First Floor #110 – The Tunes Keep Coming

a.k.a. Catching up on all of the news, announcements and new music that dropped while the industry was on its annual holiday hiatus.

Jan 13, 2022

REAL QUICK

A round-up of of the last few weeks’ most interesting electronic music news, plus links to interviews, mixes, articles and other things I think are worth sharing.

Butterz co-founder Elijah garnered lots of attention last year with his daily series of thought-provoking, music industry-focused posts on Instagram—I actually interviewed him about it here in the newsletter—and after taking a hiatus, the UK artist announced last week that he’s resuming the practice in 2022, and will be posting Monday through Thursday from now through the end of the year. Several new posts have already gone live, and you can find them all here.
Skee Mask kicked off 2022 with an announcement that he’d removed all of his music from Spotify, and as it turns out, the Ilian Tape label—home to almost all of his releases, along with music from artists like Stenny, Andrea and the Zenker Brothers—has followed suit, removing its entire catalog from the platform. The move isn’t entirely surprising, especially after the German producer elected not to make last year’s Pool album available on most streaming platforms—a decision I interviewed him about—and while much of the public response has been positive, some folks (including UK artist Scuba, who penned an entire thread about it) have questioned the logic of singling out Spotify while letting platforms like YouTube off the hook.
First launched in 2014, Shadow Wolf Cyberzine is a free, ASCII-format e-zine that Legowelt publishes from time to time, filling its (virtual) pages with artist interviews, gear breakdowns, music reviews and (often hilarious) satire of DJ culture and the music industry. The Dutch producer dropped a new issue in late December, along with an accompanying “covertape” compilation, which is available as a “name your price” download via Bandcamp.
Most First Floor readers are likely already familiar with the ongoing dispute between Four Tet and the Domino label over streaming royalties, but this news report that Marc Hogan put together for Pitchfork provides a thorough breakdown of the situation and its potential implications for the music industry at large. (It also includes a lengthy statement from Domino that sheds a bit more light on their perspective.)
San Francisco writer Mark Bieschke is always a joy to read, and this DJ Mag feature, in which he chronicles the efforts to preserve his adopted hometown’s gay disco history, is a a fantastic piece that touches on Sylvester, Patrick Cowley, Tubesteak Connection, “Castro clone” fashion and much more.
Nostalgia has always been a powerful force in music, but this Music Business Worldwide article puts some concrete numbers on its influence, reporting that “catalog” releases (i.e. titles more than 18 months old) made up nearly 70% of music consumption in the US during 2021. Tackling the issue in a more thoughtful way, Washington Post pop music critic Chris Richards penned a wonderfully reflective list of 20 ways that nostalgia has shaped his listening habits—and the wider industry—over the years.
Veteran music journalist Ted Gioia is no crypto expert, but he recently assembled a refreshing list of “wild guesses” for his Honest Broker newsletter, hypothesizing how the blockchain and NFTs might shape the industry in the years to come.
Crypto cynics were delighted when Brian Eno recently said in an interview with The Crypto Syllabus that NFTs were allowing artists to become “little capitalist assholes,” and critics have also spent the last week sharing this blog post from former Signal CEO Moxie Marlinspike, which details his first impressions of Web3 and highlights how the technology is currently much less centralized—and in many cases, much less practical—than its loudest proponents might lead people to believe. Along similar lines (and much easier to decipher for readers who aren’t fluent in tech jargon) is this insightful essay from Dan Fowler’s Liminal Space newsletter, which simply asks the question, “What if 2022 isn’t the year of Music NFTs?”
In more optimistic Web3 news, a new “decentralized media organization” called Channel was announced this week, and is apparently a collaboration between Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon’s Interdependence podcast, the New Models podcast, artist Joshua Citarella, and a few other partners. Details are scarce—there’s a (basically empty) website here—but the project claims to be focused on “building tools to help creators join forces, token-enable their communities and experience the benefits of Web3,” and Herndon spoke of combatting a status quo where creators are “locked into platforms that might eventually disappear” and the need to build organizations without “having to route activity and support through passive companies in California.”
Women, non-binary and trans folk interested in getting involved in electronic music should mark January 22 on their calendars, as UK organization Saffron will be kicking off the second annual edition of 7 Days of Sound on that day. The weeklong series of online workshops includes sessions hosted by Jlin, Anu, Hinako Omori, Rachel K Collier and many others, and tickets are available now.

HAPPY (?) NEW YEAR

PLEASE NOTE: This essay was originally published on Tuesday and made available to paid newsletter 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.

Every year, I take a little hiatus from the newsletter during the holidays, and usually come back to it feeling refreshed and newly energized. This time around, however, I find myself feeling decidedly “meh” about electronic music, which has largely been put on pause (yet again) by the latest COVID variant.

It’s more than the missing parties that have sapped my enthusiasm; it’s the lingering sense that the entire culture has basically been in a holding pattern for the past two years. Ever since the whole world went into lockdown back in March 2020, there’s been lots of talk of change, but so many things about electronic music—the industry, the debates and even the music itself—feel the same, and the “new” things that have come along (e.g. crypto and Web3) often feel like poor substitutes for real-world interactions and the cultural innovation they foster.

Expounding on these feelings, I put together this essay, and though it’s not exactly an uplifting read, I’m guessing the malaise it describes isn’t unique to me.

ANOTHER THING I WROTE

For their final Cover Story of 2021, Beatport asked me to profile AceMoMA (a.k.a. the duo of AceMo and MoMA Ready). It’s a long piece, but the NYC producers were exceedingly candid with me, both when talking about their own history and especially when sharing their thoughts on the electronic music industry, journalists and white interaction with Black art.

JUST ANNOUNCED

A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases that were announced during the past few weeks.

DJ Python will soon be releasing a new EP via the Incienso label. Club Sentimientos Vol 2 is set to arrive on January 21, and the NYC producer has already shared “Angel,” the record’s epic (and exceedingly chill) 11-minute-long opener.
Claire Rousay rarely goes too long without offering up something new, and over the holidays the Texas-based experimenter self-released sometimes i feel like i have no friends, a 28-minute collaborative piece with Pale Spring and more eaze. The latter artist will also appear on Never Stop Texting Me, a joint “pop album” the two will be releasing via the Orange Milk label on February 11. Ahead of that, two tracks from the LP can be heard here, and a new interview with Rousay, conducted during her recent European tour, was published on The Quietus this week.
Galcher Lustwerk dropped a Christmas album of sorts a few weeks back. Home for the Holidays is the latest effort from the NYC producer’s Road Hog alias, and it’s available on Bandcamp here.
Kenyan bass maestro Slikback closed out 2021 with two new collaborative releases: DRS X, an EP he made with Sicilian artist Shapednoise, and “Tyranid,” on which he teamed up with noisy Bristol duo Giant Swan. Both are available as “name your price” downloads on Bandcamp.
Orbital have been on a real nostalgic kick as of late, and have now enlisted Shanti Celeste and Dusky to remix “Are We Here?,” a track which first appeared on the legendary UK duo’s 1994 album Snivilisation. Both reworks are available now via London Records, and can be heard here and here.
Nik Colk Void, best known as half of Factory Floor and for her work as part of the collaborative Carter Tutti Void and NPVR projects, has announced her debut solo album. Entitled Bucked Up Space, it’s due to land via Editions Mego on April 8, and LP opener “Interruption Is Good” has already been shared.
Honey Soundsystem alum Bézier, who’s also been releasing music as Bodyzone and 羅伯特 in recent years, is set to return to the Dark Entries label with a new EP, Valencia. It’s scheduled to drop on February 18, but the record’s title track is available now.

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.

Shavonne “So Tell Me, Tell Me” (M-Pire)

Hello. Welcome to 2022. This isn’t the sort of music I’d usually share, but I heard this song in a mix that Nick Klein (who runs the Psychic Liberation label) put together for my monthly dublab show, which is actually happening in a few hours from now. It’s a freestyle jam from the late ’80s, and though I don’t know much about the artist, the track is a complete earworm and I can’t stop moving whenever it comes on.

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 few weeks. The ones in the ‘Big Three’ section are the songs I especially want to highlight (and therefore 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

Burial “New Love” (Hyperdub)

Most First Floor readers probably don’t need me to recommend that they check out the latest Burial release, but the UK artist’s ubiquity—has anyone else had a bigger impact on electronic music (and maybe music in general) during the past 15 years?—doesn’t detract from the chilly pleasures of ANTIDAWN. Although the record’s sound palette is quintessential Burial (e.g. vinyl crackle, pitch-shifted vocal fragments that tug at the soul, cathedral-ready melodic tones), its five tracks also represent some of his most sparse work to date, largely abandoning drums in favor of frigid aural expanses. (The word “tundra” keeps popping up in reviews of the EP.) That said, there are flickers of human warmth strewn across the record, and they burn particularly bright on “New Love,” an R&B-adjacent effort whose fuzzy textures stretch across more than seven ethereal minutes.

Eusebeia “Constellation” (Western Lore)

Although the genre’s reputation frequently centers on its long tradition of rowdy face-melters, drum & bass is often at its best when it follows a more introspective path. The Sun, the Moon + the Truth, the latest album from UK artist Eusebeia, still incorporates plenty of sturdy basslines and percussive rumble, but it’s also a heady, hypnotic listen, and LP highlight “Constellation” evokes the spirit of ’90s-era Photek, its spacious construction and subtly dramatic melodies more suited to a shamanic ceremony than a piss-up at the local nightclub.

Leo Pol “Be Mine” (Iile)

Just when you thought that you’ve heard enough Motown flips to last a lifetime, a track like “Be Mine” comes along and steals your heart. The title track of French producer Leo Pol’s debut album, it borrows heavily from The Supremes’ 1964 classic “Come See About Me,” injecting the song’s heartbroken hooks into a soft-focus slice of pop jungle. Straddling the line between the dancefloor and the Top 40, the track’s sound palette is very much in line with generation TikTok, but its playful undercurrent also harkens back to carefree spirit of the bloghouse era.

BEST OF THE REST

Baltra “Will You Be? (CFCF Remix)” (Local Action)

CFCF’s Memoryland album expertly tapped into the spirit of ’90s electronica and alt-rock, but the Montreal producer has arguably done an even better job capturing that vibe on this remix of Baltra’s “Will You Be?” The guitars alone are worth the price of admission, sitting somewhere between shoegaze and radio-ready grunge-lite, but the song’s floaty melodies and disembodied raps perfectly accentuate the song’s dreamy majesty.

drames rurals “ombres” (Hivern Discs)

Billed as a collaboration between “meritxell, oriol, ignasi and juns” (just FYI: oriol = John Talabot) that was recorded during the pandemic, drames rurals—which shares its name with a Catalan collection of stories that was first published in 1902—is focused on a spacey strain of acid-licked, psychedelic dub. “ombres,” which appears on the group’s self-titled debut EP, is built atop a bed of ominously gurgling sounds, but it’s the song’s chant-like vocals that lend the proceedings a deliciously haunted feel.

C.Z. “Radial Lens” (Evar)

Much of C.Z.’s new Heat Index EP is devoted to high-octane jungle and rave rhythms, but “Radial Lens” is more reminiscent of the neon-streaked, Moroder-indebted sounds of the 1980s. That said, it’s not some smooth boogie tune; there’s very little funk here, and the LA producer has also draped the entire song in glitchy static, adding some gritty character to the track’s colorful synth procession.

Anthony Rother “3L3C7ROphonia” (Psi49net)

Electro was born in Detroit, but veteran German producer Anthony Rother has played no small part in the genre’s history, dropping a couple of dozen albums over the past 25 years. Dekatron is his latest full-length, and LP standout “3L3C7ROphonia” is an stellar piece of booming machine funk that sounds like an electro cut made for an old-school hardcore rave. Between the synth stabs and the blown-out breakbeats, this one has “banger” written all over it.

Marta Forsberg “Light Colors in Jyderup” (Warm Winters Ltd.)

Born out of an experiment in which Swedish-Polish artist Marta Forsberg enlisted some young students (from the small Danish town of Jyderup) to imitate the sound of a violin, “Light Colors in Jyderup” is a composition that rewards patience. After opening with a seven-minute procession of scattered vocal tones—the whole piece is more than 19 minutes long—it blossoms into a series of choirs and drones, becoming positively lush while showcasing the dynamically malleable nature of the human voice.

Fasme & Maelstrom “Almond Blossom” (Central Processing Unit)

Leading off Lotus 48, the new collaborative EP from French producers Fasme and Maelstrom, the gleaming “Almond Blossom” embraces electro’s softer side, layering glossy melodies and twinkling synths over the song’s chunky bassline and snapping breakbeat. It’s got enough bite to perk up a party, but this one has got a pop heart.

Justin Jay & Edward White “Only You” (Shall Not Fade)

Adelphi Music Factory “Come Back to Me” (Shall Not Fade)

After dropping something like 100 releases last year, UK outpost Shall Not Fade capped off 2022 with the expansive 6 Years of Shall Not Fade compilation. With 24 tracks, all of which were previously unreleased, the bright spots are numerous, but “Only You,” a collaboration between Justin Jay and Edward White, hits a particularly sweet spot between old-school breakbeat rave sounds and modern pop glow. (The song’s titular hook is practically begging to be on the radio.) “Come Back to Me,” on the other hand, take a more blatantly nostalgic approach, ultimately sounding like an homage to Stardust’s “Music Sound Better with You.”

Mattheis “Vlucht” (Nous’klaer)

“Vlucht” has a notably cinematic bent, and that’s intentional, as it’s taken from a new score that Dutch producer Mattheis was enlisted to put together for the 1977 film Het Jaar Rond. (In fairness, he only composed music for the first half of the movie; The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision's RE:VIVE initiative, who commissioned the work, tapped Ranie Ribeiro to score the second half.) An airy suite full of tape noise and soft piano, “Vlucht” slowly blooms, gradually unfurling a procession of trippy arpeggios that drift skyward into the clouds.

James Ferraro “They Don’t Know It’s Christmas” (Self-released)

Few would have expected a holiday album from James Ferraro, but the enigmatic artist offered up They Don’t Know Its Christmas as a “name your price” Bandcamp download on December 25, and the music is actually quite excellent. The title track—which seems like a clear nod to 1984’s iconic (and somewhat problematic) “Do They Know It’s Christmas”—is steeped in both holiday sounds and the dramatic traditions of ’80s synth-pop, and ultimately channels feelings of winter loneliness into something beautiful.

Soshi Takeda “Blue Dress” (Constellation Tatsu)

A standout from the new Same Place, Another Time LP, “Blue Dress” is a gorgeous bit of Japanese new age magic. Impeccably produced, Soshi Takeda’s various chimes and bells have an almost crystalline quality, while the song’s smooth guitar licks sound like something lifted from an ’80s easy-listening station. This one is sumptuous, and perfect for listeners who want to sit back, relax and let the chill vibes envelop them.

Ffion “Lights That Burn Twice As Bright” (Superpolar)

Literally inspired by clouds in its creator’s hometown, the lush “Lights That Burn Twice As Bright” is the rare song that doesn’t feel long enough. Made by Ffion (a.k.a. UK producer Thomas Ragsdale, who also goes by Sulk Rooms), the track’s billowing melodies softly swirl across the skyline, only to suddenly dissipate before the song has even reached the two-and-half-minute mark. Simple yet (quietly) stunning, it’s sure to leave folks longing for more.

Bidoben “Hyperblue” (Truncate)

My appetite for barreling techno has shrunk significantly during this most recent round of lockdowns, but there’s no denying the potency of “Hyperblue,” a hard-charging gem from Moroccan producer Bidoben and his new Couloir Des Insomnies EP. Armed with little more than a pounding kick and a spooky array of vocal fragments, the song hypnotically recalls some of Matrixxman’s best work, and offers a much-needed reminder that no-frills techno, at least when it’s done well, will always have a place on the dancefloor.

e-freq “Rainbow Planet” (Hot Haus)

Whoever e-freq is—the new Freq Dance EP is their debut on Unknown to the Unknown offshoot Hot Haus—they appear to have a clear affinity for jacking Chicago house and Drexciyan electro. “Rainbow Planet” impressively brings those two iconic traditions into a single track, adorning its beefy rhythm with bleepy, sci-fi synths and a jubilant sense of bounce.

Cicatrix “Gambit” (OPSEC)

Person of Interest, who previously appeared on labels like L.I.E.S., Future Times and Clone Royal Oak, has now adopted a new moniker, Cicatrix, and the project’s debut EP, Selva, is stuffed with hybrid explorations of techno, breakbeat and dancehall. “Gambit” puts an industrial spin on Caribbean rhythms, its humid textures and rattling percussion recalling the music of acts like Nguzunguzu or even M.E.S.H., if that latter had signed to Fade to Mind instead of PAN back in the day.

Zane Trow “Two Drones :: In Ghost Dub” (Room40)

“Two Drones :: In Ghost Dub” closes out Zane Trow’s new Traces LP in an undeniably epic fashion, its vacant expanse grandly stretching out across 11 and a half minutes. Despite the title, there’s more happening here than just a couple of drones, but the Australia-based Englishman does luxuriate in all the open space, allowing the song’s tones and textures to calmly flutter and float across the horizon.

Wata Igarashi “Our Place” (Figure)

Future Beat Alliance “Memory Sketch” (Figure)

2022 has just begun, but Open Space Volume 2 is easily the year’s best compilation (so far). Len Faki’s Figure label is usually devoted to techno, but the Open Space series is all about ambient (and ambient-ish) sounds, with this latest edition featuring tracks from artists like KMRU, John Beltran, Laraaji, Earthern Sea and many others. The quality is high throughout, but Japanese producer Wata Igarashi climbs to brilliant heights on “Our Place,” which combines gentle arpeggios with triumphantly soaring synths, and the UK’s Future Beat Alliance delivers another standout with “Memory Sketch,” a jaunty, almost symphonic tune that sounds like a fresh take on The Beta Band’s enjoyably kooky aesthetic.

That’s all for today’s newsletter. Thank you so much for reading First Floor, and I do 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.)

Have a great week,

Shawn

Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn and Twitter, or you can just drop him an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.