First Floor #106 – Who Put the UK in Charge?
a.k.a. The side effects of intense media concentration in electronic music, plus a round-up of the week's news and a big batch of new tunes.
REAL QUICK
A round-up of of the last week’s most interesting electronic music news, plus links to interviews, mixes, articles and other things I think are worth sharing.
LCD Soundsystem (and its founder James Murphy in particular) wound up in the news a few months back after I interviewed DFA Records co-founder Jonathan Galkin about his unceremonious exit from the label, and now one of the group’s members, Gavilán Rayna Russom, has granted an interview to Pitchfork about her decision to leave the band ahead of its upcoming 20-date residency at Brooklyn Steel.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Four Tet was taking Domino Records (his former label) to court over a dispute regarding streaming royalties. This past Sunday, the UK producer provided a depressing update via Twitter, revealing that Domino had removed the three releases involved in the dispute from all streaming and digital services, apparently in an effort to stop his legal case from moving forward.
Although the article is now stuck behind Billboard’s paywall, they published an excellent profile of Ableton last week, speaking at length with co-founder Gerhard Behles and inquiring about the company’s decision to stay independent. (Included in the piece is an amusing account of when Diplo literally offered to become an investor, and was politely refused.)
Last week, Tidal became the latest streaming platform to (tentatively) embrace user-centric streaming. SoundCloud was the first—a development I spoke to the company about earlier this year—and now Tidal has joined them. The details are spelled out more completely here, but for now, the new payment scheme is scheduled to launch in 2022 and will (disappointingly) only be applied to music streamed by subscribers to the platform’s $19.99-a-month Tidal HiFi Plus tier. The company has, however, added a unique twist: direct-to-artist bonus payments, where up to 10% of HiFi Plus subscribers’ fees will be paid to their most-played artists.
After dipping into some crypto waters during the past few weeks—and having some decidedly mixed feelings about it—I found this edition of Will Wilkinson’s Model Citizen newsletter, in which he asks the question, “Is Crypto Bullshit?,” to be a refreshingly timely and well-reasoned read.
In other Web3 matters, an intriguing new crypto-based music streaming and sales platform launched last week. It’s called Nina, and kicked off with exclusive offerings from artists like Imaginary Softwoods, Bergsonist, Container, Gobby, Helm, Wilted Woman and others. What’s even more intriguing is the platform’s crypto-based (but purposely non-speculative) business model, which relies on $USDC (a cryptocurrency that’s designed to mirror the US dollar), enables artists to retain a percentage of secondary sales and only charges them a one-time fee to upload music in the first place (as opposed to taking a percentage of every sale). More details are in the company’s official announcement, and while it’s still very early, I’ll definitely continue to watch how Nina grows and develops in the months ahead.
Joy Orbison rarely grants interviews, but the celebrated UK producer had an extensive chat with Richard Akingbehin for this Crack magazine profile.
I’ll warn you now that Parris is going to show up multiple times in today’s newsletter, but the London artist has provided the latest edition of Mixmag’s In Session mix series, and also spoke to the magazine’s Megan Townsend about his debut LP.
DJ Mag’s historical pieces have been especially good in recent months, and last week they published two more quality reads: Bruce Tantum’s retrospective of legendary NYC house label Nervous Records (which just celebrated its 30th anniversary), and Dave Jenkins’ look back at Âme’s “Rej,” a song which put Innversions on the map and ushered in a wave of melody-driven minimalism—a lot of which admittedly wasn’t great, but the track’s towering influence can’t be denied.
Back in April, Josey Rebelle teamed up with The Trilogy Tapes to release a limited-edition cassette mixtape, which sold out pretty much immediately, but last week the label shared a full stream of the session on SoundCloud.
Tread, an album that Ross from Friends released just a few weeks ago, was made using a software tool—more specifically, it’s a Max for Live plug-in—called Thresho that the UK artist built himself. Now he’s elected to share that software as free download, along with 50 GB of recordings he made while constructing the LP.
Do you need nine hours of Objekt in your life? Last week, he shared the full recording of a recent marathon set at NYC’s Nowadays, which took place last month and he describes as “probably the best DJ experience” of his life. The Berlin-based artist shared a lengthy post detailing the story behind the mix on Instagram, but those who prefer to dive straight into the audio can find it here.
THE OVERWHELMINGLY BRITISH PRESS
PLEASE NOTE: This piece was originally published yesterday and made available to paid subscribers, but the paywall has now been temporarily removed for the next 24 hours. If you’d like exclusive first access to long-form First Floor pieces—and unlimited views of all newsletter content—then please sign up for a paid subscription.
House and techno may have been born in the American Midwest, but modern electronic music has become a truly global enterprise. The modern electronic music media, however, most definitely is not.
When it comes to prominent publications exclusively dedicated to the genre, the vast majority are based in just one country—the UK—and many of the people who write and edit for these outlets are British. (And even if they’re not British, they almost certainly are native English speakers.) Does that automatically disqualify their work? Of course not, but this kind of media concentration does raise a lot of questions and concerns. How has coverage been affected, and how do inherent biases impact what kind of stories are—and more importantly, aren’t—being told? If a single country has such a solid grip on the music landscape—even if they didn’t intentionally seek it out—is it their responsibility to tell the story of electronic music for the entire world? Can any of this be fixed (or even adequately addressed) when it’s almost impossible to keep a niche music media outlet afloat these days?
These are some of the issues I wrestled with in this week’s First Floor essay, and yes, of course I decided to publish it on a week that the free edition of the newsletter is absolutely rammed with music from the UK. (In my defense, I never said that I too wasn’t part of the problem.)
To read the complete essay, please click here.
ANOTHER THING I WROTE
Remember my earlier warning about Parris? Well, I’ve reviewed his long-awaited debut LP, Soaked in Indigo Moonlight, for Pitchfork, and although the London native describes it as “an album built on Pop,” that (thankfully) doesn’t play out in the way those sorts of statements usually do.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases that were announced during the past week.
Sharda, a UK producer best known for his work as Murlo, will soon be releasing a new EP on Local Action. Entitled High Tide, it’s scheduled for a December 8 release, but all four of its tracks are already available to stream here. And if that’s not enough, he’s also offered up Low Tide, a 47-minute mix that consists entirely of his own productions. It’s available now as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp.
Following a few years of relative quiet, German artist Barnt is set to return with a new EP, ProMetal Fan Decor Only Product, which is slated to arrive on January 21 via Kompakt. No tracks have been shared just yet, but the release can be previewed at the label’s website.
The Bug has joined forces with Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods on a new double single for Ninja Tune. Both songs, “Treetop” and “Stoat,” are available now, and the two men were also interviewed about the collaboration by Daniel Dylan Wray for The Quietus.
New Jersey beatmaker Clams Casino dropped a new instrumental mixtape, Winter Flower, which can be streamed online here.
Kenyan bass manipulator Slikback does not stop. He’s just dropped another new EP, SCXTRX, which arrives less than three weeks after the last one, and like all of his other releases this year, it’s available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp.
Penelope Trappes’ Penelope Three is one of 2021’s most hauntingly beautiful (and slept-on) albums, and the UK-based Australian has now prepared a sort of companion release. Mother’s Blood Edition is essentially a stripped-down, instrumental version of the LP, and it will be issued on a “crystal clear” cassette by the Houndstooth label on December 3. Trappes has also put together an hour-long film called Mother’s Blood, which can be previewed in this video for the song “Lucky Eleven.” (The track’s audio has also been shared here.)
Nite Fleit is another Australian who’s based in the UK, and the electro / techno specialist has decided to wrap up 2021 with The Present, a literally named project in which she shares 36 songs—one each day—up until the end of the year. Even better, all of the tracks are available as name-your-price downloads on Bandcamp.
MY WIFE HAS BETTER TASTE THAN I DO
My wife Dania is a wonderful person, but she has little regard for my taste in electronic music. Head of the Paralaxe Editions label, she often describes the music I like with words like “cheesy,” “simple,” “predictable,” “boring” and, worst of all (in her mind), “happy.” In contrast, I think she has a fantastic ear, and I’m constantly amazed by the obscure gems she unearths, both from record bins and the dark corners of the internet. Given that, I’ve asked Dania to share some of her finds with the First Floor audience. Each week, she highlights something that she’s currently digging, and adds some of her thoughts as to why it’s worth our attention.
Nueen “Moving II” (Quiet Time)
Hello. Sometimes you miss the things that are right under your nose, and I totally slept on this one. Nueen is a young producer from the Balearic Islands who’s now living in Barcelona, and his gently crafted, transcendental soundscapes wrap you up like a warm hug. “Moving II,” a song from his recent Circular Sequence tape, has an early-’70s synth vibe with its climbing arpeggios, but Nueen isn’t as ostentatious as his predecessors. Shawn just told me that he actually wrote about this same song two months ago, but I don't care. It's still good.
Follow Dania on Twitter, or check out her monthly radio show on dublab.es.
NEW THIS WEEK
The following is a selection of my favorite tunes that came out during the past week or so. The ones in the ‘Big Three’ section are the songs I especially want to highlight (and therefore they have longer write-ups), but the tracks in the ‘Best of the Rest’ section are also very much worth your time. In both sections, you can click the track titles to hear each song individually, or you can also just head over to this convenient Buy Music Club list to find them all in one place.
THE BIG THREE
Alex Ho “Miss Suzuki” (Music from Memory)
Alex Ho “Neary” (Music from Memory)
Chilled sunset funk. That’s not really a proper genre, but it does fit the vibe of Move Through It, the debut album from Los Angeles artist Alex Ho. With its lazy drift and golden-hour glow, the record has a distinctly woozy, almost Balearic character, but the subtle bounce and smoothed-out vocals of LP opener “Miss Suzuki” are clear descendants of California boogie, keeping the proceedings firmly planted on the West Coast. “Neary,” another highlight, has even more of a strut in its step, its funk-infused sway channeling the ghosts of a thousand forgotten ’80s yacht rock and R&B outfits. It’s brilliant stuff, and the sort of thing that just might revive the term “grown and sexy” for a new generation of music fans.
Asa Tone “II” (Leaving)
Asa Tone “IIII” (Leaving)
Temporary Music, the 2020 debut LP from Asa Tone, was recorded during a trip to Indonesia—group member Melati Malay is originally from Jakarta—but the trio’s newly released follow-up, Live at New Forms, came together in a much less organic fashion. Spread across the world and separated during lockdown—the three musicians were literally in New York, Mexico City and the Australian rainforest—they began working virtually at the behest of Vancouver artist Yu Su, who commissioned a special performance for the (also virtual) 2020 edition of her city’s New Forms festival.
None of this really sounds optimal for creating new music, but songs like “II” and “IIII”—and honestly the whole album—demonstrate that Asa Tone was up to the challenge, as they’ve woven together a series of dreamlike compositions that sound something like a cross between gamelan and new age. Simultaneously blissful and feverishly percussive, the music exudes a sort of relaxing lightness, gently massaging the brain’s “calm” button while the group’s bubbling rhythms ensure that things never feel too snoozy.
Olivia Block “Great Northern, 34428” (Room40)
Hats off to Dania for tipping me off to Olivia Block’s Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea album in last week’s newsletter, but now that the LP has been officially released, I too would like to loudly sing its praises. Created in lockdown while the Chicago artist was experimenting with mushrooms—and a broken Mellotron—the record is bathed in a warm sort of psychedelic haze, although that does little to dull the insistent knock of “Great Northern, 34428,” a song which comes off like a trippy, lo-fi homage to the expansive work of Krautrock pioneers like Neu!
BEST OF THE REST
Heathered Pearls “An Obstruction in the Clear Plastic (Tammy Lakkis Remix)” (Ghostly)
Heathered Pearls’ Cast album was one of last year’s criminally slept-on full-lengths, but that hasn’t stopped the NYC artist from rolling out a pair of remix EPs in 2021. The latest, Cast Remixes Part II, contains this dreamy rework of “An Obstruction in the Clear Plastic” from Detroit producer Tammy Lakkis, who accentuates the original’s billowing melodies with some smooth, rounded bass and a subtly bouncing beat.
Doris Saturday “Dansko Dansko Revolution (Short Edit)” (Mechanical)
Speaking of Heathered Pearls, he’s one of the forces behind the Mechanical imprint, which has perhaps shown up in this newsletter more than any other label this year. Its latest offering comes from Doris Saturday, a newcomer from Queens whose “Dansko Dansko Revolution (Short Edit)” keeps its calm while tapping into the sounds of ’90s drum & bass, offsetting its insistent rumble with a chilled, almost spa-ready melodic sound palette.
Otik “Garuna” (3024)
Otik’s ascent over the past few years has been truly impressive to behold, but the prolific London artist has potentially reached a new high-water mark with the Soulo EP, his genre-hopping debut for Martyn’s 3024 imprint. Like many of his tunes, “Garuna” is hard to categorize; bumping along at 100 bpm, it’s almost like a slow-motion house cut, but the song’s frantic (and decidedly non-linear) drum patterns owe a bigger debt to genres like dancehall and jungle. Then there are the hazy melodies and R&B vocal snippets, which lend the whole thing a woozy, late-night vibe. It’s a complex recipe, but in Otik’s hands, the end result is undeniably delicious.
Wulffius “My Cosmic Synthesizer” (Gost Zvuk)
Eight years in the making, Sorang is the debut album of Crimean producer Wulffius, and LP highlight “My Cosmic Synthesizer” is a delightfully shuffling cut that playfully casts aside the dour, heads-down aesthetic that colors most deep house tracks. It’s minimal in construction, and though it never gets too excited, it’s definitely playful, the song’s simple melody happily plinking along as its drums percolate their way across the dancefloor.
Compa “Stronghold” (Deep Medi)
Dubstep lives! “Stronghold,” which appears on UK artist Compa’s new Mind Control EP, is a throwback to the genre’s grotty beginnings, its slow, steppy rhythm swarmed by thick cycles of temple-crushing bass. The low-end pressure is enough to rumble even the most fervent speaker freaker’s guts, but there’s nonetheless something enjoyable about the track’s murky slog.
Weith “Cyclic Melancholia” (Brokntoys)
Of all the labels churning out electro in recent years, Brokntoys is one of the few that can always be counted upon to leave the music’s gritty underbelly intact. “Cyclic Melancholia” leads off Swiss producer Weith’s new Sanity Rituals EP, and it’s actually more of an industrial-tinged breakbeat cut, with drums that keep things moving, but ultimately take a back seat to the song’s moody pads and swirling acid tendrils.
Mr. Ho “Bail-E” (!K7)
The Raining Heart “Raining Heart” (!K7)
Jessy Lanza isn’t primarily known as a DJ, but there’s a lot to like about the native Canadian’s new DJ-Kicks mix / compilation, which celebrates the increasingly borderless nature of modern club music. The songs above are just two of the many bright spots, but they do provide into window into Lanza’s versatility and open-minded approach. “Bail-E,” a cut first released last year by Hong Kong producer Mr. Ho, is effectively a riff on Brazilian baile funk, infusing the genre’s signature breakbeats and (wonderfully) garish synthesized horns with a few vintage rave melodies. “Raining Heart” reaches further into the past, as the song’s trippy boogie groove was first released in 1986 by The Raining Heart, a German outfit that oddly enough was co-founded by Tobias Freund (a.k.a. longtime Ostgut Ton affiliate Tobias.).
Julianna Barwick “Star Ray” (Ahead of Our Time)
Suzanne Ciani “Morning Spring” (Ahead of Our Time)
With 29 tracks from an all-star slate of contributors that includes Helena Hauff, Skee Mask, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Laraaji and many others, the new @0 compilation—a collection of ambient tracks curated by UK veteran Coldcut—is the kind of release that makes it difficult to pick favorites. That said, Julianna Barwick is at her ethereal best on “Star Ray,” a song that evokes thoughts of grand cathedrals and spiritual calm, while the legendary Suzanne Ciani goes a bit bigger than usual on “Morning Spring,” hitting paydirt as her gently tinkling keys are dwarfed by imposing waves of zen-inducing tones.
Arovane “Sicht” (12k)
Reihen, the new album from German ambient / experimental veteran Arovane, is rooted in imperfection. Built using what he describes as “asynchronous loops” that were made while “working to no specific tempo,” the LP simply flows, the static-licked textures of songs like “Sicht” cresting and receding like the tide lapping against the shore. There’s a definite drama to the music, which at times takes on an almost cinematic character, but it’s also grey and subdued, its wistful tone seemingly the perfect accompaniment for a bout of long-overdue introspection.
u.r. trax “Dying Generation” (Lobster Theremin)
Once you find out that u.r. trax is only 18 years old, “Dying Generation” makes a lot of sense. The lead track on the Parisian producer’s new U R TRA$H EP, it’s brimming with confidence, totally unencumbered by past notions of what underground techno ought to sound like. Openly cribbing from the biggest of big-room rave and trance, the track is bound to make some listeners (especially older ones) turn up their noses in disgust, but listening to the song’s swaggering, IMAX-ready sonics—which are thrilling in the same way that a lot of nosebleed-inducing dance music was back in the day—it’s a safe bet that u.r. trax probably doesn’t care. (And honestly, she shouldn’t.)
Ploy “Dark Lavis” (Deaf Test)
Of all the things I expected to hear on the latest Ploy record, Middle Eastern woodwinds (or at least a synthesized facsimile of them) wasn’t on the list. Yet they’re at the core of “Dark Lavis,” a raucous highlight of the new Rayhana EP (which also happens to be the inaugural release from the UK producer’s new Deaf Test imprint). The track’s pattering drums follow a similarly Middle Eastern path, echoing the work of producers like Anunaku, but it’s Ploy’s serpentine bass throbs that provide the real muscle, demanding that the tune be played—loudly—on the biggest possible system.
Holy Other “Heartrendering” (Self-released)
Love and heartbreak have always been at the center of Holy Other’s work—a fact he reaffirmed when I interviewed him here in the newsletter last month—and though a full decade has gone by since the elusive artist last released an album, his new Lieve LP does little to change up the formula that made his music so enchanting in the first place. This isn’t a bad thing, as “Heartrendering,” a song which somehow evokes both the glistening beauty of newfound love and the melancholy solitude of losing it, manages to sound both intimate and symphonic, its finely chopped vocals stretched into gossamer swells of melody.
Patrick Conway “New Beginning” (ESP Institute)
“New Beginning” isn’t really indicative of what Patrick Conway’s new Cellular Housekeeping album sounds like—the LP is perhaps best described as a deconstructed jungle record—but it’s a potent tune nonetheless, closing out the full-length with little more than a thick, meandering drone, some ethereal vocals and smattering of dreamy atmospherics. It’s ambient, yes, but it feels so much more substantial than the average chillout offering, hinting at pop as it seductively calls out like a siren, daring listeners to lose themselves in its swirly expanse.
Elkka “Harmonic Frequencies” (Technicolour)
“Harmonic Frequencies,” the title track of Elkka’s latest EP, recalls the slinky, R&B-flavored bounce of Jacques Greene’s early work, but the London producer puts her own spin on things, outfitting the song with some fluttering flutes that nicely offset the music’s club-ready bounce. Pitch-shifted vocal snippets are a big part of the mix too, but where other artists often use them as a sort of melodic accoutrement, Elkka shoves them toward center stage, their robotic staccato tasked with joyously bringing the track home.
Tomás Urquieta “Oblivion” (Insurgentes)
Imagine a classic ’70s horror soundtrack being reworked by someone who’d grown up on a diet of swaggering Latin rhythms, and you might wind up with something like “Oblivion,” the dramatic opening track from Tomás Urquieta’s sophomore LP, El David Muerte. Reggaeton seems like an obvious reference point here, but the song’s tumbling beats perhaps hew a bit closer to Brazilian baile funk, and the New York-based Chilean tops it off by infusing his synths with a bit of Oneohtrix Point Never’s metallic sheen.
Parris “Poison Pudding (with Call Super)” (Can You Feel the Sun)
It’s not often that I’ll mention an artist three separate times in a single newsletter, but when that artist is Parris, it’s unlikely that many readers will mind. On the day his debut album, Soaked in Indigo Moonlight, was released, the always smiling London producer put up a heartfelt post on Instagram in which he thanked Call Super—his partner in the Can You Feel the Sun label—and “Poison Pudding” gleefully showcases their symbiotic relationship. Though it leans heavily on dub, the song joyously tapdances across the hardcore continuum, seemingly celebrating the litany of mad beat scientists who laid the groundwork for these two to play around and make their own brand of magic.
That’s all for this edition of First Floor. As always, thank you so much for reading the newsletter, and I do hope you enjoyed the tunes. (Don’t forget, you can find them all on this handy Buy Music Club list, and if you like them, please buy them.)
Have a great week,
Shawn
Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn or drop him an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.