Yesterdays Universe

Bad news first: Madlib has officially broken up with himself, which subsequently disbands the 12 other bands that makeup Yesterdays Universe, due to those bands being made up of… (breath)… Madlib. Good news is, on the madhatter's second long-player under the YNQ moniker, Madlib serves up an immense throwback jazz explosion that successfully avoids being the sort of jazz/hip-hop/fusion/catshit that you would hear pulsing at you in a J.Crew or your finer pant/sweater outlets. Moments like "Street Talking" push and sizzle like a David Axelrod jam and "Free Son" whips out Headhunters fuzz bass. One alias that stands out in the mix is Sound Directions, under whose guise Madlib released the full-length Funky Side of Life in '05. Yesterdays Universe, while "existing" in the same vein, makes the Funky Side seem like simple porno music (but damn fine porno music, at that). Even more enjoyable than the record is imagining Madlib trying to play this music by himself, some smoked-out, stomping humanimal of a one-man band that eats cool and shits out stone-cold funky.