Tumble down the rabbit hole of Sparklmami Radio and you’ll come up for air twenty four minutes later grinning and wanting to go straight back in. in this body is an exceptionally rich debut from Chicago based multidisciplinary artist Sparklmami that draws from seventies Brazilian pop, Mexican boleros, Chicago soul, and the Brainfeeder universe of modern jazz funk.

A swirling, sumptuous, exotic wonderland of a record that’s impossible to classify, the instrumentation is breathtaking in its variety and abundance, with horn lines swirling around the vocals and vibraphones shimmering. Bass lines groove with a balance of complexity and casual ease with saxophone solos moving in and out, and there seems to be no limit to what might appear next.

English and Spanish weave together throughout as the record wears its multicultural clothes with ease and confidence. no te vayas opens the album with tropicalia dripping with texture sounding like the kind of records The Avalanches would have sampled. Exotic, rich, sunny and warm, fajas is simultaneously slow, deep and groovy but with incredibly quick percussion, and chords rooted in bossa nova and samba tradition. quisiera slows everything down to a cinematic mood with flutes adding a quality of gentle wonder that stops you in your tracks. penso en voce picks the pace back up with a sighing and unpredictable vocal line, and Grounded is built on happy but surprising chords that are constantly unexpected and never once unpleasant.

The record sits in the same universe as Thundercat and Flying Lotus, with the spirit of modern jazz funk that’s completely outside any box. Richly organic music, the closer in this body strips everything back to pads and a deep and tender vocal line, with a rare moment of focus on Sparklmami as a singer rather than as the conducter of this extraordinary ensemble. Twenty four minutes is brief, and there are enough ideas here to fill a record twice this length, but the discipline to keep it snappy means it remains fun rather than overwhelming.

in this body feels at home in the tradition of Chicago’s creative ambition. It’s a record that could only have been made by someone embedded in a community of outstanding musicians who trust each other completely. Sparklmami places faith in her collaborators, and they place faith in her vision, and the result is a record that fills the frequency range with richness.

The record sits in an open, curious, genre-fluid space where everything is welcome as long as it’s rooted in genuine feeling. The recording quality feels modern, and the unpredictability feels contemporary, but the genres and styles being quoted are classic and rich. Modern music made from beautiful old materials.