First Floor #128 – The Unwelcoming Economics of Music Journalism
a.k.a. Writers struggle to make ends meet, plus a round-up of the week's electronic music news and a fresh slate of new track recommendations.
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YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
The economic aspect of the music industry has been a frequent topic of discussion here in the newsletter, but last week’s interview with Philip Sherburne suggested that the economics of music journalism perhaps warrant further examination.
This exchange was particularly telling:
Shawn Reynaldo: Some people might assume that you, being a prominent electronic music writer at a prominent outlet, must be making a solid living. But do you actually earn enough from Pitchfork to survive on that alone?
Philip Sherburne: No, I have other work as well. I do un-bylined work for content providers. I curate some playlists for a streaming service, and also do some writing and blurbs for other streaming services. I used to occasionally do some press-release writing, but I gave that up a long time ago because I just don't have the time. But yeah, I've never been strictly a Pitchfork contributor. I've always had a matrix of different work because it's the only way to survive.
While it’s not exactly breaking news that writing about music—especially when it’s focused on relatively niche genres like electronic music—isn’t a lucrative enterprise, it says a lot that someone like Sherburne, who’s got more than two decades of experience under his belt and is widely recognized as being at the top of his field, doesn’t earn enough from his work as a critic to pay the bills.
There’s no shame in journalists doing other things to make ends meet—musicians do it all the time—but during a time when electronic music has grown into a global, multibillion-dollar industry, why are even its top journalists frequently being paid more to do other things? And how does that affect not only the critical discourse, but who’s able to participate in journalism in the first place?
I put together some thoughts on the matter, and also broke down a few facts and figures to illustrate what compensation looks like for the average music writer. (Hint: it’s pretty grim.) The whole article is available to read here.
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.
Pitchfork rolled out its Music and Technology feature series this week, and it’s quite possibly the best collection of music writing that I’ve come across in recent memory. As the title implies, the various articles examine the way that technology is shaping our collective approach to music—both as artists and listeners—and while many of the topics (e.g. streaming, AI, NFTs) will be familiar to First Floor readers, seeing them addressed so thoughtfully by top writers at an outlet like Pitchfork is especially encouraging. The whole series is worth checking, but some highlights include:
Jeremy D. Larson soberly wrestling with his own addiction to streaming and its (often quite negative) impact on consumer listening habits, fandom, music industry economics and more.
Philip Sherburne investigating the gradual creep of artificial intelligence into music, along with the possibilities—both good and bad—its disruptive influence is already unleashing.
Cat Zhang charting the rise of Discord and how it’s reformulating the traditional artist-fan relationship.
Marc Hogan tackling both the influence of NFTs on music-making (both now and in the future) and the current state of the music metaverse.
Andy Cush dives into the unorthodox rise of ambient music on streaming platforms, and how it’s reshaping a genre that had previously spent decades largely flying underneath the radar.
After two-plus years of the pandemic and multiple waves of lockdowns, it’s fair to say that many people are suffering from livestreaming fatigue, but San Francisco non-profit Envelop is looking to offer a more substantial experience with its new Envelop Stream initiative, which it describes as an “extended reality music venue.” Having lined up streaming events with artists such as Suzanne Ciani, King Britt, Tycho and more—the full calendar is here—they seek to prioritize high-quality audio and immersive listening. Furthermore, they’ve set up their tech in a way that it can be piped into any real-world multichannel soundsystem around the world, hopefully fostering community listening events, particularly in places where boundary-pushing acts often don’t (or can’t) perform in person. To showcase the project’s potential, Envelop has already shared a demo, which features a piece called “Coast” from Christopher Willits.
Vangelis, the pioneering Greek composer whose extensive body of work includes the iconic Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire soundtracks, passed away last week at the age of 79.
Although the pandemic has forced the Local Action label to celebrate its 10th anniversary when it’s actually 12 years old, the increasingly genre-fluid imprint certainly deserves whatever accolades are thrown its way. Resident Advisor tapped writer Katie Thomas to dig into the label’s history and legacy in a new feature, which includes thoughts from artists like India Jordan, E.M.M.A., UNIIQU3 and 96 Back, along with founder Tom Lea, who also put together an exclusive mix highlighting favorites from the Local Action catalog.
Speaking of Local Action, Mixtape Club—the DJ mix series the label co-curates alongside Finn—has just released its latest edition, a new session from NYC artist (and Nowadays resident) DJ Voices called Avoiding Bad Thoughts.
After a legal dispute over payment methods threatened to see Bandcamp’s app removed from the Android store, the online music platform announced last week that a temporary agreement had been reached, allowing the current payment system to (mostly) stay intact until the lawsuit (initiated by its parent company, Epic Games, against Google) is resolved.
Fresh off the release of the Writings Ov Tomato EP—which he created in collaboration with fellow Equiknoxx member Time Cow—Jamaican artist Gavsborg was interviewed by Bernie Brooks for The Quietus.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases that were announced during the past week.
After months of lighting up message boards and floating around as a bootleg, Four Tet’s “Looking at Your Pager” single got an official release (under his KH moniker) last week. The highly sought-after tune notably samples R&B group 3LW and their 2000 single “No More (Baby I’ma Do Right).”
Caribou dropped a new single from his Daphni alias. “Cherry” is out now through his own Jiaolong label, as is the song’s colorful, AI-utilizing music video, which was created by Damien Roach (a.k.a. patten a.k.a. 555-5555).
Last year Moby released an album called Reprise on the Deutsche Grammophon label, on which he created new acoustic and orchestral arrangements for many of the biggest songs from his catalog. Now he’s put together Reprise Remixes, where songs from the LP have been reworked by such artists as Bambounou, Max Cooper, Planningtorock, Efdemin and several others. That collection, which also includes several remixes from Moby himself, is available now.
Perila drops new music all the time, but the Berlin-based ambient artist’s latest offering, a standalone single called “Over Me,” is available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp.
NYC producer DJ Python will soon be returning to his rarely used Luis moniker, as he’s scheduled to release a new EP—which is described as “a reflective ode to his best friend”—called 057 (Schwyn) on June 17 through the AD 93 label. Two tracks from the record, “timmy chalamet” and “or anyone said it,” are already available here.
Fresh off the release of her debut score for horror film The Seed, Colombian experimental artist Lucrecia Dalt has been tapped to compose the music for The Baby, a new series from Sky and HBO. That score is due to arrive on May 27 (i.e. tomorrow), but one track, “Mareterna,” has already been shared.
Nik Colk Void recently released her (excellent) debut solo album Bucked Up Space, and now her Factory Floor bandmate Gabe Gurnsey is set to issue a new full-length as well. Diablo is actually the UK artist’s second LP, and it’s scheduled to arrive on September 9 via Phantasy Sound. In the meantime, he’s shared the first single, “Push.”
Azu Tiwaline has completed a new EP called Vesta, which is named after the brightest asteroid visible from Earth. Inspired by the Tunisian producer’s encounter with a fragment of the asteroid that had been found in the Sahara Desert, the record will be released on June 16 by the I.O.T label. Before that, the track “Into the Void” has been made available.
DJ Seinfeld released a new standalone single yesterday. The trance-indebted “Lost Island” was created as part of the Swedish producer’s Mirrors live show, and it’s available now through Ninja Tune.
Barbie Bertisch, who makes up one half of the duo behind the NYC-based Love Injection magazine, label and radio show, will soon be releasing her debut album. The Argentinian artist has titled the LP Prelude, and ahead of its arrival on June 17, she’s already shared one track, “Water Moves Slowly,” along with its accompanying music video.
Four years removed from his last full-length, George FitzGerald has lined up a conceptual, cosmically inspired new album. Stellar Drifting, which features guest spots from Panda Bear, London Grammar and SOAK, will be issued via Double Six / Domino on September 2, but the UK artist has already shared two tracks from the LP: “Cold” and “Ultraviolet.”
Lil Silva will forever be the guy who made “Seasons” (a UK funky-flavored club smasher that still sounds great, nearly 15 years after it first appeared), but he’s steadily moved toward a more subdued, pop-adjacent sound during the past decade. On July 15, he’ll be releasing his long-awaited debut album, Yesterday Is Heavy, which features guest appearances from Little Dragon, Sampha, serpentwithfeet and several others. First single “Another Sketch” (and its music video) are available now.
NEW THIS WEEK
The following is a selection of my favorite tunes from releases 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 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
36 “Symmetry Systems (Porcelain)” (Past Inside the Present)
36 “Symmetry Systems (Emerald)” (Past Inside the Present)
A testament to the power of simplicity, Symmetry Systems is the breathtaking new record from veteran UK ambient producer 36. Heavily inspired by Warp Records’ seminal Artificial Intelligence series from the early ’90s, the music is warm, welcoming and refreshingly uncluttered, often consisting of little more than gleaming synth progressions and a tissue-thin haze of reverb and ambient noise. Opening cut “Symmetry Systems (Porcelain)” sets the tone, its relaxed pace and wafting melodies giving rise to a mediative (albeit undeniably hopeful) atmosphere. “Symmetry Systems (Emerald)” is another highlight, and while its melodic lattice is a bit more complex, the song’s delicate, almost crystaline structure still feels inviting; wonder is the dominant feeling here, and hearing 36’s creations slowly unfold is akin to watching a garden bloom.
Walton “Dread” (Sneaker Social Club)
Walton “Detach” (Sneaker Social Club)
Maisie by the Sea—the ambient-leaning (and honestly quite good) album that Walton released a few months back via AD 93 offshoot Lith Dolina—probably left some fans wondering if the UK producer had left heavy bass sounds behind for good, but his new Rush EP makes clear that he’s still perfectly capable of bringing the ruckus. “Dread” opens the record and quickly brings out the low-end rumble, its industrial-strength drums hitting like a wrecking ball, even as the rest of the track offers a sludgy sort of semi-weightless grime. “Detach” carves out a brighter path, and while its intermittent percussive blasts do keep the song somewhat tethered to solid ground, the song itself feels like a harder-edged take on the trance-adjacent ambient techno that artists like Barker have been making in recent years. Less than three minutes long, it’s ultimately just a taster, yet it’s further proof that Walton’s talents can’t be hemmed in by established notions of genre.
Cool Maritime “Temporal Dryft” (Western Vinyl)
Cool Maritime “Apex” (Western Vinyl)
Big Earth Energy sits at the intersection between the real and virtual worlds, its bright colors and perky, new age-indebted sounds evoking images of verdant jungles, teeming forests and abundant nature, even as the music itself glistens with a noticeably artificial sheen. That’s not a coincidence, as the latest full-length from Cool Maritime was directly inspired by ’90s computer games like Myst, and is actually meant to be the soundtrack to an imaginary video game in which the protagonist is a prehistoric tree frog—the same frog pictured on the album’s cover. There’s a palatable sense of magic to the record, and while echoes of ’80s Japanese ambient and the work of German synth explorer Klaus Schulze color the jittery brilliance of LP highlight “Temporal Dryft,” the more precise “Apex” has an almost orchestral feel, its intricate network of bleeps and chimes enhanced by the addition of ethereal—and highly processed—vocal tones.
BEST OF THE REST
Shoko Igarashi “AppleBanana” (Tigersushi)
Addictively cute and intriguingly weird, “AppleBanana” is a delightful bit of avant-pop from Shoko Igarashi’s new Simple Sentences album. The song’s sound palette borrows heavily from Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yellow Magic Orchestra and other Japanese musical giants—which makes sense, since Igarashi herself was raised in Japan—but its relatively sparse construction lends the proceedings a deliciously tripped-out feel, the words “apple” and “banana” cooly drifting atop the track’s technicolor melodies.
Earth Trax “Dream Pop” (Shall Not Fade)
LP1, the debut album from Earth Trax, dropped in early March 2020 (i.e. right before COVID shut the world down), and the follow-up, LP2, surfaced in November 2020, just as another wave of the virus was wreaking havoc. Both records were great—and largely overlooked—but hopefully the Polish producer’s latest full-length, The Sensual World, will have better luck. Like its predecessors, it’s stocked with rave-ready beats and plush melodies—the years he’s spent making ambient music under his birth name (Bartosz Kruczyński) shine through in the latter—and the dreamily stuttering album highlight “Dream Pop” recalls the work of icons like Opus III, Orbital and even Enya, albeit with a more thundering kick drum.
Galaxian “Code of Existence” (Foul-Up / Shipwrec)
After debuting his Kas alias with an excellent album for Ilian Tape last year, Scottish producer Galaxian returns to his primary moniker on We Are Power—his first LP under that name in a decade—and continues pushing the boundaries of electro, infusing the genre’s snapping rhythms with corroded noise, politically charged vocal clips and unexpected synth freakouts. “Code of Existence” closes out the record on a high note, employing dramatic swells, bright colors, a jazzy bassline and some squelchy sci-fi sonics that sound like something lifted from a 1980s arcade game.
Torn “Ferrum Wood” (47)
A snarling beast from Torn’s new 47028 EP, “Ferrum Wood” is a high-intensity, bass-heavy hybrid, occupying a chaotic space somewhere between drum & bass, techno and the scuzziest dubstep imaginable. Bleak is one way to describe it, but the track’s incessantly thumping, sledgehammer-like percussion leaves no room for solemnly pondering death or the oncoming apocalypse; menace is the prevailing vibe, and the song is far more likely to leave unsuspecting listeners fleeing in terror.
JakoJako & Rødhåd “Apis” (WSNWG)
Fresh off her brilliant Metamorphose album that dropped in April, JakoJako has teamed up with Berlin techno giant Rødhåd on In Vere, a new collaborative full-length the duo created while jamming together over the course of a single week. That improvisational spirit perhaps explains the LP’s musical diversity, as the pair dip into various strains of techno, ambient and IDM, and while Rødhåd fans will likely gravitate towards the record’s chuggier numbers, the hypnotically twirling modular melodies of “Apis” offer a few minutes of transfixing beauty.
Peter Coccoma “Towards Light” (Whatever’s Clever)
Created on a frozen, sparsely populated island north of Lake Superior, A Place to Begin—the debut album from Brooklyn ambient artist Peter Coccoma—conjures visions of chilly, windswept expanses, yet there’s a genuine sense of underlying warmth in songs like “Towards Light.” With its groaning strings and gorgeous, borderline devotional melodies, the track exudes a sort of quiet grandeur, cooly soaring as its barely-there percussion—which was quite literally inspired by the incessant knocking of the pileated woodpecker, one the island’s few winter birds—tastefully provides a hint of forward momentum.
Sulk Rooms “Pathways” (noci miste)
Drone music tends to be either terribly boring or downright punishing, but UK producer Thomas Ragsdale has found a real sweet spot with his Sulk Rooms project. “Pathways,” a standout from his new Hymns for the Bone Horse cassette, does add some subdued (albeit steady) percussion to the mix, but it’s the song’s reverb-slathered textures and sustained, almost guttural tones—which bring to mind the hypnotic chants of Tibetan monks—that prove most spellbinding.
That’s it for today’s edition of First Floor. Thank you so much for reading, and as always, 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.)
Enjoy the rest of your 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.