First Floor #129 – More Can Be Better, But It's Often Just More
a.k.a. Thoughts on digital bloat, plus a round-up of the week's electronic music news and a fresh slate of new track recommendations.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
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DOES THAT NEED TO BE AN ALBUM?
For decades, artists and labels have been hemmed in by the limitations of physical media. Vinyl and CDs can literally hold only so much music, and that played a huge role in how artists put their releases together, with most forced to conform to industry standards about things like the size of their tracklists and total runtime.
In the digital era, however, many of these limitations have disappeared. Artists—especially ones outside the commercial mainstream—can do pretty much whatever they want when it comes to releasing music, and there are no longer any hard-and-fast rules about what they put out or how often they should do it. If someone wants to drop an album every week, or release 20, 40 or even 100 tracks at once, there’s technically nothing to stop them, and while most acts aren’t going quite that far, both the volume of releases and the size of tracklists throughout the music industry have noticeably begun to swell.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that of course, but what does it mean in the context of a music landscape that’s already hopelessly overcrowded? What’s the role of curation in an environment where so many people are simply throwing as many things as possible at the wall, hoping that something sticks? And why is freedom from the limitations of physical media so often only being taken in the direction of more? Is there wisdom in doing less, or in exploring ways that completely diverge from the practices of old?
That’s admittedly a lot of questions, and I put together some thoughts about them in a piece published earlier this week. It’s now available to read in full here.
ANOTHER THING I WROTE
Why Is This Interesting? is a fantastic daily newsletter that lives up to its title, shifting its focus from one day to the next while providing pocket-sized (albeit unquestionably informative / intriguing) dives into often-overlooked corners of science, fashion, travel, music, history, culture and a litany of other topics. It also kicks off every week with the Monday Media Diet, a series in which interesting people (many of them creatives of various stripes) are interviewed about their favorite media and how they consume it.
As it happens, I myself was the subject of the series’ latest installment. It was an honor to be invited to do it, and while my answers do include a fair bit of talk about electronic music (and the journalists who write about it), I also had the chance to discuss some other things for once, such as Sicily, emo, dystopian fiction, high-end cookware, trains and reading the New York Times app at the club.
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.
Legendary synth designer and music technology innovator Dave Smith—whose resume includes the Prophet-5 (i.e. the world’s first programmable polyphonic synth), the creation of MIDI and other accomplishments too numerous to list—has passed away at the age of 72.
In an announcement earlier this week, India Jordan officially adopted a new artist moniker, and will henceforth go by the name I. Jordan.
Optimo, possibly the most celebrated DJ duo in the history of Glasgow, are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, and in a new DJ Mag feature, they speak to Claire Francis about how their adopted city (neither one is a native Glaswegian) has shaped their work and outlook.
Midori Takada recorded Through the Looking Glass in 1983, but it wasn’t until the album was reissued in 2017 that the Japanese ambient artist truly began to see her work widely celebrated on an international level. Now 70 years old, she was recently interviewed by the Guardian’s David McNeill about what he describes as her “late career bloom.”
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases that were announced during the past week.
Kode9 has a new album on the way. Escapology is the Hyperdub founder’s first full-length since 2015, and it’s billed as the soundtrack component of his “sonic fiction” Astro-Darien. The latter will be released in October via Flatlines (Hyperdub’s publishing arm), but before that, the Escapology LP is due to arrive on July 15, though first single “Torus” has already been shared.
Moby has just launched a new label called Always Centered at Night, which he describes as an “uncompromising” outlet that “will not be going for a billion streams on Spotify.” The first release is “Medusa,” a collaboration with Aynzli Jones. A music video for the song was published yesterday, and several versions of the track have been compiled into an EP, which is available now.
Kate NV dropped a surprise benefit album last week called boquet. The music was completely improvised alongside her longtime collaborator Andrey Bessonov, and all proceeds from the LP will go to Helping to Leave, an organization that assists people looking to escape areas of military conflict. (At present, their mission is intensely focused on helping Ukranian refugees.)
Under his Ripatti alias, Vladislav Delay teamed up with the Planet Mu label for last year’s footwork-indebted Fun Is Not a Straight Line album, and now he’s returning to the imprint (as Vladislav Delay) with a new full-length. Isoviha is set to drop on July 15, and is said to be a companion to his two recent Rakka albums. The song “Isonuha” is available now.
Following his trio of White Rats albums for L.I.E.S., Broken English Club has completed a new LP, The Artificial Animal, which the UK techno producer will be releasing on August 4 through his own Death & Leisure label. No tracks have been shared yet—first single “Snub” will surface on June 15—but a strobe-heavy trailer for the record has been shared.
Au Suisse is a new collaboration between veteran producers and old friends Morgan Geist and Kelley Polar, and the duo—who literally went to college together at Oberlin during the early ’90s—will be releasing their self-titled debut album on August 19 via City Slang. In the meantime, two tracks from the LP, “Control” and “Savage,” can be heard here.
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
Pontiac Streator “petabyte” (Self-released)
Pontiac Streator “celine” (Self-released)
It feels weird to say that Kansas is running the weirdo ambient game right now, but considering that the place has brought forth Huerco S., Ulla, Exael and Pontiac Streator—not to mention artists like Beta Librae and Umfang, who tend to reside in the outermost realms of house and techno—it’s hard to deny to musical potency of the Sunflower State. Select Works . vol III is Pontiac Streator’s latest outing, and while its gloopy textures and twitchy (albeit generally subtle) rhythms don’t represent a great departure from his previous work, his music’s narcotic drift remains as tantalizing as ever. That’s particularly true for songs like “petabyte,” where a melancholy vocal repeatedly coos the words “it's been so long since I have let you in” amidst the track’s reverb-laden clangs. The same voice appears on “celine,” a plush, lullaby-ready tune whose glitchy gait also recalls ’90s IDM, with each drum hit offering a satisfying little digital crunch.
DJ Stainless “No Comment Freebeat” (MOVES)
House, techno, electro, drum & bass, dubstep… as fantastic as these genres can be, it’s not hard to see that a certain creative staleness has crept into many of dance music’s more established corners, which is what makes the new sounds coming out of Africa so refreshing. In recent years, genres like gqom, singeli and amapiano have all gained a certain level of recognition (and international traction), and after hearing the new Cruise! EP—the first in a four-part series that will later be compiled into a double LP—it seems that a new style will soon need to be added to the list.
Emanating from West Africa (and Nigeria in particular), freebeat—which is also known as cruise music—is a lo-fi, infectiously upbeat style in which a track’s success is apparently measured by how well it resonates with young dancers on TikTok. (Go here and here to for a little taste of the phenomenon, which definitely brings to mind the early days of other dance-centric genres such as footwork and jerk music.) While many of the tunes aren’t exactly “functional” from a traditional DJ standpoint, there’s no question about their danceability, and when it comes to a bubbly cut like DJ Stainless’ “No Comment Freebeat,” youthful exuberance is a big part of the appeal. There’s no rulebook here, and (at least for now) no real profit motive either; it’s mostly just teenagers having fun and making things up as they go along. There’s a lot of magic in that, and I for one am excited to see where freebeat goes next.
Bodhi “Auralex” (Unknown to the Unknown)
Bodhi “Down 4 U” (Unknown to the Unknown)
UK duo Bodhi have been around for the better part of a decade, but following a flurry of releases in the mid 2010s, they basically disappeared for a few years, only reemerging with new music in late 2021. That said, they do seem to have come back with a bang, having already dropped three records during the past nine months. The latest is Get Up, and EP cuts “Auralex” and “Down 4 U” are both certifiable club heaters. That said, there is some subtlety to the music; the washy pads and rave-ready breakbeats mine similar territory (i.e. ’90s rave nostalgia) as acts like Bicep, but where those boys go for hooky melodies and big-room feels, Bodhi dial up the drums instead, allowing their percussive attack and burly basslines to do the heavy lifting. It’s an effective technique, and if they keep making tunes like this, they’re bound to find themselves in the big room as well.
BEST OF THE REST
Aquarian “A Familiar Place” (Dekmantel)
Many different genres and descriptors have been used to describe Aquarian’s work over the years—much of the recent stuff has trended towards dark, sound-design-heavy jungle epics—but the techno-leaning “A Familiar Place” might be his first tune that evokes memories of ’90s-era Underground Resistance. The track—which appears on the Berlin-based Canadian’s new Mutations II: Delicious Intent EP—serves up a few other surprises as well, at one point setting aside its thundering kick for a percussive breakbeat flurry that sounds like a jazz drummer going absolutely ham.
WTCHCRFT “No Time to Lose” (Balkan)
Plenty of artists have cribbed notes from Dance Mania during the past 25 years, but WTCHCRFT is one of the few who’s properly tapped into the irreverent (and undeniably funky) spirit of the seminal Chicago label. Hovering around 160 bpm, bouncy standout “No Time to Lose” also bears traces of Detroit ghettotech, its bubbling rhythm cracking along beneath a memorably sticky loop of the Brooklyn producer’s distinct baritone.
Frankel & Harper “Return (Al Wootton Remix)” (Council Work)
Al Wootton’s quietly dominant run continues, as he’s just stolen the show on Return, the latest EP from UK duo Frankel & Harper. In truth, his remix of the record’s title track is more of a refinement than a wholesale teardown, and while the original version is a perfectly serviceable, garage-indebted tune, Wootton smartly strips out some of its excess, swapping in his own (slightly less frantic) drum pattern and putting the song’s slow, subby undulations front and center.
Tribal Brothers “Formation” (Livity Sound)
London duo Tribal Brothers are arguably best known as UK funky torchbearers, but their new Formation EP is a clear nod to the growing influence of African dancefloor sounds. With its loping rhythm and confident, high-stepping cool, the record’s title track takes obvious cues from amapiano, but its elastic bassline sits somewhere between gqom and Hyperdub-style futurism. In short, it’s a thrilling hybrid, and even within the expansive spectrum of bass music, there simply aren’t many other tunes that sound quite like it.
Escape Artist “Wanna Dance? (Roza Terenzi’s Bassbin Mix)” (X-Kalay)
If the work of people like Escape Artist and Roza Terenzi is any indication, intergalactic raving is alive and well in Australia. “Wanna Dance?” is the title track of the former’s latest EP, and Terenzi blasts the song into the stratosphere, fortifying its dynamic electro beat with thick sheets of woozy bass, the whole thing perfect for anyone who’s looking to reach another plane of consciousness while gyrating the night away at a moonlit forest party.
Mako “Cold Hands” (Samurai)
Bristol drum & bass producer Mako shares a name with a dangerous species of shark, and “Cold Hands”—a highlight from his new Death of Romantic album—lives up to that menacing legacy. Although the track opens with a patch of quiet calm, its cathedral-like serenity quickly dissipates once Mako brings the drums in, his feverish percussion popping like a machine gun while jagged basslines and blasts of static ominously swoop across the landscape.
Aroent “Say (Ploy’s Skeletal Tool Remix)” (Infinite Machine)
Don’t let the words “Skeletal Tool” fool you; this tune is a heavyweight banger. Closing out Aroent’s new Say EP, Ploy’s sturdy remix of the title track employs gqom-style vocal chants and an eerie, almost alien siren, but its the UK producer’s drum programming that takes center stage, his pert percussion sounding more a top-flight marching band than a standard-issue drum machine.
Ahadadream “Spaceship” (More Time)
More Time has spent the past five years connecting the dots between various strains of bass music from the UK, South Africa and assorted points in between, and while label co-founder Ahadadream has dropped a few releases along the way, his new Homecoming EP feels like a proper coronation for the British-Pakistani producer. “Spaceship” is a chest-out refresh of classic UK funky sounds, its swaggering shuffle topped with blaring synth tones and what sounds like a playful marimba melody.
FILM “As Above So Below” (Qilla)
A mainstay of New Delhi’s electronic music scene, FILM has just released his self-titled debut album, a genre-hopping effort that moves through techno, jungle, breakbeats, acid, ambient and more. Other tunes on the LP hit harder, but “As Above So Below” opens the record on a satisfyingly pensive note, its ramshackle beats giving off some serious trip-hop energy as the song’s moody pads and plinky, late-night synths bathe the track in a faded neon glow.
Sofie Birch “Ubiquitous” (intercourse)
The music on Holotropica—the latest album from ambient musician Sofie Birch—doesn’t exactly linger, but it’s definitely not in a hurry to go anywhere. With no drums to aggressively (or even mildly) push things along, the Danish artist’s melodies are free to dreamily waft and wiffle, seemingly luxuriating in the space they’ve been afforded. The whole record is spellbinding, but “Ubiquitous” feels particularly captivating, its delicately twinkling synths intermingling with subtle field recordings and the soft groans of a warbling saxophone.
That’s all for this edition of First Floor. Thank you so much for reading the newsletter, 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.)
Have a good 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.