Lil Silva - The Split / Venture

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  • Lil Silva's beats are hi-octane, sure, but in unexpected ways: their aggressiveness comes, in part, from their strangeness (as well as from those ever-present obnoxious square-wave basslines). In the early days of his career—2008/09—UK Funky was the vessel for Silva's guerilla sonics. But in the intervening years, and over the course of a fruitful relationship with Night Slugs, the producer's style has become increasingly hermetic and self-sustaining: a singular angle on percussive, house-tempo party music that sits well in the current post-everything milieu. With the launch of his self-released white-label series—now in its second instalment—it seems that Silva is going it alone in more ways than one. "The Split" is best described as idiosyncratic bassline house, dominated by a trademark Silva bassline that glides recklessly over its stiff 4/4 thud. The arrangement is bold and playful—the off-beat ride cymbal over the second drop would sound unbearably gauche in practically anyone else's hands—and when things are pared back to a crisp electro framework partway through it's tempting to find similarities with the Swamp 81 crew. "Venture," meanwhile, faintly recalls ghetto house with its roughed-up claps and clipped synth tones in the intro. The drop, though, is Silva's alone—that bleeping melody, brash but alien, is a guaranteed earworm. These tracks largely lack the extreme shock-out factor found in Silva's finest productions, but that doesn't mean they couldn't terrorize a dance floor.
  • Tracklist
      A The Split B Venture
RA