SLV Is Of This Kind

Some of you might know who SLV is without actually knowing who SLV is.  Those of you in the know would recognize SLV as being Sandra Lilla Velasquez from the Latin rock and roll band Pistolera.  What’s different about SLV is Sandra’s approach to building music and how drastically different it is from her day job.  Her latest album under this moniker, This Kind is a stretch for her and challenges her mindset as a musician as it’s well out of her wheelhouse and experiments with a diverse sound palette.

This Kind is an absolutely gorgeous downtempo record that has more in common with Sade and Morcheeba than punk rock.  I have to admit that This Kind blew my mind.  I was not expecting something so lush, sensual, or texturally complex as this record turned out to be.  Sandra, her songwriting partner Sean Dixon and the ever spectacular Meshell Ndegeocello combined forces to construct some of the most beautiful soulful and sexy chilled out tunes I’ve heard this past year.  You can tell throughout this record that Sandra embraced the freedom to experiment and express herself in new ways and ran with it.   

From lush string arrangements to ambient synths and chilled beats SLV ‘s This Kind is a spiritually ornate and  extravagant record.  Sandra has created an intimate soundworld that pushes the boundaries of what she’s comfortable with.  While doing this usually ends in disaster for most in her case it might just hark a new direction.  This Kind is kind of amazing and the sort of record that shows great songwriters are still great songwriters no matter the genre.