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- Summary: The two-disc release from Chicago-based jazz drummer Makaya McCraven collects together four EPs - Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop - features live improv recordings.
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- Record Label: Nonesuch
- Genre(s): Jazz
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 7
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Mixed: 0 out of 7
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Negative: 0 out of 7
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UncutOct 31, 2025Thrills and dazzlement abound. [Dec 2025, p.33]
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Oct 31, 2025While each of these EPs stand on their own in quality, they create a rhythm orgy that is wildly musical and presented as a near symbiotic whole when combined.
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The WireDec 16, 2025Like all the music collected on Off The Record, "Lake Shore Drive Five" serves as a testament to McCraven and his band's ability to make improvisation sound focused and intentional, even as they take us on an unexpected journey. [Jan/Feb 2026, p.88]
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Oct 31, 2025Off the Record is a magnificent treasure chest built for deep dives and repeat visits.
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Oct 31, 2025The most impressive thing about this large-scale (in terms of both musicianship as well as time) collection, particularly given its improvisatory nature, is that it never tests your patience. The final five tracks are least impressive, but the earlier stuff, particularly in the first half, are spell-binding.
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Nov 4, 2025For all their compositional and audible dissimilarities, each group of tracks represents a strident argument for the place of the human and the instinctive even amid finished pieces which, at first exposure, may read as more electronic than organic. .... Throughout each EP there’s audible glimpses of the rooms the live performances took place in: shouts and applause being the obvious ones, the sense of space and warmth more felt than heard.
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Nov 4, 2025The shared characteristic that unites all four releases, though, is McCraven’s uncanny ability to alchemize hip-hop from jazz, structure from freedom, a collective effort into a singular vision.