Ta-ku Essentials

Australian producer Regan “Ta-ku” Matthews is a scholar of the classics: He's studied both time-worn soul sides and tracks that flip those songs' rhythms and snatches of sound into laidback yet meticulously constructed beats. Like J Dilla and DJ Premier before him, Ta-ku's ability to fully reinvent his crate-digging finds results in tracks that call back to ‘70s funk's thick grooves and old-school R&B's sonic detailing while also sounding entirely of the present moment.