Leeds producer Liston is proving himself to be surprisingly dexterous as his tenure at the XVI label continues. Having already proven to be more than adept at making chilled, flickering garage tunes—as we heard in April when his “All on You” track was featured—the beatsmith is now exercising a more laidback and soulful approach on tunes like “Yan See.” Liston’s track has the constant whirr of a runout groove in the background, relying on drum sounds from the golden age of hip-hop and a spitfire bassline to lead the thing forward. Compared to the semi-romantic soundscapes that packed every corner of “All on You,” “Yan See” is almost considerably more bare bones, making maximal use of an effectively minimal arrangement. This side of Liston was recently spotlighted in a compilation of soul-sampling productions called Selected Cuts (download it for free here), with word of a more garage-rooted EP due sometime this summer.

Yan See