Featuring a star-studded guest list and taking in a laundry list of genres, ‘DRONES’ is a cohesive and thematic album thanks to master arranging from Terrace Martin. Taking in organic R&B, Hip Hop, Jazz, House and Pop the album is grounded by weighty beats and an evolving lyrical theme delving into freedom and action, collective and individual. It’s a project that risks coming over as heavy, but instead Martin retains a sense of momentum as each track expands for new horizons, layering on detail one after the next. Martin is at his best using the textures and styles of his various collaborators, including Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Ty Dolla $ign, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Leon Bridges and D Smoke, to tease out new angles as he encourages each to reach for their own horizon though unsurprisingly the more Jazz-inflected tracks tend towards highlights.