Single Review – Lil Silva – Mabel Ep

There are so many producers who claim to be influenced by Timbaland, but yet so few who get to grips with the ceaseless innovation and inherant funk that makes Timbaland's music so damn good. Lil Silva now, Lil Silva may be one of the few guys this doesn't apply to. The producer can craft rhythms that judder and click, without losing their silky grip on the dancefloor. He can conjure strange, submerged melodies that you can still hum, and he can make pop music that is as weird as it is hooky. On the new EP he does all of these things with typical aplomb, taking in a range of tempos but keeping his unity of style – and yes, those much loved concretesmash snare hits are present.

Opener 'First Mark' starts proceedings well, with a lurching hip hop jam that takes Flying Lotus' afrofuturist template to a woodland rave and spikes it with psilocybin. Next up, 'Kimmy' is part gospel acapella, part seasick disco experiment. 'Don't You Love', the first of two tracks featuring Banks, is some deep, heady future RnB shit, that avoids the cliches and pitfalls of the genre by not being insipid, instead offering a smart collision of  throbbing bass and poppy vocal melodies. The other Banks collabo is a more introspective affair, a skeletal groove carrying Banks' understated vocal. The title track itself is the most 'clubby' of the package, with the minor key melodies driven by a house tempo beat that rattles with quick fire hi hats. Thge whole thing works best listened to as an EP, the whole ultimately proving greater than the sum of its already fairly nifty parts. With each release, Silva cements his position as one of the true forward looking players on the UK scene, and with the Mabel EP he's delivered some of his best work for some time. 

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