Dance music’s landscape in 2025 feels increasingly predictable — a sea of AI-generated beats and cookie-cutter collaborations. Then there’s Kaytranada, who just dropped ‘Ain’t No Damn Way!’ like a bolt from the blue, proving that sometimes the best conversations happen when you’re talking to yourself.
The Montreal producer’s fourth studio album, released through RCA Records, doesn’t just buck the trend of star-studded features — it tosses the whole playbook out the window. Sure, Kay’s Instagram post modestly frames it as “strictly for workouts, dancing and studying,” but that’s like calling the Grand Canyon a nice hole in the ground.
What emerges across these 12 tracks is something far more fascinating: a masterclass in groove architecture where every sonic brick fits perfectly, yet somehow feels delightfully unpredictable. Take ‘Blax’ — good lord, what a trip. The track builds this incredible tapestry of heroic synth strings and scatting trumpets that wouldn’t sound out of place scoring the greatest movie never made. It’s the kind of production that makes other producers quietly close their laptops and contemplate a career change.
The album closer ‘Do It (Again)’ might be the most audacious flex here. Reimagining TLC’s ‘Let’s Do It Again’ could’ve been a disaster in less capable hands. Instead, Kay transforms the sultry R&B classic into something that sounds like what might happen if NASA decided to open a nightclub on Mars.
Mind you, it’s not all revolutionary stuff. ‘Space Invader’ (the lead single) plays it surprisingly safe — competent, sure, with those trademark Roland TR-808 handclaps and stretchy synths, but perhaps a bit too comfortable for someone who’s literally spawned his own production adjective. (“Kaytranada-coded” has become industry shorthand for any track mixing jazz and soul with electronic elements — how many producers can say they’ve influenced the actual vocabulary of music criticism?)
Speaking of influence — while this album’s making waves, Kay’s already got his sights set on that massive North American tour with Justice this fall. Fifteen shows from Vancouver to Miami, plus stepping in for Playboi Carti on The Weeknd’s Canadian dates? The man clearly doesn’t believe in downtime.
‘Ain’t No Damn Way!’ stands as something rather special in today’s feature-obsessed landscape. It’s Kaytranada alone in his element, conducting an orchestra of beats and bytes with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what they’re doing — even if what they’re doing sometimes sounds gloriously impossible. In a genre that often feels like it’s running out of road, he’s somehow found a whole new highway.
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