Sept 5th

Recording information: Remix Project, Toronto, ON.
Photographers: Lesean Harris; Yasin Osman.
Here's some more narcotic, dimly lit R&B balladry from Drake's Warner-supported OVO Sound label, this time courtesy of duo dvsn, who were a bit coy about revealing their identities. Producer Paul Jefferies (aka Nineteen85, co-maker of "Hotline Bling") and primary vocalist Daniel Daley are credited as co-writers on each song, and they get occasional assistance from Adam Feeney (aka Frank Dukes), Majid Al Maskati (of labelmates Majid Jordan), and Stephen Kozmeniuk (who helped out on Kendrick Lamar's "The Blacker the Berry"). There are a few other accomplices, including some background vocalists who help make some of the material sound like some kind of intimate carnal gospel service, like on "Too Deep," as in "In...too...deep, don't wanna...pull out." Apart from the relatively lively pulse of the aching "Another One," everything plays out at slow-jam tempo, and the vocals often slip into falsetto mode with lapses in enunciation. The duo is at their most effective on finale "The Line," a bare, subtly churchified pleader. ~ Andy Kellman