Oliver Night - Run Like The River feat. TREV (Tru-Thoughts)

The Slow Music Movement
2 days ago
2 min read

A circle frames a picture of homemade speakers and pot plants divided by a capital N that is set into the circle; text below reads "Run Like the River with Trev, Reach Out, Oliver Night."

With roots in Roots Manuva's Banana Klan, Oliver Night was well schooled and been hanging around with good company ever since via collaborations with the likes of IG Culture, Jimpster and Inkswel. He's a producer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and man about soulful, bass heavy and bruk London town, and a true child of The Co-Op, especially the never to be forgotten Velvet Rooms Sunday sessions, which acted as an incubator for so much talent, not to mention being one of the best club nights ever - I'm not joking.

Oliver Night with dreadlocks and sunglasses in a leather cap and vest, smiling and looking down. Low-key light mood, neutral background. Black and white.

Night's latest release sees him heading south for some fresh air and a paddle, and hooking up withBrighton's Tru-Thoughts label, as fine home a home as any for his blend of underground beats and progressive soul endeavour. For the opener, "Run Like The River" Night gave the new to me, TREV a shout for some rhodes and percussive assistance which leans to the live and loose end of the broken beat spectrum, scooping up the good natured, positive vibin' Rhodes and guiding the warm bass and intermittent strings. That on its own would work for me - the groove is tight and the vibes right, but Night shows off his soul chops, steering a true, head held high lyrical course through the rat race and capitalism's mirage, encouraging you to do the same. I hear your brother.

Flip over that mp3 though you don't want to miss the peak time bruk pressure of "Reach Out". No more Mr. nice guy here. He's out to test your bass bins and footwork so make sure you warm up first. The bass has more bounce and twists to the ounce, the drums tighten and snap, the vocals chopped like chicken by the razor edged synths and there's even some D&B nods for those that know - told you he was a man about bass heavy town. Give the girls a break for this one, get your head down, close your eyes and hope you put on enough deodorant, it's 2001 all over again and don't it sound good.