Cleanse yourselves with the sounds of this peculiar body wash.
It is not the first time we mention Mndsgn on Colombe Music as he produced Ivan Ave's Helping Hands LP which we wrote an article about back in April. Actually, it is through Mndsgn that I discovered the aforementioned Hip-Hop gem.
This time around however, the focus will be all on him and his latest record. After the critically acclaimed Yawn Zen dropped on Stones Throw Records in 2014, Mndsgn released his second record entitled Body Wash on the same label on September 16th earlier this year. Along with the album, he also released his latest video for the track 'Wherever U R'.
Mndsgn, whose real name is Ringgo Ancheta, is an American music producer and instrumentalist of Filipino decent. He grew up in New Jersey around Gospel music in church and B-Boy Culture at home. He moved to California where his experimenting with beat-making really flourished and he got the opportunity to take his musical career to the next level. He has been actively producing, collaborating and putting out music since 2009 and never looked back since. For example, he is one of the founding members of the influential Klipmode collective along with fellow artists Knxwledge, Devonwho and Suzi Analogue.
Body Wash is a 16 track album that spans over 49 minutes. It is loaded with early 80s boogie, funk, soul, jazz and fusion wave and early 90s R&B sounds. If you listen closely, you will notice that there is a narrative thread telling the tale of a homeless man encountering a mysterious woman offering him shelter. When the homeless man is instructed to take a bath with a peculiar body wash, he finds himself transported to an alternate dimension. The album as a whole is a step forward from his first release which was an album mostly made up of instrumental beat creations that were punctuated by vocal cuts. This time you can sense that the songwriting process in itself has taken a bigger importance for the artist and gives the record an additional depth. The album gravitates around a key theme which It the “psychedelic and transformative power of love” although it is not yet distinctively and explicitly put forward. Mndsgn describes the album as "a soul record that plays with nostalgic elements in a very dynamic & positive way. Think about it as a box of crayons for you to draw emotions with”.
Mndsgn also released a video for the song 'Cosmic Perspective' a month before Body Wash was released.