- He's been a hip-hop head from the get-go, but Robert Arnold's dalliances with house have been among Uncanny Valley's loveliest. A split personality is mightily apparent on his second EP as Cuthead for the Dresden crew—one side is house, the other laid-back hip-hop. It might frustrate DJs looking for a consistent piece of wax, but Everlasting Sunday is a fine album-length missive of sunny afternoon jams that have a lot more in common than their tempo disparity might suggest.
Whether he's making 4/4 or broken beat, Arnold's sample material largely stays the same: lush, string-led music (often disco), chopped up with the same glazed-over disposition that defines producers like Madlib. "Maputo Jam" loops a keyboard figure and drops a heavy-duty beat on it, liberally drizzling over a synth melody with freeform pizazz. "Nautic Walking" is more of a disco edit, rinsing out a choppy guitar sample. "Minerals" is the best thing here. A strutting drum pattern and swooping strings come together to make something that's much more than the sum of its lethargic parts.
The hip-hop side is like a long drag on a joint compared to the A-side's amphetamine kick—"Everlasting Sunday" could be made of the same elements as "Minerals," but the pieces are allowed to fall as they may, cushioned by a loping bassline. Arnold prefers to flip the music of yore, like the doo-wop daydream of "Hold On" or the glitchy soul of "Deep Shadows." It'd be easy to label his sepia-toned music as nostalgic, but something about the way Arnold slices and dices remains captivating no matter what mode he's in.
TracklistA1 Maputo Jam
A2 Nautic Walking
A3 Minerals
B1 Everlasting Sunday
B2 Hold On
B3 Calculator Watch
B4 Vice-Versa
B5 Deep Shadows
B6 Outro