First Floor #109 – Signing Off...
a.k.a. Wrapping up 2021 with one last round-up of electronic music news and new releases.
WRAPPING THINGS UP
Before we dive into today’s newsletter, I just wanted to let everyone know that this will be the final First Floor of 2021. Like much of the music industry, I’ll be taking a little break during the holidays, but I will be back in a few weeks, resuming a regular publishing schedule on Tuesday, January 11.
Other than that, I just wanted to give a big, heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s been reading and supporting First Floor. A lot has happened over the past 12 months, and it’s a bit wild to look back at everything I’ve written and published this year. Aside from all of my essays, there were interviews with Jeff Mills, Paul Woolford, The Bug, Skee Mask, Galcher Lustwerk, Sinjin Hawke & Zora Jones, Scratcha DVA, Jacques Greene, Elijah, Holy Other and lots of other artists, plus in-depth conversations with key players at organizations like SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Water & Music, UMAW (Union of Musicians and Allied Workers) and Friends with Benefits.
It’s been fun, and I’m planning to keep in going in 2022, but it’s also been a ton of work, so if you appreciate the newsletter and the stories / narratives being explored here, or even if just like the weekly batch of new music recommendations, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. (Just FYI: Doing so will also enable you to dig through the entire First Floor archive and read all of those stories I linked above.)
I know it’s not feasible for everyone, but if you’re a regular reader, or even a semi-regular one—and based on the analytics, there are a lot of you out there—just know that shelling out just a few euros a month will go a long way towards helping me continue to do this work.
As an added incentive, I’m offering a 20% discount on all paid subscriptions between now and the end of the year. That’s just 4€ a month, or 40€ for an entire year.
That’s all for now. Once again, thanks for all of the support, and now let’s get into what’s happening in the world of electronic music…
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.
So much of the narrative around dance music in 2021 (understandably) revolved around “clubs coming back,” but this article that the always excellent Chal Ravens put together for The Face details how that return to the dancefloor wound up being far less than optimal, especially in the UK.
Sticking with the topic of year-end wrap-ups, I wanted to point readers towards the latest installment of Jaša Bužinel’s Hyperspecific column in The Quietus. Bužinel, who’s based in Slovenia, has been doing great work throughout 2021—follow him on Twitter here—and this edition of his column provides both a round-up of this year’s defining tunes and some insightful commentary on the trends that defined electronic music during the past 12 months.
Has there ever been a better synth-pop track than Bronski Beat’s 1984 classic “Smalltown Boy”? Probably not, and last week it was announced that Steve Bronski, co-founder of the groundbreaking UK trio, had died. (Even more tragically, it now appears that he perished in a fire at his London flat.)
DJ Mag has published its recent cover story with DJ Minx online. Written by Ria Hylton, it chronicles the Detroit staple’s journey through decades of dance music, along with her recent decision to publicly come out as a lesbian at the age of 53.
Martinou’s Rift, which came out last month on Nous’klaer, was one of the year’s more thoughtful techno long-players, and now the Swedish producer has followed it up by sharing a recording of an hour-long live session filled with unreleased tunes.
COVID obviously continued to wreak havoc on clubs and festivals this year, but when it came to releasing music, the defining problem of 2021 was the growing backlog at vinyl pressing plants around the world. And with vinyl production continuing to be less than environmentally friendly, this Stamp the Wax feature, in which Rosie Cain speaks to Green Vinyl—a Dutch project devoted to eco-minded pressing and vinyl made of recycled materials—makes for an interesting read. (The piece also features comments from London non-profit label Needs, one of the first prominent electronic music imprints to work with Green Vinyl.)
This section of today’s newsletter is slowly turning into a round-up of “The Year in Headaches,” but the latest Black Sky Thinking column in The Quietus finds Daniel Dylan Wray cataloging the massive problems that Brexit is causing for independent labels and DIY sellers in the UK, many of which are now finding it almost impossible to easily sell to customers in the EU.
On a more positive note, Water & Music has been one of 2021’s biggest music media success stories, and the platform—which recently transformed into a DAO—has been spending this week unveiling the $STREAM Report, a “five-part syllabus on the state of music/Web3” that was collaboratively researched and written by the organization’s community. The drop also included the release of Water & Music’s first NFTs, which sold out in the first 24 hours.
FIRST FLOOR’S FAVORITES OF 2021
You likely saw this already when it was first published yesterday, but I too have contributed to the annual onslaught of year-end lists. Despite my misgivings about what the practice has become, listmaking is practically part of my DNA at this point, and I do still find some personal value in looking back and figuring out what music I actually enjoyed the most during the past 12 months. (Given that I’m constantly being bombarded with new releases, it’s honestly easy to forget.) More importantly though, I figured that First Floor readers, who quite literally see my music recommendations each week here in the newsletter, might be interested in a semi-official round-up of my 2021 favorites.
To be clear, my lists—and there are just two, one for tracks and another for releases—aren’t ranked and they’re not intended to be the “best” of anything, but in my humble opinion, they do contain a lot of great music.
You can find the lists here.
SOME OTHER THINGS I WROTE
I authored a whitepaper! (If you’re asking yourself, “What is a whitepaper?,” don’t feel bad. I once had to look it up myself, and according to Wikipedia, it’s “a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.”)
So what’s it’s about? File sharing. No, not the illegal kind. The everyday kind that happens when artists and other people in the music world send each other music files. Byta commissioned an academic survey to look at what platforms these folks are using (and whether they pay for them), who they’re sending files to and receiving files from, whether they prefer streams or downloads and how all of this correlates (if at all) with their respective roles in the industry. The paper, which Byta enlisted me to write, presents and analyzes the results, and digs deep into a topic that has never before been examined in any sort of systemic way—despite the fact that these file-sharing practices are something that impact most artists and music professionals every day.
The State of Music Sharing is the name of the whitepaper, and it’s available (for free) to the public here.
Beatportal enlisted me to help out with their 50 Best Tracks of 2021 list, and I wound up penning blurbs for (great) songs by Sofia Kourtesis, India Jordan, Doss and Logic1000.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases that were announced during the past week.
It wouldn’t be Christmas without new music from Burial, and though the elusive UK producer is technically making everyone wait until January, he’s finished up a new EP called Antidawn. No music has been shared just yet—all the info (and a presale link) is here—but the record is said to explore “an interzone between dislocated, patchwork songwriting and eerie, open-world, game space ambience.” We’ll find out what that means when the digital version surfaces via Hyperdub on January 6, with the physical versions to follow on January 28.
Speaking of holiday traditions, LuckyMe has unveiled its annual advent calendar, in which the label offers a series of new tunes from its star-studded roster as name-your-price downloads on Bandcamp. This year’s collection kicked off on Monday with “Leave Here,” a new song from Jacques Greene, and those interested can continue to monitor the giveaways—a new track is added each day—here.
“Satan” is one of the defining tracks in Orbital’s catalog, and now the iconic UK duo have marked the song’s 30th anniversary by releasing a new remix. Taking cues from Belgian new beat, the “30 Something Years Later Mix” basically represents how they currently perform the track live. It’s available now, and can be heard here.
With physical copies of his recent Physical Release LP stuck in pressing-plant purgatory, Chrissy has offered up 2 Cheeky Remixes, a pair of “secret weapon” bootlegs that have been in his crates for years. The package is available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp, and it’s not clear how long it will be available, so move fast if you’re interesting in grabbing the tunes.
Amapiano was one of 2021’s defining sounds, and one of the genre’s celebrated young talents, Teno Afrika, has a new LP on the way. Where You Are is the South African producer’s second full-length, and it’s slated to arrive on February 4 via the Awesome Tapes from Africa label. Ahead of that, the album’s title track, which features the vocals of Leyla, has already been shared.
Para One has announced a massive, 21-track remix album, collecting songs from 2021’s SPECTRE: Machines of Loving Grace LP that have been reworked by Actress, Call Super, Jacques Greene, Ricardo Villalobos, Hot Chip, Alva Noto and others. Some of these remixes were already available on previous EPs, but they’ve now been combined with additional, previously unheard reworks on the new LP, which will be issued in three parts via the Animal63 label. Part 1 is scheduled to drop this Friday, December 17, while Part 2 and Part 3 will arrive on January 28 and February 25, respectively. Before any of that happens, the veteran French producer has shared a stream of “Silicon Jungle,” as remixed by Sophie Birch.
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.
Lea Bertucci - A Visible Length of Light (Cibachrome Editions)
Hello. I’m not one for lists, so I’m just going to share one record that I’ve really enjoyed this year. It comes from NYC artist Lea Bertucci, who composed and performed all of the sounds on the album—bass clarinet, alto sax, manipulated tape, organ, a vent wooden flute—herself. “On Opposite Sides of Sleep,” which opens the LP, is my favourite, with saxophone trills colouring a rich harmonic organ that’s droning in the background. A chef’s kiss to this release!
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
Meitei “Shinobi / 忍” (Kitchen)
Western listeners rarely experience traditional Japanese music as more than pastiche, but on Meitei’s new Kofū II LP—a sequel to last year’s Kofū—the Hiroshima artist directly engages with his country’s past, recontextualizing sounds, stories and aesthetics that are gradually being lost to the steady march of modernity. Nevertheless, even with its very specific source material, “Shinobi” brings to mind the playful, sample-centric work of artists like DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist during their ’90s heyday, or perhaps Onra’s Chinoiseries albums, which inventively pieced together bits of old Chinese pop records. While the song might bring to mind classic Kurosawa soundtracks and Japan’s ceremonial grandeur, “Shinobi” itself is also a bouncy bit of compelling avant-pop, and Meitei’s subtly funky groove isn’t terribly far off from what the LA beat scene was turning out during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Tim Reaper & Kloke “Tunnelvision” (TempoCore)
Drum & bass that gets deep without abandoning the dancefloor. The title track of Tim Reaper and Kloke’s new collaborative EP, “Tunnelvision” taps into the sparkling, jazz-influenced sound of ’90s giants like Adam F and Roni Size (when he was working with Reprazent), its thick, rubbery basslines and percussive rattle offset by a series of dreamy melodies. Bopping along at 160-plus bpm rarely feels so luxurious, and this tune conjures visions of white sands and crystal-clear water.
J. Albert “Say Something” (Towhead)
Bad things tend to happen when electronic music producers pick up the mic, but perhaps J. Albert is the exception that proves the rule. His latest album, Phase Portrait, isn’t necessarily a vocal-driven effort (although the NYC artist does a fair bit of singing), and it’s not even the first time he’s experimented with his own vocals—his R&B-centric Jio alias is proof of that. “Say Something,” however, puts Albert’s voice front and center, his lovesick lament floating atop the track’s busted drum & bass rhythms and sultry, late-night soul. Simultaneously both hazy and smooth—which admittedly sounds impossible—it’s a wonderfully tender cut, and one that puts a human face on the album’s fuzzy cybernetic grooves.
BEST OF THE REST
John Beltran “I Play for You” (Blue Ants / Furthur Electronics)
One of Michigan’s most underappreciated veterans does it again. “I Play for You” is a sentimental standout from John Beltran’s new Aesthete album, and while the song has been (not inaccurately) touted as something influenced by Select Ambient Works-era Aphex Twin, its melodic swells, twinkling pastels and angelic vocal choirs also recall the more ethereal strains of 1980s synth-pop. “I Play for You” isn’t quite radio fodder, but it wouldn’t have been out of place on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, and even though John Hughes set all of his seminal teen movies in the suburbs of Chicago, maybe it’s not a coincidence that the iconic filmmaker was also a Michigan native.
Teen Daze “Interior” (Cascine)
Teen Daze could have easily gone down in history as a chillwave also-ran, but the Vancouver artist has now spent more than a decade quietly refining his craft. His latest album Interior is a remarkably mature effort—and no, “mature” is not code for “boring,” at least not in this case. The LP largely movies between airy electronic pop and hooky dancefloor tunes, and the title track basically splits the difference between those two poles, ultimately landing in a confidently cool zone that’s not quite bumping enough to be classified as boogie or house, but has an undeniable groove all the same.
Eluize “DPDR (Locked Groove Orchestral Mix)” (Night Tide)
Sometimes you hear something and think, “this belongs in a movie,” and as it turns out, Eluize’s “DPDR”—a meditation on the Berlin-based Australian’s experience with depersonalization / derealization disorder—will soon soundtrack a forthcoming short film. This version, however, is even more cinematic than the original, as Locked Groove has stripped out the percussion and transformed the track into a billowing cloud of stirring melodies and orchestral pomp, evoking images of very famous—and very beautiful—people overcoming adversity and reaching the end of an epic journey. Subtle it is not, but in the right setting, it’ll get the waterworks flowing.
Escape Artist “Energy Breakthrough (Adam Pits’ Lightspeed Mix)” (Phonica)
If 2021 has taught us anything, it’s that the term “trance (the good kind)” should perhaps be adopted as an official genre descriptor. Although anything with the dreaded t-word continues to be shunned in many circles, Adam Pits’ rework of “Energy Breakthrough”—a track originally made by Australian producer Escape Artist—is a clear example that not all trance is created equal. The emotions here are big, to be sure, and so are the melodies, but there are no gaudy breakdowns to be found, and Pits’ pulsing kicks are closer to (tasteful) techno than the pounding, military-style marches powering many of today’s manic bangers. Give trance (the good kind) a chance; it just might surprise you.
Sabla “Moontext” (Pensaments Sònics)
Hivern Discs’ new Pensaments Sònics imprint is designed to focus on “conceptualization, sound design, experimentation, new creative approaches, innovative techniques and the exploration of artistic boundaries and intersections with other art forms.” That could probably be interpreted to mean just about anything, but the young label’s inaugural release, Sabla’s Music for Melted Floors, feels like an immersive sound bath, particularly during “Moontext.” An 11-and-a-half-minute trek, it’s a plush tune that calmly shuffles along, its languid synth melody beeping like a computer from the 1970s. This one requires patience—and a willingness to surrender to the song’s simmering groove—but it’s well worth the effort.
Tor Lundvall “Their Souls” (Dais)
If the afterlife exists, one might hope that the journey there will be soundtracked by a song like “Their Souls.” The opening number on NYC musician and painter Tor Lundvall’s new Beautiful Illusions LP, the track is pillowy soft and utterly peaceful, its gentle sway and warm textures coalescing into an almost womb-like atmosphere. There are hints of acts like Sigur Rós and Cocteau Twins at work, but the drama has been turned way down here, as Lundvall seems content to calmly drift off toward the horizon.
India Jordan & Finn “All About Love” (Local Action)
During a year in which smiles were often in short supply, UK artists India Jordan and Finn continued to be beacons of light, serving up joy and unfettered enthusiasm at every turn. The longtime friends have teamed up on numerous projects over the years, and their latest joint effort is All About Love / Big B, a boisterous two-track effort that celebrates the bouncy traditions of Yorkshire dance music. As an American, I must admit that I only have a vague idea of what those traditions entail, but “All About Love” is a soul-drenched shot of euphoria, its insanely catchy vocal chops and diva acrobatics jubilantly pairing with the song’s bassy gallop. It’s pretty much impossible to not feel good when this one comes on.
And with that, we’ve reached the end of the last newsletter of the year. Thank you so much for sticking with me; I can’t stress enough how grateful I am for everyone who’s been reading and supporting First Floor, and of course, I also hope that 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.)
See you in 2022,
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.