Project Review: GoldLink Finds Focus on ENOCH

GoldLink has blessed us with his follow up to the incredibly forward-thinking HARAM!. Although the 2021 release impressed with its coverage of broad ground, experimentation, and varied features, it lacked focus. His new LP, ENOCH, feels much more streamlined sonically. ENOCH blends house with a myriad of hip-hop styles, but GoldLink underscores the conjunction between the two genres in a surprising, innovative way. When rappers usually venture into house, it is commonly a case of their bars being superimposed onto typified, 4-to-the-floor house beats. ENOCH deconstructs the dance style and reforms the constituent parts into its own configuration. 

The album opens with ‘I SEE’. Some sparkly pads fade away to reveal house stabs processed with heavy delay. A tight bassline then enters serving as the backdrop for GoldLink’s first verse. Intensely syncopated, and with his signature, soft vocal timbre, he talks of his progressive come up before a shift to an afro house groove with some smooth vocals in the chorus. This tune is truly a journey.

‘NEW BOO’ has GoldLink and Matt McGhee questioning if a new partner has ulterior motives, whilst interspersing this theme with raunchy bars. Matt out-raps GoldLink here with an impressive, percussive flow. ‘SHOTTI’ raises the tempo bringing in a Jersey club influence and ‘CLUB BEAST’ features some of the jauntiest sounds on the album where a wonky, calypso-evocative rhythm grounds some meandering, arpeggiated synths.

‘AVENTADOR’ is a downtempo house beat with a bell keeping an off-beat pulse. KAYTRANADA offers his skills here. With the duo working together previously on cuts like ‘MEDITATION (ft Jazmine Sullivan)’ and ‘Vex Oh’ with Eight9FLY – I can’t think of a better pair to nail this rap-house fusion. A highlight here is an exuberant guitar sample that punctuates the bars well; a textbook example of KAYTRANADA’s signature sound.

Moving away from the house soundworld, ‘MOORPHEUS’ welcomes fellow DC-native Fat Trel, alongside Hydra and R1O, who all gel together nicely. Trel’s verse is possibly my favourite on the whole release. With a hard flow, he conjures quintessential images of excess, drugs, and sex over an eerie beat. Yet, this tune sticks out due to its omission of an overt house influence. ‘METATRON’ was released as a single back in April. With a g-funk beat and an archetypal R&B chorus, GoldLink raps of girls now interested in the star, who were not prior to his fame. 

Speaking solely of the rapping, GoldLink’s technicality is impressive, switching up flows numerous times within certain songs. Yet, we get the stereotypical referencing of street credit, girls, and money in each of his verses – nothing really stands out thematically. On ENOCH, he also rarely constructs interesting imagery, or lands any smirking punchlines of note, which we know he is capable of from his previous releases. We seem to trade masterful production, filmic structural development, and interesting rhythms for uninspired wordsmithery. Although, I don’t think this really matters – the release’s stellar musical material far outweighs the disappointment of GoldLink’s pen game.

4/5 stars

Words by Charlie Edmondson