“Analog Dreams,” the debut album from Rochester DJ/producer Aloefi, resides nicely within the catalog of Portland-based label Cold Busted Records. Like much of the independent label’s brand of warm lo-fi instrumental hip-hop, “Analog Dreams” is built around sample manipulation that is inventive but rarely flashy, hovering just beneath the audible surface at all times.
Despite the absence of lyrics and vocals, the album has a very personal feel, as if it’s a private score — music that plays during a tracking shot while the main character weaves through the crowd, anonymous with a hoodie over their head, headphones over their ears. Hype music for the small-time big-city protagonist, scraping by until the big payday arrives.
As with much lo-fi instrumental hip-hop, the absence of vocals creates so much room in the mix that at first listen it can feel like there’s a void. But with deeper listening, especially on headphones, the music acts as a vessel, holding whatever the listener’s mind wants to pour into it — thoughts, memories, conversations.
The album is very much in line with the recent wave of ‘90s nostalgia. Both “D Batteries” and “Squada” could be forgotten demos left on the cutting-room floor from Guru’s hip-hop jazz fusion classic, “Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1” (1993), while “Juicy Fruit” features soulful Sade-style vocal stabs.
Things get interesting when the sounds not only reference direct ‘90s callbacks, but also the samples that built the golden era of hip-hop. For instance, “Squada” has a snare sample that’s as dirty as the one in Naughty by Nature’s “Hip Hop Hooray.” Or is it referencing that sample’s root, the Five Stairsteps’ 1968 song “Don’t Change Your Love”? Hell if I know, probably neither. Sample spotters and crate diggers will have a field day with this one.
