Tech house producer Robot Needs Oil continues to moonlight as a very capable instrumental hip-hop producer under the guise of My Neighbour Is because, well, presumably because he knows it’s more fun than tech house. The man’s latest under the second moniker is LP Buddha Fly which kicks off with some rolling boom-bap grit punctuated by hip-hop shout-outs pretty much used as percussive flourishes on opener No 1 and once again subverts his reputation for atmospheric downtempo-isms. But then he spends the rest of the LP subverting this subversion (or perhaps just reverting to type) by delivering a variety of flavours of quality downtempo instrumentals. Look@Me is all tinkly windchimes, ethereal woodwind, and breathy scatting, the title track swerves into noirish cinematic breaks with an oriental flavour, Whistle brings the strings, Time Has Changed provides some moody southern European flavour and so on and so forth. Buddha Fly then. Something on it will get you by and by – and when it does – don’t ask no questions why…
(Out 2 December on Cold Busted)