REVIEW: Soela - Genuine Silk [Dial]
Elina Shorokhova by day and Soela by night is becoming a staple figure in deep house's very own wood-frame. With recent releases on Nerang Recordings, Kompakt, and Axaminer Records, the Russian youngster’s most recent release comes in album form on the revered Dial Records.
As with any release on the label, you can undoubtedly tell an enormous amount of thought and effort was put into this album. From the artwork to every single second of each track, it is overall a painstakingly, well-executed piece of art. The album flows extremely well, each track serving as a chapter and contributing a significant segment of the story that Soela attempts to, and definitely succeeds at telling.
“Prologue”, the opening track, eerily fulfills its purpose as an intro foreshadowing what’s about to follow: a release featuring club elements, that is also perfect for home listening. “Shadows On the Wall” follows, beginning abstractly before getting down to business and forcing you to start dancing -- in typical Lawrence (the co-founder of Dial) fashion.
“Inconsistency”, a collaboration with Christopher Ledger and the album’s most experimental track, then comes along, equal parts grotesque and euphoric, with a hint of dubstep influence. “Hold On” enters with its innocent, blissful vocals juxtaposed with a syncopated kick drum pattern. “Lullaby”, one of the album’s highlights, is a premium hybrid of breaky ambient, its spacey yet melancholic riff making it heartbreakingly emotional. Following comes “The Same Things, The Same Thoughts”, which serves as the perfect interlude to the album, full of static and sounds redolent of raindrops.
With the seventh track, “Power of Mind” the album’s climax begins, shifting into Dial’s signature classy deep house, with an elegant kick and nostalgic chords. “Genuine Silk”, the album’s namesake, sounds exactly like its name suggests: a dancey bassline, choppy vocals, and solid high hats, all working in harmony, combined together as smoothly as silk. “It’s Around Us” follows with a very Driftwood-esque sound, its chords, and vocals striking an uncanny resemblance of early 2000s deep, deep house. The LP comes to a resolution with the digital bonus track, “Unnamed and Uninvited”, featuring celestial pads, and beautiful high pitched vocals.
A lot of expectations come with an album release on Dial Records, especially the label’s first release of the decade -- and Soela easily manages to surpass all of them. This masterpiece is the ideal companion for our quarantined days -- but will also stand the test of time and accompany us years after we finish quarantining, whenever that may be.