REVIEW: Silkie - City Limits Vol. 1 LP

And here is the second review I wrote, published in the Summer 2009 issue of Big Up Magazine, Silkie's wonderful new album on Deep Medi.

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SILKIE - CITY LIMITS VOL. 1 [DEEP MEDi MUZIK]

After an onslaught of consistently epic 12” plates embodying the meditative side of dubstep music since 2006, Mala’s Deep Medi Musik label makes its first move towards a full-length album, with Silkie at the controls. Remarkably emotive, while maintaining a level of irresistible danceability, this young North Londoner displays a distinct mastery in crafting his own sound.

Within the first ten seconds of “Concrete Jungle”, you’re immediately pulled into Silkie’s care-free, summery island world of rich soundscapes, refreshing in its balance of instrumental samples and expertly designed synthetics. At its best moments, the album has the ability to make all your worries melt away and send tingles up your spine, leaving you in a blissful, energetic state, like you’re on a rainbow rollercoaster soaring through the expanses of outer space. He delivers his music the way a great linguist delivers prose – igniting feelings and actions from your inner depths. His tasteful use of uplifting melodies, harmonic shifts, and post-garage rhythms send signals to your brain that simply inspire movement in both the physical and mental realms. Most of the tracks make excellent use of bass to drive the tunes forward at the right moments, but some others use slightly typical wobbles, shifting the focus away from the more unique elements of his productions.

The standout tunes of the album evoke excitement through pure originality and raw emotion, without much use of LFO. “Purple Love”, for example, is a bubbling ascension of bass-boopage, massaging your senses down from your toes and shimmering its way up to your eyeballs. Another highlight is “Head Butt Da Deck”, beginning with a half-step rhythm that eases its way into your cranium, waits until you’ve gotten comfortable, then cuts out. What enters next is what you’ve been waiting for the whole time but you didn’t expect, and once the beat drops back in, if you’re not bobbing your head with your eyes closed, there’s something wrong with you! The finest opus of the album is undoubtedly the final track, “Beauty”. Carefully constructed from start to finish, it sweeps you off your emotional feet, and floats you up to the top of the castle you’ve been questing for this entire time, and then it’s gone, like a fleeting lover, and you’ve got nothing to do but start the journey all over again. This Silkie. This is Medi Musik.

Due out this summer, City Limits Vol. 1 couldn’t come at a better time, proving itself as a valiant contender for the most imaginative album in the dubstep sphere this year. As an LP debut for Deep Medi, it shows nothing but promise for the label. And with rumors of Quest’s album up next, the future looks very bright.

-Alex Incyde

BUY IT HERE

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Stay tuned for more reviews to come... I've just written one for the AMAZING new 2562 album 'Unbalance' in the new issue of Big Up Magazine and hopefully can post that up soon.

Until next time...