Truancy Volume 147: Silk Road Assassins

Hot on the heels of their debut EP Reflection Spaces for Planet Mu and ahead of their Fabric appearance this Friday, we’re thrilled to present Silk Road Assassins for Truancy Volume 147. Formed by Coyote Records mainstays and longtime friends Chemist and Tom E Vercetti, along with their university classmate Lovedr0id, Silk Road Assassins pair the emotive synths of Vangelis with the percussion patterns of grime and trap. If that sounds like a familiar blueprint you won’t be surprised to hear their track “Shaded” was a centrepiece of Kuedo’s Truancy Volume last year, with the Knives boss responsible for linking the production trio up with Planet Mu. Silk Road Assassins are a different animal though, taking their cues from the likes of Metro Boomin and Lil Durk producer Paris Beuller rather than the footwork that informed Severant.

Since the release of Reflection Spaces, the trio have been busy adapting their expansive sci-fi sound for MCs, having recently remixed AJ Tracey’s anthemic “Ascend” and provided production on Chicago drill rapper Mikey Dollarz’s “Commas”. This Friday they’ll be heading up a Coyote Records showcase at Fabric together with the OG producer of “Ascend”, Last Japan, as well as OH91 and Tarquin. Topping the bill is the touring Jersey club kween UNIIQU3. Their contribution to the Truancy Volume series should give you a good impression of how they solidify their trap abstractions for the dance floor: no tracklist was supplied, but we hear some synth drenched edits of Young Thug and Trey Songz showing up between music from M.E.S.H., Rabit and Neana. We caught up with them for a quick Q&A.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves for the uninitiated? “We’re Silk Road Assassins, a production trio from the South West. We’ve recently put out our debut EP Reflection Spaces on Planet Mu.”

You recently told Fact Magazine that your aim is to “build a city with sound”, heavily referencing sci-fi and movie soundtracks. Given you’re playing Fabric on Friday, how do you envisage the Silk Road Assassins project in a club context? “The music is definitely inspired a lot by film/game soundtracks but we also take as much influence from club music. A lot of music we play in the club leans more towards the latter but we just like to play a wide mix which hopefully shows where our influences come from too.”

Some of the music that makes up Reflection Spaces has been floating around for a while – in fact Kuedo dropped “Shaded” on his Truancy Volume over a year ago. Now that it’s finally out there, what do you guys have planned next? “We’ve got another 12″ planned for later this year which will be a couple of older tracks we thought it would be cool to put out. We’re also working on a lot of rap beats at the minute and starting to plan an album.”

Have you made any more progress with your MC-led SRA material? “We’re writing instrumentals for rappers/MCs all the time but we haven’t sent many out yet as we’re still fine tuning the process. Those projects will start surfacing throughout the year though.”

What can you tell us about the mix you’ve made for us? “The mix we put together is a collection of old and new tracks we’re feeling, some completely unheard and a few from our friends. We tried to include a broad range of music that interests us and reflects our club sets.”