Toronto producer River Tiber is running through the 6 making "Waves"

25 August 2015, 10:45 | Written by Michael McAndrew

(Tracks)

(River Tiber)

You may not be familiar with Toronto multi-instrumentalist and producer Tommy Paxton-Beesley, aka River Tiber. But it is very likely you’ve heard him. If you’re one of the millions to purchase, stream, or illegally download (I see you, pirates) Drake’s February mix tape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late and the standout “No Tellin’”, you’ve heard Beesley’s muggy falsetto anchoring that track’s second half.

And though that vocal sample, from the then-unreleased “No Talk”, sounds radically recontextualized in the hands of Boi-1da and Frank Dukes (a friend of Beesley’s), River Tiber seems to have taken a page out of the OVO sound playbook on his latest, distilling and reinterpreting many of the elements that gave IYRTITL its haunted, claustrophobic vibe.

In the song’s first half alone there are ghostly, lilypad-hopping synths, disorienting chimes that fall aimlessly around the song’s breaks, and a thudding beat that stomps woozily around, seemingly just behind or ahead of tempo with each step. Three and a half minutes in, Beesley shows his range by transforming it all into a jazzy pulse that allows his voice to float around the song’s edges. Despite the uptick in tempo, he’s still remote, lonely. It’s 5am in Toronto and he’s singing straight into your answering machine: “say it like you really mean it to me”.

River Tiber's sophomore EP When The Time Is Right is out 16 September.