Premiere: Sylas - Layer (feat. Jelani Blackman and Brian Eno)

Sylas are a new duo who we first wrote about back in September, when they streamed their debut song Hollow.

As we mentioned at the time, Sylas were discovered by Brian Eno at a singing group in West London, with the duo collaborating with Eno on a number of his projects. In return, Eno collaborated with Sylas – and you can hear the fruits of that team-up on Layer.

We're not 100% sure what Eno contributed to Layer, and that's probably just as well, because he's not even the main draw here. Instead, the track is stolen by Jelani Blackman, who delivers raspy, spoken verses. Blackman's own music is a skewed take on soul and R&B songwriting, but it's a bit brighter than his turn on Layer.

It'll be interesting to hear what Sylas do next. Their music is quite dark and strange, but it's also adaptable: there's been a classicist's approach to songwriting in everything that they've put out so far, and you get the feeling that their next move could either see them going into even more pop(ish) directions, or it could see them get even weirder.