Tyrone Jermaine Carter aka Lil Silva isn’t a well-known name, but he is a seasoned British producer. He was at the controls of Adele’s album 25and worked extensively with the London soul singer Sampha.
His first self-titled album features an impressive line-up of guests, from Sampha, of course, to the rapper Ghetts and the Canadian jazz band Badbadnotgood. But the main role is really for the producer himself, who impressively shows how rich British dance is, and how well house, grime and even dubstep can be used in pure pop music, with an exuberant sense of soul and R&B.
Lil Silva has been building his own special mix of soul and jazz for a long time, for example in the track Vera (Judah Speaks) is also dragged quite deeply by dark club rhythms. The arrangements are beautiful, especially in instrumental tracks like September, in which a vocal soul sample is placed in a framework of cutting and abrasive beats, with dreamy synths and orchestral strings. The number colors, with a simple but effective text about human equality, is also so well-constructed: the track starts as a fragile pop song at the piano, changes halfway into a solid dance track full of grim, typically British bass, and ends in a symphonic cloud of violins and cellos. And the song continues to reverberate between the ears for a long time despite all that multi-colouredness.
Sometimes threatens Yesterday is Heavy to get a little too sweet: the track Leave It for example, with lots of falsetto voices and funky guitars, is just a bit too generic. But Lil Silva puts things in order in time, for example in the Massive Attack-esque trip-hop track still, with cool poetry by Sampha and rapper Ghetts. What a fine and subtly sensitive dance record.
Lil Silva
Yesterday is Heavy
dance
★★★★ ren
Nowhere Music
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