Charlotte, North Carolina is full of amazing Hip-Hop talent right about now. This year already I’ve covered the music of Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon and Jaypluss, both of whom are extraordinarily talented MC’s with the back catalogue to prove it. In comes Mike Digi, a producer who for years now has been elevating his craft to stand alongside other Charlotte greats. On his new album, Mike steps up his game another level.

Things kick off with ‘Continuation’, an apt title for a song that kicks off a new era in the producer’s music while sticking stoically to the things that make his beats so enthralling to begin with. It’s a short, moody set piece that segues successfully into the darker ‘Slavic City’, a vocal sample screaming into the void before being abruptly cut. Mike’s use of samples on these songs is nothing short of spellbinding, the spliced vocal excerpts conveying an incredible amount of emotional weight despite their brief utilisation.

It’s here that we get to the rap portion of this album. Jah-Monte makes two appearances here, one on familiar territory (‘We Made It Right, It’s Up Now’) and one more ambitious cut (‘Oh Nah I’m On Noisey She Love Me’). The quasi-drumless loops of the former are as enjoyable as any of the Digi-produced cuts from Jah-Monte’s recent release Too Little, Too Late, while the latter sees the rapper tackle funkier, zanier production that encourages the utmost eccentricity from its participant.

Jaypluss is equally focused on ‘Different Voice’, maintaining his charismatic flow over a silky, spacey beat that is different from anything else Mike offers on the project. Many of the other tracks here are pretty morose in nature, the almost Trip-Hop-esque ‘A Mechanised Hum’ being a prime example. Things soon get much more intense, beginning with the breathless raps on ‘Phiik’s Interlude’ and continuing into the wintery sounds of ‘A Block or a Creek’. ‘Obtuse Overture’ is by far the frostiest number here, however, its pianos carry a sinister edge that make the track a more dramatic piece than the other instrumental cuts.

The album’s final guest is Norm Regular, who delivers some killer bars on ‘What We On’. When things finally conclude on ‘Sidewalk Historybook’, it well and truly feels like everybody brought their a-game to this collection of tracks. Mike maintains a brilliantly suspenseful production style throughout, with many tracks featuring their own mini outros that flesh out the feel of these songs as a cohesive piece. The featured rappers are all wildly different in style and lyrical tone, but each contribute to the project’s organic growth. Having been sent these songs gradually and seen their development as even track titles change, it has been a pleasure to step inside Mike’s mind. And hey, if you have half an hour of your day to spare it will undoubtedly be a treat for you too