THROWBACK: Svpply - BVFFALO
The THROWBACK series is devoted to spotlighting worthy projects that never got much coverage, here or elsewhere. I interviewed SVPPLY last year — it was a good, informative talk — and he’s just secured a Seven Daysie Awards nomination for Best Club DJ. Which makes sense, since he gigs constantly, books huge events, and is generally the sort of gentleman I can call a “local tastemaker” without feeling like I’m an asshole hack. Dude is really out here.
As it turns out, dude is also really nice on the beats. Has been for some time, too: BVFFALO came out in September 2015, and it’s a superb set of chilled-out soul chops that sound thick & lush. I don’t mean “set” as a slight. This is a rock solid instrumental hip hop album, to be clear — but you can definitely hear the sequencing logic and impatient ear of an experienced, creative DJ at work here, too.
It’s a smooth, cohesive ride, and that’s by design. As the man himself explained it to me awhile back: “The concept is thinking of sampling the way native Americans thought about buffalo and using every part … for most of those songs, every instrument is from a different record, and patched together to form a whole different song.“
Soul heads and sample hawks will definitely recognize a lot of these sources, but that takes nothing away from the project, because there are a lot of great flips and cuts here. Even with the constraints of the concept, BVFFALO is more than the sum of its parts. The album is fast-moving, so while it’s hard to cite any particular favorite track, every slice is where it belongs.
It’s also an ideal soundtrack for porch beers on a beautiful day.
Give it a spin, keep supporting local music, and enjoy your summer as much as possible. This will all be gone too soon.