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Self Service 1999

CFCF

2021

Self Service 1999

Release Date:  2021

By Pitchfork

Reviewed January 27, 2018

CFCF’s new song is a party-starter

CFCF’s Michael Silver is known for his broad range of compositional variety: From breezy Balearic rhythms to acoustic New Age collages, the Montreal producer has a knack for distilling a style’s most memorable qualities into something rich and overflowing with texture. While he’s flirted with house music before in his mixes, nothing of Silver’s output has ever felt ready for the club. Now, on his new single “Self Service,” the musician taps into the expansive history of house: With shimmering chords and silky, talkbox vocals, the track combines generations of funk and disco with an extravagance never before heard in his music. Bare-knuckle kick drums evoking early Daft Punk dominate the mix, and in Silver’s hands, these vintage tools aren’t just nostalgic, they’re reinvented. He juggles multiple effects, from ping-pong delays to subtle echo, to make the production feel off-kilter but, at the same time, the light, classical-tinged piano chords nod to his earlier, more minimalism-inspired material. On “Self Service,” Silver proves he isn’t just a master imitator but a great composer—and a party-starter, too.

7:00 PM · Jan 27, 2018