Dial – Green – Vinyl LP (Green)

Your Grandparents are fascinated with time. It can neitherbe created nor killed; there’s never enough of it, but it canstretch on forever. Time is a form of currency that can besaved, spent, and gambled away. In the end, it makesfools of us all. On their drink sum wtr debut, The Dial, theLos Angeles trio – producer Cole Thompson andvocalists DaCosta and Jean Carter – deeply considerthese disparate ideas. The record works as a meditationon time, but posits that in order to truly grasp the conceptand all of it’s ambient qualities, one must remain rooted inthe present. The group, who met in middle school inCulver City and are now in their mid-late 20s, has beenmaking music for a decade, patiently watching the piecesof their career fall into place. They seemed to snatch theirgenre-agnostic but hip-hop-rooted songs from thecosmos, seizing on a moment of inspiration – a loophere, a turn of phrase there – and proceeding in a streamof consciousness. The Dial took shape more slowly, withwhat DaCosta calls “focused intentionality.” YourGrandparents chipped away at the material, careful not torush any one element into place. The result is stunning: akaleidoscopic trip through heartaches and joys, momentsof frustration and hope. Their vocals effortlessly switchbetween elastic band rap flows and golden-hued melodiesas the production reaches through time, gathering upinfluences – from house-meets-G-funk slink to Dilla-timeboogie to ESG-informed dance-punk – all meshedtogether into a singular whole.