RJD2 has announced his new album, Visions Out Of Limelight, out June 14th via RJ’s Electrical Connections, and shares its lead single/video, “Through It All” (feat. Jamie Lidell). Following 2020’s The Fun Ones, RJD2’s eighth studio album channels the underground veteran’s many influences — soul, funk, hip-hop, and more — into another sublime entry in his expansive catalog.
For Visions Out Of Limelight, RJD2 found inspiration in sources that can be taken for granted by less-discerning listeners. Thanks to time at home, RJD2 was completely immersed in the TV theme songs of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. “I realized how incredibly composed and skillfully complex many of them were,“ he says. The producer was also determined to build tracks around interesting bass lines, inspired by classic parts in Dr. Dre’s “Deep Cover,” KMD’s “Black Bastards,” and Diamond D’s “Sally Got a One Track Mind.” It became a “mini-mission” for the producer to make a modern album that puts the bass in the forefront.
While Visions Out Of Limelight is mostly an instrumental affair, “Through It All” is one of two songs that sees RJ implement vocals in his production. On the soulful single, English singer Jamie Lidell croons and ponders his existence over piano stabs and a steady breakbeat. Of the song, RJ says: “I was listening to some classic Aaliyah and taking in how Timbaland used amorphous mouth sounds as a textural element. I put a bunch of ‘mouth water drop sounds’ into the MPC. From there, the song really built itself in the fashion you hear it – drums, chords, and vocals from the illustrious Jamie Lidell.” The video, directed by RJ and his son Charlie Kaiser-Krohn, sees RJ playing various percussion instruments in and out of his studio, including a raw performance of the “mouth water drop sound.”
