Soul Movement Vol. I

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Even if the Toronto-based producer/singer Slakah the Beatchild does little that people like Dwele and Jay Dee haven't done before, it's all in the execution. His debut album, Soul Movement, Vol. 1, is a warm, positive, forward-thinking, and often dreamy effort, prime for slinking around a tasteful loft or for chilling out without coming down. The old-school spirit is all over the album with the key track, "Enjoy Ya Self," dropping a steady stream of throwback references while "B-Boy Beef" declares "all my people lace up" before turning the story of an attention hogging breakdancer into a parable that illustrates how to win with humility. Friends like Ayah and Drake help Slakah with the vocals, and for every song that makes a pro-human, pro-unity statement, there's an acceptably empty set of lyrics designed to be elegant and tasteful background music. The hodge-podge called "Some Beats" could be source material for a number of underground hip-hop hits, but its odd placement three-quarters of the way through speaks to the album's biggest problem. Soul Movement, Vol. 1 comes off as Slakah's high grade vault simply turned over, so take the title to heart and approach as an attractive sampler of the neo-soul man's work, rather than a definitive, carefully constructed album.