I already flagged this one briefly in the CW 37 weekly roundup, so consider this the full write-up. A Cat Called FRITZ, the French beatmaker, multi-instrumentalist and graphic designer who has been carving out his own lane since "Tribulation & Life" back in 2009, is back with a full album called DISCIPLINE SE7ENTY 9 [The LP]. It collects the previously unreleased tracks from his mixtape of the same name and turns them into a proper 13-track statement.
The pitch here is simple and old-school in the best sense. FRITZ composed, mixed, mastered and illustrated the whole thing himself. That is rare. Most projects that claim full independence still farm out the mastering or the artwork. Here one person owns the entire chain, and you can hear the consistency that comes with it. The sound leans on warm basslines, dusty sample work and soulful vocal passages that pull the record toward neo-soul without ever losing the boom bap backbone. Cutting through all of it are the scratches of DJ Lyrik, FRITZ's long-running alter ego, who has been on his records since the earliest Slice of Spice releases.
The guest list is where the record shows its roots. Audessey shows up twice, on "To The B" and "Atmosphere", which makes sense given the two have a deep history together, including the Slice of Spice vinyl work like "By Design" and "Beats Per Minute". Oxygen joins Audessey on the "To The B" remix, keeping the Soundsci connection intact. Pseudo Slang opens the album on "Exodus Again", T-Love adds her voice to the same posse cut, and there are features from LaNote, Lanoir of JATOBA, plus Lemdi and Moax, the latter tied to FRITZ's French crew work under the Mauvais Zèbres banner. It reads like a passport stamped across the international underground rather than a list of names chasing streams.
Structurally FRITZ builds the album like a themed body of work, not a random beat dump. Four "Discipline" skits break the tracklist into chapters, which is a deliberate throwback to how albums used to breathe. "Stardust" and "Interstellar" keep alive the cosmic, jazz-tinged strain that ran through his "Vertical Iris" project, so anyone who followed that record will recognize the DNA. The closer "To The Fresh" lands like a mission statement rather than an afterthought.
What makes this one worth your time is the intent behind it. FRITZ frames the album as an act of musical resistance dedicated to purists and music lovers, and the craft backs that framing up. This is not trend-chasing. It is sample-based hip-hop made by someone who treats the whole process, from the drums to the printed insert, as one piece of art.
DISCIPLINE SE7ENTY 9 [The LP] released on 11 September 2026 and comes with a double-sided printed artwork and credit insert. If you value the noble art of sampling and vocals that actually carry soul, this belongs in your rotation.
