“People are dancing,” DMV rapper Goldlink observes as he surveys a room full of people gathered for an exclusive first-listen of his new album, ENOCH. “This is the point,” he proclaims. “This was the whole point.”
ENOCH finds Goldlink doing what he does best – blending hip hop with unpredictability, energy, and good vibes. The album is the rapper’s first full-length project since 2021, and follows a brief period of retreat. “I’ve been on a hiatus for a second, just to try and perfect this thing,” Goldlink tells the room before pressing play on track one, I SEE. The song begins with a wall of static, which soon gives way to a future bounce beat scored by Goldlink’s signature laid-back flow. As soon as it does, Goldlink has the crowd onside. While his last release, HARAM!, seemed concerned with reinventing the wheel, ENOCH effectively travels through different soundscapes without losing focus on Goldlink’s biggest strength – creating music that makes people want to move.
Clocking in at a tight 28-minute runtime, the album finds space for a slate of collaborators, including fellow DMV artists Matt McGhee, Big Flock, and Fat Trel, as well as up-and-coming London singer-songwriter Lola Moxom, who provides the angelic hook for the album’s punchy lead single, METATRON. ENOCH’s production credits feature some familiar names – Goldlink teams up with frequent collaborator KAYTRANADA to wonderful results on AVENTADOR. The lyrics celebrate success, and contain an apparent shoutout to KAYTRANADA’s brother Lou Phelps, who recently worked with Goldlink on his debut album, Chèlbè. “Who would’ve thought that DC made a fucking star?” Goldlink raps. “French Canada, my brother turned superstar / Now his brother next to turn into a superstar.”
Goldlink mentions KAYTRANADA while introducing the song, earning a few emphatic cheers from the crowd. It’s worth noting the warmup DJ dropped one of Goldlink and KAYTRANADA’s previous joint ventures, Vex Oh (feat. Eight9FLY), before the event formally kicked off, and the dancefloor instantly became 50% more crowded. AVENTADOR is a welcome successor to the pair’s other work like Meditation (feat. Jazmine Sullivan) from Goldlink’s stellar 2017 LP At What Cost, and TOGETHER (feat. AlunaGeorge) from KAYTRANADA’s 2016 debut 99.9%. Fellow SoundCloud wunderkind Sam Gellaitry lends a hand on CLUB BEAT – the breathless track leads into the final third of the album, and at this stage, the crowd is unified in its movement. Goldlink’s eyes scan the room, and he grins. He looks happy – any nerves or reservations harboured before presenting the project seem to be gone. ENOCH is tight, groovy, and refreshing, and if the objective was to make people dance, Goldlink achieves this in spades.
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Words: Madeline Anderson