Madlib Drops ‘Road of the Lonely Ones’ From Upcoming Album With Four Tet

Madlib has released a new song, “Road of the Lonely Ones,” from his upcoming album, Sound Ancestors, which he made with Four Tet.

“Road of the Lonely Ones” is simple but immersive track built around vocals that seem pulled from some forgotten soul 45 gathering dust in a crate. Madlib and Four Tet craft a steady groove of dusty drums and tender guitar lines that drift underneath the lead falsetto and warm backing vocals.

Four Tet announced Sound Ancestors in an Instagram post Sunday, December 13th. The pair had begun the project a couple of years prior when Four Tet said he’d been listening to some of Madlib’s recent work and “had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib solo album. Not made into beats for vocalists to use but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start to finish.”

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Madlib agreed to the idea, and they crafted the album virtually: “Him sending me tracks, loops, ideas, and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate, and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years’ stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that [fit] with my vision.”

An official release date for Sound Ancestors has yet to be announced, but the album is expected to arrive in January via Madlib Invazion.