The Expert – Vivid Visions

LINER NOTES BY DYLAN GREEN: More often than not, the best music paints pictures in my mind’s eye. Drum breaks can conjure rolling waterfalls or the gurgling pop of a bad stomach ache; flutes could bring about images of cherubs and flower petals or a sense of comedic grief straight out of a Todd Solondz movie. Whether it’s happy or sad, horrifying or cutesy, or just colorful bouts of synesthesia, visuals dance through my head when I’m most engaged with those sounds. What visions come to mind when I hear the music of The Expert? The Irish producer has taken my ears and eyes to all kinds of places over the last few years. Listening to the average Expert album, I’ve been casted to sunny beaches drenched in sticky bass riffs, moonlit cobblestone streets flanked by woodblock pops and vinyl crackle, or smoke-drenched parlors populated by noirish jazz prodigies or choirs singing into the abyss with all their might. The Expert has an ear for the psychedelic and hazy that pulls equally from the works of The Avalanches and Paten Locke—imagine the Beach Boys if Brian Wilson went stomping through the mud like RZA. “Cinematic” is a word that’s thrown around often when describing production, but The Expert’s creations truly feel like worlds in their own right; some sparse and expansive, others colorful and bouncy, but all packed to the brim with personality and anchored by a low-end deep enough to rock your gold fillings. The Expert is back with the producer album of his dream, the twisty trip through modern indie rap known as ‘Vivid Visions.’ The album is ambitious, even by Ex’s standards. Inspired by a batch of eerie saturated dreamscapes—The Monkees’s 1968 album Head and its companion film of the same name, the surrealism of David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks,’ kaleidoscopic ads pulled straight from the files of ‘Sgt. Pepper’—he wanted this to transcend being a simple compilation album by stitching together a theme: a psychedelic trip through the mind. While not a concept album per se, ‘Vivid Visions’ lives up to its title with verses highlighting each of its 21 guest features’ perspectives on the world. That’s right—this album features a whopping 21 rappers from across time zones, a combination of old and new faces ready to tear into these blappers like taffy. Getting a handful of rappers on the same page is difficult, never mind close to two dozen, but they all rise to the occasion. Returning guests like Blu, Stik Figa, and Donwill of the duo Tanya Morgan hold their own like you’d expect, but it’s the new player characters who put up the most impressive fight. Indie rap veterans Buck 65, Rob Cave, and ShrapKnel step up to the plate for a new wave of listeners, while the next generation of stars, from West Coast punchline heroes AJ Suede and Milc to New York fixtures Duncecap and Lungs, continue to prove why they’re next up. ‘Visions’ is, above all, a celebration of the indie rap scene spanning generations and countries, with rappers of all stripes convening to get their shit off. The beats range from dreamy and maudlin to glitchy, and each rapper brings stories and images matching that potency. One moment, pigeons dot powerlines during an acid trip while piano keys and ghostly vocals slink in the background. On another, twangy bass and pittering hi-hats soundtrack a smothering by weighted blanket while being ganged up on by the voices in your head. Have you ever taken an acid tab given to you by a Roman priest? Or bared the thought of miraculously appearing on a kiss cam with your ex? How much cocaine do you think screenwriter Aaron Sorkin snorts before he starts drafting a script? What city would dare attempt to generate electricity through wind power courtesy of a hundred windmilling B-boys? These are the tiny delights waiting inside this Wonder Ball of an album. Of all the guests, two stepped up to truly help flesh out the vision: New Jersey-via-Massachusetts rapper-producer NAHreally and Chicago’s own Defcee. Vivid Visions is home to “40 Winks,” the first song Ex and NAH ever created together, even preceding the ‘BLIP’ sessions. The chemistry prevalent on that song helped NAH become something like an executive producer and A&R for the album, being around for Ex to bounce ideas off of and to help communicate the album’s tone to some of the guests. All guests were sent a handful of beats Ex thought would fit them best and were asked to pick their favorite, but Defcee wound up writing to three of his, and those verses helped make even more sense of the project’s overall scope. In the first few moments of the film ‘Head,’ The Monkees run through the ribbon of a bridge cutting ceremony and jet across before Micky Dolenz jumps off the side of the bridge. As he falls into the water, he begins to rotate and drift, as if he’s floating in a bubble. Listening to Vivid Visions is like floating in that bubble, isolated and content about it, enjoying every second before you hit the water. My favorite music always communicates an experience to me, even if that experience is just silently vibing to the sounds of the universe. Vivid Visions brings a handful of those experiences together, all orbiting around the sound of one of indie rap’s most elegant producers. —Dylan Green (Dylan ‘CineMasai’ Green is the co-founder of Hearing Things, and creator/host/producer of Reel Notes) credits releases September 26, 2025 —- All music produced, arranged, and mixed by The Expert theexpert.bandcamp.com www.instagram.com/itstheexpert Mastered by Keith Kreuser Art & Design by Matt Littler Layout by Robert Krums Bandcamp liner notes by Dylan Green Released by Rucksack Records rucksackrecords.bandcamp.com www.instagram.com/rucksack_records