove — and you'll understand why this one is called For Your Many Moods. Because by then, you'll have been through a few.
Herbal Rolling Blends. Tobacco-free. Nicotine-free.
smoothmix makes herbal rolling blends with herbs and flowers sourced from farmers across India. 4 unique blends, each with a distinct flavour profile.
