Letta: Testimony (Coyote, 2015)

January 24, 2016 at 2:56 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Letta: Testimony

Haven’t really heard too much about Letta, and he’s not the only artist using that name so Last.fm isn’t any help, but this is a seriously great, lush instrumental grime album in the vein of Logos or Strict Face. It’s the type of album that as soon as I put it on, it sounds immediately familiar and comfortable, yet it still has unique sounds and approaches to rhythm. Very spacious and considered, it takes its time to build the skeletal rhythms and translucent bass sounds, along with ghostly voices and Castlevania-like effects. Those video game shattering noises in “The Recluse” are grin-inducing, and I swear I’ve heard that weightless bass melody before, but it sounds so good. “North Face” can’t help throwing in an already over-used R&B sample, because every producer does that, but “Do You Ever See” samples late-period Everything But The Girl, so he gets points for that. Letta and Last Japan trade remixes at the end of the album, and Last Japan seems to have more of a developed sound, and his style is a bit more dramatic. Despite a few gunshot sounds here and there, this definitely isn’t the type of overwhelming, suffocating, noisy grime album that a lot of producers have been releasing as of late, it’s sparse and melodic and melancholy, and not really club-friendly, but definitely accessible. Certainly a name to watch.

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