- Shimmering disco-house.
- Now, this is clever. Rip a sample from an '80s pop hit, but make it just obscure enough that most people won't pick the source straight away. Ears will prickle with pleasurable recognition, and this might be satisfying enough to some. The rest will rack their brains trying to place the sample until the puzzle is finally solved.
This was my experience, anyway, when hearing "Both Of Us Knowing," a track with early support from Job Jobse and Nina Kraviz poised for late summer ubiquity. It's the newest from Nyra, AKA Ryan Davis, a former pro cyclist from Sheffield who has pumped out ten very good EPs on his own Canoe label in the past two years.
On "Both Of Us Knowing," he takes a line from a chart-topping classic, removes the original's synthetic drum heartbeat and replaces it with an arpeggiated bassline (possibly also sampled). The singer’s wordless roar makes it in, as does another two-word repeated snippet ("to hold") but the source is still hard to pin down (I did get it eventually, but I won’t spoil the fun for the rest of you). That Davis has concealed it so well and made it nearly as catchy as the original is some feat.
"Video People" renovates vintage Atari-esque bleeps with pristine edges and chilly rave synths, while "Neon Glance" takes a leaf out of the New Order playbook with hiccuping synths and a rubbery bassline. The EP furthers what his others have already demonstrated: Davis is an exciting tunemaker adept in both sampled disco and pummelling space techno. Still, in spite of fans such as The Black Madonna, he's somewhat flown under the radar. Eleven might be his lucky number.
TracklistA1 Both Of Us Knowing
B1 Video People
B2 Neon Glance