Silkie is renowned for his unique and jazzy UK dubstep sound, and he is perfectly at home on Deep MEDi records. This time he offers his ‘Lost Tapes’ EP. Will this reach his usual standard of excellence, or will it fall flat as other “Lost Tape†releases by other artists are concerned, and be another way for a successful artist to rip off his cheap B-sides? We have here the exclusive review of the unreleased EP.
‘Preacher’s Pain’ is a soulful dubstep ballad complete with preacher-style organs, and just the right amount of bounce in its well-rounded and elastic bassline. It’s executed to UK dubstep par excellence, even excelling and raising the game of bass music up a notch. It;s not particularly justified in length vs overall composition at times, but it’s pretty irresistible.
‘Time Delay’ does okay in changing overall structure in a typical Silkie-style jam of more traditional UK house-flavour synths that travels and meanders in a sugary dubby way that is high energy, but more in a Swindle-style high energy manner, rather than too much like electro derivatives impersonating dubstep.
‘Jazz Dub’ is a swinging and stylishly crafted piece jumping along at a 4-4 tempo that still manages to classify as 2-4 movement with the hat-clack at the start of every bar. I consider this newer jazz infusion on Deep MEDi releases to be a more successful model than the electro style known as electro-swing, as it has more soul, vitamins and utilises atmosphere more successfully to me as a listener.
‘Anymuzik’ succeeds in being a tough track without going overly hard or dark, which may succeed in helping create an atmosphere at a party less male-dominated and testosterone-filled, whilst still winning rudebwoys over. ‘Boogs Noogs’ is one of the only tracks in this release to hit the old BA-BA wob-wob-wob-wob bassline formula, but successfully with Silkie’s imitatable housey percussion and jazzy, melodic synths.
There’s not much to be said about The Lost Tapes EP finale ‘Daylight Savings’ that hasn’t already been said in comparison to other tracks, except that it maintains the same light manner as the rest of the EP. Generally, this EP carries the same flow of Swindle’s Long Live the Jazz in being an entirely lush dubstep album that has potential to be consumable by a broader audience, without losing any of the integrity of original UK dubstep.
Released on Deep MEDi records on 12 August, 2013.
