River Tiber may not be the most immediately familiar of names, and so you may be surprised to hear that this Canadian musician-producer has been sampled or featured on songs by the likes of Drake, Ty Dolla $ign and Kaytranada. It’s been about a year since Tommy Paxton-Beesley share some original work, leaving us with the elastic, turn-down-the-lights motif of ‘Gravity’. With an equally measured composition, ‘Patience’ has that signature River Tiber relaxed feel, but there’s another gesture brooding underneath this track. Perhaps it’s the hushed vocals, the hummed backing vocals, the delicate keys, the series of imagined wishes… Of course, it’s the careful combination of all these factors that give the impression of River Tiber’s patience. However, the more that the Toronto talent muses on these possibilities with this unnamed lover, the more uncontrollable his desires become, until the track bursts into an electric-soul surge of sound and emotion. It’s as though a full band, previously frozen on the stage, has come to life - enter crashing drums, grooving bass line, guitar, violin, alto saxophone. Here’s the surprise: it’s all Tommy Paxton-Beesley. With this revelation in mind and reeling in the afterglow of ‘Patience’, there’s no denying that River Tiber is an incomprehensibly talented artist. - HT