Jamie Lidell

Multiply appeared on Warp in 2005. The title track is the immediately inviting entrance, but “When I Come Back Around” makes the electronic restlessness much more obvious. The album’s range is part of its point: a direct sung melody and an awkward rhythmic construction can belong to the same musician without one explaining away the other.

The performance often feels close to the act of making the track. A short vocal phrase can become a texture or a rhythmic part, then return as a fully formed line. That gives the production an unusually personal scale, with the singer seeming to be inside the machinery rather than placed in front of it.

Jim followed in 2008, beginning with “Another Day”. The songs have a brighter, more expansive relationship with soul and funk, and the arrangements give the melodic writing a particularly clear frame. The rhythmic curiosity remains, but the record lets the pleasure of a well-shaped song come further forward.

Compass in 2010 changed the balance again, opening more rough edges and unexpected turns around the singing. These records do not form a simple move from electronics towards traditional songcraft. Lidell keeps returning to the productive problem of how to make the two speak to each other. A beat can be dismantled, a voice can be multiplied, and a chorus can still sound as though a person needs to sing it.