There’s something pensive about an Elusive beat, yet unkempt, in the past overtly sparse and now with time, strengthened by a heightened sense of the importance of drums. As depict on the album cover, Elusive’s fingers have awoken and while the dancing hand-shoes may still need some breaking in, as they feel uppity enough to provoke a new direction of beat-conduction and a new page in a steadily maturing producer. Intact is the subdued opaque of the recognizable Elusive beat – gone are some of the occasional doldrums. Elusive Audio gathers the a heavyweight list of California’s “usual suspects”, with a healthy split between the Fellowship & the Legends with a Phoenix Orion  on top for good measure.

Elusive Audio teeters on the slickness of 2000′s Elements Of A Prototype all the while roughed up a bit with roguish basslines and dust laden sample traces, providing a sometimes off-balance to the album as a whole. “Tapping Out” focalizes Murs at his fiercest aside a rolling bump-a-lump, heating up verse from verse. Cooling off, Abstract Rude makes his presence felt, more subtly yet equally captivating on “Just Lounging”. The two craft an innocent ditty of bachelor life at the local pub, so much you can almost taste single-man’s treat of “celery sticks and hot wings” with the smokes and green bottles of beer. The result is too buttery and quite fitting for your average hardworking hip-hop head.

With no a rapper atop, Elusive finds sanctity on the calming “Immortality” with his trumpet playing brother Josh Koslow (their second effort, “The Night Scan” gets the nod as well). Even the simplest utilizing of Bob James’ “Nautilus” on “Heaven Scent”, a surprisingly addictive R&B jammy by Arima Azul, makes good and proves one of the album’s more attractive slabs. Notable appearances are made by Aceyalone (surely a taste of their collaborative album set to drop soon) on “Shooby Dooby” and Basik MC’s oddly-bubbling “Can’t Have It Back” to round things out. And while various others come through for the event, not all leave the listener begging for more. Elusive is consistent, he hasn’t shed his skin too far from the 6 Degrees Of Separation days. He stays true to his moniker; smoky, dusty, and in the shadows.