Rayner AKA Paul Rayner had a number of releases from 1997-2002 and is best known for his material on the DJ SS' Formation stable, while also putting out tunes on Urban Takeover and Grid Recordings among others. This was his first release, not that you'd have necessarily known it back then as it appeared on Formation's Colours series with no artist information or track titles. At the time, I thought this was by DJ SS himself.
The Colours Series spanned twelve releases and culminated in the Unified Colours of Drum & Bass LP. Always aimed at the dancefloor, the records often featured cheeky samples from hip-hop and r'n'b hence the lack of info on the label. Back in '97 I remember 'Silver' being cained on London's Rude FM and always getting rewound. My anticipation was so great that when it was finally released my hands were shaking so much in the shop I could barely put the needle on the record.
The intro samples Armand Van Helden's remix of Tori Amo's 'Professional Widow' (from the section between 3:46 - 4:35) over gradually building two-step drums. Over 808 kick drum bass, a sample of Tame One from The Artifacts declaring "From the wrong side... from the wrong side... the wrong side of the tracks" is utilized to great effect before the drop. The bassline is fat and bouncy and a definite floor shaker with plenty of vocal samples taken from The Artifacts track over the top including Tame One's "My name is famous in the street / Cause they know my name's from cruising in the Jeeps" and El The Sensai's "Tracks to make your hands clap". Although not the most polished of tracks and in a style that hasn't aged that well this remains a firm favourite of mine.
It was remixed by DJ SS for the Unified Colours of Drum & Bass LP and you can hear it the mixed version of the album by DJ SS & Mental Power here, coming in from around the 13 minute mark. Rayner also contributed 'Platinum' to the album under the name By Reasonable Force.