“This album started as a means of expressing my personal healing, but as it progressed, I had an epiphany,” LA-based producer Mndsgn, aka Ringgo Ancheta, tells Apple Music. “I realized it was such a rare opportunity just to be able to share the gift of music, and that it’s such a pleasure to be making music together. That’s where the title came from, as a celebration of that creativity.” Since his 2014 debut, Yawn Zen, Ancheta has established himself as one of the West Coast’s most distinctive producers, laying down head-nodding rhythms and woozy, crate-digging vocal soul for the likes of Danny Brown, Doja Cat, and Tyler, The Creator. Although he began writing Rare Pleasure in 2018, the ensuing years brought new meaning to his evolving compositions: The interjection of the pandemic heightened the rarity of making music collaboratively. The result is 13 tracks that feature his singing voice more prominently than ever before, crooning on the love ballad “Slowdance,” exploring family difficulties on the tentatively optimistic “Hope You’re Doin’ Better,” and channeling ethereal soundtrack jazz on “Medium Rare.” “I was thinking, ‘What kind of record would I make if this was the last one I made?’” he says. “If I died or if I just stopped making music altogether, what would I want to get out in this project? So, that was what made the cut.”