- Following a string of celebrated audio-visual shows, Brisbane’s Sampology is releasing an EP titled Natural Selections. It’s somewhat divergent from his debut album, the Doomsday Deluxe LP, taking an intentionally more ‘naturalistic’ approach (read: live instrumentation).

The first taste I got of the impending EP was the excellent single Thicker Than Water, which I subsequently played into the ground. It’s got all that’s good: live drums (with shakers!), strings (arranged by Gordon Hamilton), funky rhodes, horns, kalimba and a beautiful vocal feature from Tiana Khasi (of Astro Travellers). It even got the Gilles Peterson seal of approval, with a debut on his show.

The other vocal features are as just as solid: Laneous (of Laneous & The Family Yah and more recently Vulture St. Tape Gang) brings some soulful, multilayered crooning to Different Star. Noah Slee adds some depth to the slinky Be There, reminding us all to be present in the moment. Songs without vocal features may contain traces of faux vox, as in the titular Natural Selections. The glissando computer voices work better than one thinks they ever could.

The EP is a funky family-affair too, as it turns out, his dad plays upright bass and his aunt is on viola, while his mum created the album art and visuals for the accompanying live show. Fittingly there is a short but appetising instrumental track called Friends and Fam.

For this release Sampology has brought some of Brisbane’s best from the soul/beat scene - as he has done in the past, with MKO SUN’s Hannah Macklin for instance. It’s resulted in something altogether more intricate and refined than his previous releases. He brings his obvious interest in afrobeat to the fore, producing what could be Floating Points recording the Psychedelic Sanza of Francis Bebey. The extensive live instrumentation, strong songwriting and polished production mark Natural Selections as Sampology's best release to date.

- Hill Folk.