Send "Salva " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Not every new bass-music record has to be a huge sea change. At some point, it's good to recognize when music from an advancement-heavy scene actually succeeds as a workaday yet appealing synthesis of things that've already worked before. And when that synthesis is as broad-minded as Salva's debut, Complex Housing-- which reaches toward a unique fingerprint while still letting the seams of influence show-- that it clicks at all is an achievement in itself. Paul Salva, head of SF-area label Frite Nite, operates like the end product of cross-genre overload, the end result being an album that shows both the creative freedom and the unpredictability of someone who isn't in a big hurry to find a niche yet.The trick to Salva's music is how it shrugs off attempts to pin down its elusive origin point. There's a noticeable stylistic affinity with the Low End Theory scene a ways down the California coast in the future-funk hip hop insinuations. But the threads that run through it touch on a checklist of important club music movements from the last decade-- neo-electro, Southern bounce, filter house, ghettotech, "purple" dubstep, turn-of-the-decade Dilla breaks, UK funky, pop grime, and boogie funk revival. It's less the affected accent of the kid who comes back from a year in England talking like a Guy Ritchie bit player, and more like the voice of a constantly moving Army brat who's let the dialects of five different regions shape his speech as he grows up. The reason this succeeds hangs largely on Salva's ear for retrofitting familiar sonic tropes. Probably the easiest example to point to would be his cover of Robert Owens' "I'll Be Your Friend". Stripped to the chassis and rebuilt as a sparse, spacious yet evocative minimal-skewing revamp, the remake builds on a recognition of what made the original work rhythmically, shuffling roles around in its thorough modernization of an early-90s house anthem. The bassline becomes a minimoog melody, the 4/4 gains a slippery, skip-rhythm pulse, and the vocal is drawn out into hypnotic, delayed-payoff repetition mid-sentence ("I'll be your, I'll be your, I'll be your"). It's a good way to nod back to old heads, and it gives Salva's music a bit of grounding in a historical context that goes deeper than the past 10 years....full text |
| Residentadvisor |
| The American West Coast has been a fertile bed for several permutations of electronic music, be it the thriving Bay Area dubstep scene or the always-expanding L.A. beat scene. Considering the expanse and in-house diversity of these collectives, it's surprising how little cross-pollination there is: You can usually pick out a member of a certain local scene quite easily without much margin of error. Until now, that is. Paul Salva, head of the Frite Nite label and collective, called SF home in recent years—just recently relocating to LA—and it comes through in his sound: his tracks have a West Coast exaggerated funkiness and playfulness to them, along with the drunken swagger that only comes from years of digesting hip-hop. Each track on Salva's debut Complex Housing is carefully considered and solidly written—neither burning through too fast nor lingering past their welcome—built meticulously from the ground-up. The record's main palette shares the overdriven and quashed sound of some of his contemporaries. (Think Lazer Sword only much, much better.) However, there's an intense and studied musicality on display, particularly with the opening duo of "Beached" and "Wake Ups," two tracks so silky they can't help but slip through your fingers and leave captivating melodies behind in the messy process. The retro pastiches of his contemporaries sound boring and insincere in comparison. Salva also dips his fingers in dubstep, and whatever else might be happening in the UK: you can hear bits of Night Slugs and other similarly house-oriented UK trends. Instead of flailing like a fish out of water, the broader horizon endows Salva's album with a level of sonic detail that you might not normally expect from a West Coast producer. The screeching Hoover-pop of "40 Karatz" is grounded with tremor-inducing sub-bass and 808, as if "Woooo Riddim" got caught it in its rapidly revolving spokes. The cutesy vocal gymnastics on "Keys Open Doors" or the elliptical beats of "Baroque" can't help but bring to name any number of future garage producers, and "Icey" is the best Joker track that Joker never made....full text |
| Squeegiesounds |
| Paul Salva is a man who knows his way around a keyboard. At the risk of sounding slightly reductive, his debut album Complex Housing (on Friends of Friends) is a fascinating album because of two things: drum lines and synthesizers. Now, I know the argument can be made that this is what makes nearly all electronic music interesting, but Salva’s deft production work, weaving hyper-energetic rhythms, tasteful vocal samples and simply fantastic synth melodies, makes for something that stands far apart from the work of most producers. Hit the jump for the full review, and a handful of free tracks from Salva. NOTE: Fact Mag, in all of its excellence, has offered the full album of Complex Housing to stream on Soundcloud for this week only (Jan.31). I’m going to include the streams for reference at the bottom of the review, but they’ll be expired by the end of the week. As with most good electronic music these days, genre is immaterial to the framework of Complex Housing. Salva’s main goal seems to be simply to get heads bobbing and feet moving, and he has certainly succeeded on his debut full-length. There is an unrelentingly funky feel to Complex Housing–Salva clearly had fun making this album, and that shows in his music. From the opening salvo of “Beached”, it’s clear that Complex Housing will be an intriguing album. With its sweeping chords and insistent rhythms, “Beached” sets the tone for the rest of the LP; melody is never sacrificed for danceability, nor does the reverse take place. I’ve listened to Complex Housing mostly on headphones while relaxing at home, but I can safely say I would have no problem getting down to Salva’s sounds on the dancefloor. Though it’s almost impossible to miss the house influences on Complex Housing, with its heavy use of chord accenting and tracks like “I’ll Be Your Friend” (a take on Robert Owens’ classic track of the same name) this is not, at its roots, a house record. Choosing to forgo the four-to-the-floor rhythms of Owens and his other forebears, Salva injects flavors of hip-hop, juke and garage into his productions for an end product that presents an amalgamation of popular styles; this is truly “dance music”. Don’t let my writing fool you into thinking that Salva is purely a dancefloor producer, however; there is a wide variety of music to be found on Complex Housing, like the retro-futurist funk of the hazy “40 Karats (feat. Zackey Force Funk)”, a dazed, late-night bit of synth-pop. ”Icey” moves Salva’s skills into a more dubstep-oriented template, with thunderous drums that hearken to some of Eskmo’s work driving another delightfully sugar-coated melody....full text |
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