The name “Q4” comes from quadra­phonic music, which gen­er­ally means four sound sources cre­at­ing a dimen­sional space for music to travel around in (ah.…memories of Beastie Boys con­certs.…). Not exactly some­thing you can repli­cate at home eas­ily, and Sound Sur­round­ings doesn’t attempt to do this. Rather, the square of sound is meant to be the three musi­cians and the lis­tener. Arts the Beat­doc­tor, Sense, and STW com­prise The Q4 and the album is very much in the realm of “down­tempo” and “instru­men­tal hip-hop.” What makes it imme­di­ately more than those labels, though, is the strong sense of melody and com­po­si­tion that per­vades these beat con­struc­tions. Take stand­out track “One Of These Days,” which uses a sam­ple I think I rec­og­nize from Michael Mann’s Miami Vice film. Amidst swoon­ing strings, syn­co­pated keys, and thick drums, the melan­choly voice cries out “one of these days, and it won’t be long, you’re gonna search for me and I’ll be gone…”. It’s a heady brew and com­pletely cap­tures the essence of the very best of this kind of music. The Latin inflec­tions of “Oscuros Ange­les,” fea­tur­ing Curra Suarez is grounded by deep bass and calls to mind a heady night out on the town. Songs like “Look Again,” “Goin’ Down,” and “Split Per­son­al­ity” show the artists in Q4’s predilec­tion for using jazz as a main method of melody and atmos­phere. Brushed per­cus­sion, mean­der­ing bass, falls of keys, horns, these are the sounds that careen around quadra­phonic space between Q4 and the listener.