First Floor #146 – Guitars? In This Economy?
a.k.a. An interview with Moin, plus a round-up of the week's electronic music news and a fresh slate of track recommendations.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Every Tuesday, First Floor publishes a long-form piece that’s exclusively made available to paid newsletter subscribers only. A brief overview of the latest one is below, and its paywall has now been temporarily removed for the next 24 hours.
MOIN (LITERALLY) CHOPS IT UP
In electronic music, there exists a long history of artists adopting new monikers and trying their hands at new styles and sounds. That being said, these endeavors are often temporary, and even when they’re not, they’re frequently the end product of long-brewing evolutions in an artist’s creative vision.
What then, explains what happened with Raime? In 2021, after years of making genre-blurring, emotionally intense, club-inspired (albeit not specifically dancefloor-focused) music, the celebrated UK outfit took things in a fairly drastic new direction. Returning to the name Moin—an alias they hadn’t used since 2013—they dropped Moot!, a brash, guitar-heavy album whose sound was closer to post-hardcore than post-dubstep.
What prompted the change? It wasn’t entirely clear. Moin offered little explanation, and has now prepared another full-length, Paste, which arrives tomorrow via the AD 93 label. The record is excellent, but its genesis has largely remained a mystery. How does an experimental electronic outfit wind up playing angsty guitar music? Are they on some sort of ’90s rock nostalgia trip? And why return to a little-used moniker after nearly a decade? Is Raime finished for good?
Hoping to find out, I reached out to the group and asked if they’d be up for an interview, and much to my delight, they agreed. Over the course of a lengthy call late last week, they addressed not only the questions mentioned above, but also explained how the sound of Moin comes together, in both the studio and live settings. (As it turns out, their process is quite different from that of the average guitar band, which perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise.)
That interview was published earlier this week, and it’s now available (temporarily) for everyone to read in full here.
REAL QUICK
A round-up of the last week’s most interesting electronic music news, plus links to interviews, mixes, articles and other things I think are worth sharing.
When Nick León was interviewed here in the newsletter several months ago, he spoke about the changing nature of Miami’s club scene, and now writer Rachel Grace Almeida has taken a deeper dive into the topic for a new Crack magazine feature. In it, she speaks to León, along with fellow Miami artists Bitter Babe, Jonny from Space, INVT and Sister System about the promising new wave of South Florida dance music, and how it’s quickly making their presence known, both at home and around the world. And for those curious in hearing more of the sounds these artists are making, Jonny from Space and Sister System have also put together an accompanying Sounds of Miami DJ mix.
The New York Times is rarely a bastion of high-quality electronic music journalism, but Tom Faber’s review of this year’s Nyege Nyege festival in Uganda provides a compelling look at the event and its history, along with some key context about the complex (and frequently challenging) socio-political landscape in which its founders and associated artists are operating.
Galcher Lustwerk is at the helm of Ghostly founder Sam Valenti’s latest Herb Sundays newsletter, which includes a playlist of what the NYC artist describes as “a lot of croony indie, some female new waveyness, heavy guitar music, and mainstream electronica.” Also included are cuts from Sting, Nelly Furtado and Korn, some wise introductory words from Valenti and a priceless photo of Lustwerk that looks like it was taken during his teenage years.
Before her new Come Around LP drops next month, Carla dal Forno has taken part in The Quietus’ Bakers Dozen series. Written by Danijela Bočev, the article features the Australian artist talking about about 13 albums that shaped her life and work.
Caterina Barbieri and Félicia Atkinson recently got together at the behest of Crack magazine, whose Kez Cochrane facilitated a conversation in which the two artists discussed a variety of topics, including science fiction, Emily Dickinson, perceptions of time and the role of technology in their work.
Shinichiro Yokota, a longtime friend and one-time disciple of fellow Japanese house pioneer Soichi Terada, has been interviewed by writer Mia Patillo for a new Mixmag profile.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
Burial usually waits until just before Christmas to drop new music, but last week the reclusive UK artist released a surprise new EP. Entitled Streetlands, it’s a largely ambient effort, and it’s available now via Hyperdub.
Bambounou—who was interviewed in First Floor last month about his unique (and often quite humorous) approach to social media—released a standalone single exclusively via Bandcamp last week. It’s called “Same Day Delivery,” and he describes it as a “playful techno tool for the late nights.”
MoMA Ready’s HAUS of ALTR label released a massive new compilation this week. HOA021 is available now, and features exclusive new tunes from AceMo, Huey Mnemonic, James Bangura, Black Rave Culture, Kush Jones, DJ Swisha, Martyn Bootyspoon, Tim Reaper and several others, including MoMA Ready himself.
Nearly a decade has passed since Marcel Dettmann last released an album, but the German techno icon has now linked up with the Dekmantel label for a new full-length, Fear of Programming, that’s set to arrive on November 25. Preview clips of the LP—which is billed as something primarily driven by instinct and Dettmann’s time spent in the studio—can be heard here, and full one track from the LP, a collaboration with Ryan Elliott called “Water,” is also available to be streamed.
Looking to counter what he describes as “a misconception of what Miami has to offer,” Danny Daze has curated a massive new 40-track compilation for his own Omnidisc label. Homecore! Miami All-Stars includes music from Nick León, Otto Von Shirach, Greg Beato, INVT, Coffintexts and numerous others, and while the full collection won’t be released until December 9, tracks from Bitter Babe, Murk, Nicholas G. Padilla and Tre Oh Fie can already be heard here.
Capping off a breakthrough year for the label—and Latin-flavored electronic music in general, Colombian outpost TraTraTrax has prepared a new compilation called no pare, sigue sigue. It features tunes from artists like Verraco, Nicola Cruz and Lila Tirando a Violeta, and ahead of the record’s November 18 release date, songs from Nick León x Luca Durán, Loris, DNGDNGDNG x Prisma and Safety Trance have already been shared here.
Fresh off the release of their 30 Something retrospective earlier this year, Orbital have lined up a new album, Optical Delusion, that’s set to drop on February 17 via London Records. Ahead of that, the veteran UK duo has shared LP cut “Dirty Rat,” a collaboration with Sleaford Mods that also has an official video.
Lamin Fofana has spent much of this year releasing a trilogy of ambient albums on his own Black Studies label, but now the Sierra Leonean producer (who currently resides in New York) has linked up with the Avian imprint for a new EP, Here Lies Universality. Billed as a collection of “undulating sound design explorations,” it will surface on December 9, but the record’s title track has already been shared.
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
Persher “Patch of Wet Ground” (Thrill Jockey)
Persher “World Sandwiches 2” (Thrill Jockey)
Karenn makes a metal band. That’s arguably the easiest way to describe the Persher project, and it may sound like a ridiculous proposition, but as Blawan and Pariah—both of them longtime aficionados of punk, metal, hardcore and other forms of heavy music—made clear in their recent First Floor interview, their new endeavor isn’t some sort of joke. If anything, their new Man with the Magic Soap release is a celebration of just how invigorating—and over the top—heavy music can be, and also represents a genuine attempt to engage with (and innovate within) a genre that most ravers tend to ignore.
Gnarled rippers like “Ten Tiny Teeth” and the record’s title track are most likely to grab people’s attention—quite possibly by the throat—but Persher are often at their best when they slow things down a bit. Sludgy closer “Patch of Wet Ground” trudges along as though its sloshing through a muddy bog, but it’s not lacking for power, with towering guitar riffs and the occasional feral roar. “World Sandwiches 2” has a bit more energy, and while its drum pattern does bare a certain resemblance to the drums on Foo Fighters’ “My Hero,” the song’s thundering stomp anchors a harrowing slew of distorted crunch and demonic howls, along with a sneaky “uh uh uh uh uh” vocal refrain that just might be the catchiest pop hook on the record.
Marco Zenker “Switch Stance” (Ilian Tape)
Marco Zenker “Silent City” (Ilian Tape)
Ilian Tape has been around for 15 years, and while Marco Zenker—who runs the label alongside his brother Dario—has been involved nearly all of that time, he’s never before released an album of his own. (In truth, during the past decade he hasn’t released much solo music period, focusing instead on his contributions to the Zenker Brothers project.) With Channel Balance, however, he’s made his first full-length statement, and the music within is excellent, moving through digital dub soundscapes, wonky beat workouts, busted techno rhythms and other genre-blurring sounds.
Not much of the LP is squarely aimed at the dancefloor, but “Switch Stance” could qualify as proper club tune; though its shuffling percussion and serrated synth riff are swaddled in reverb, the track packs plenty of low-end punch, and should please both ravers and headphone nodders alike. The bubbling “Silent City” occupies a similarly lush space, but ultimately dives a bit deeper, its underwater basslines and rattling drums recalling the spacier side of ’90s drum & bass. (Yes, it’s another one for the “sounds like Photek” pile, but when it’s done this well, no one is going to complain about that.)
The Soft Pink Truth “La Joie Devant La Mort” (Thrill Jockey)
In his First Floor interview a few months back, The Soft Pink Truth (a.k.a. Drew Daniel, who’s also one half of Matmos) explained that both his Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? LP and its preceding EP, Was It Ever Real?, were rooted—at least in part—in an exploration of house and disco history, and specifically how those genres intersected with queer communities during the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Obviously that’s a lot to unpack, but “La Joie Devant La Mort”—and its irreverent music video—make clear that Daniel had a great time doing it. With guest vocalist Jamie Stewart (a.k.a. Xiu Xiu) playing the tortured diva and the zooming strings turning up the drama, the track is essentially The Soft Pink Truth’s Patrick Cowley moment, and as it turns out, the role of disco darling seems to fit him rather comfortably.
BEST OF THE REST
Steffi “South Facing Brightness” (Candy Mountain)
While The Red Hunter definitely has some individual highlights—the crunchy, zoned-out electro groover “South Facing Brightness” chief among them—the fourth solo LP from Steffi is better consumed as a long-form whole. The Dutch producer (who now resides in the Portuguese countryside) has infused the record’s techno and breakbeat rhythms with a sense of depth and subtlety, easing back the accelerator and instead basking in the music’s immersive, fuzz-filled atmosphere.
Clarice Jensen “Love” (130701)
Best known as a cellist, Clarice Jensen has broadened her instrumental palette on new album Esthesis, with LP closer “Love” essentially presenting a dreamlike suite of ethereal organ melodies and gauzy synth contrails. The track’s melodic wanderlust at times evokes Cliff Martinez’s Solaris score, but it also exudes a sense of emotional warmth and quiet intimacy, which makes sense; the New York artist says the song “came to me as I was falling asleep and realised I was still smiling thinking about someone I love.”
KMRU “mood” (Seil)
Kenyan producer KMRU rarely lets more than a few months go by without sharing new music—most of it excellent—but epoch is his first new solo album in quite some time. (It’s also currently available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp.) Dealing heavily in gentle drones, soft melodies and elegant field recordings, the record should further solidify his position as one of ambient music’s most thoughtful and talented figures, and hits a particularly high note on “mood,” a song which impressively finds serenity amongst a pulsing tone (that honestly recalls an old-school busy signal) and what sounds like rustling paperclips.
Nuage “Ninety High” (Phonica)
Right off the bat, Nuage deserves major kudos for somehow managing to sample Chic’s iconic “Good Times” without making an ass of himself—or simply making a corny tune. “Ninety High,” a standout of his new Pink Television EP, is technically a breakbeat cut, but it’s less interested in rave nostalgia than dreamily soulful, late-night grooves. Restraint is perhaps the key descriptor here, as “Ninety High” cooly glides along, flashing a little glamour along the way but (smartly) never allowing its glittery accents to shine too bright.
Procombo “You Know” (Rekids Special Projects)
Fresh off last month’s U Wanna EP—which also dropped via Rekids Special Projects—Istanbul techno artist Procombo has quickly returned to the label, this time with the Shadows EP. The bouncy “You Know” is one of the record’s highlights, and while its booming kicks are strong enough to satiate all the “play harder” diehards out there, the track’s main appeal is its housey swing, which feels like a much-needed breath of fresh air during a time when blindly pummeling the dancefloor has become the norm.
Byron the Aquarius “I Love Yo (Kush Jones Remix)“ (Heist)
Like much of Byron the Aquarius’ output during the past several years, “I Love Yo” sits between house music and new-school electronic funk, but this remix from NYC producer Kush Jones—which, just like the original, can be found on the new Akira EP—tips that balance toward the former. Built atop a shuffling groove, the song—and especially its reverb-drenched vocal chops—tap into the spirit of ’90s deep house, its soulful pads infusing the proceedings with an extra hint of late-night sparkle.
Yuto Takei “Svalbard” (Maloca)
Yuto Takei “Oriental Microscope (Konduku Remix)” (Maloca)
Japanese producer Yuto Takei got his start making music for video games and luxury car commercials, which helps explains why his striking new MA EP is so full of light and color. Standout cut “Svalbard” combines that bucolic sound palette with a joyful, IDM-ish bounce, prompting images of otherworldly landscapes and fantastical neon sunsets. A similar magic permeates Konduku’s remix of “Oriental Microscope,” which pairs a low-key techno churn with swirling synth tones, its chime-like melodies bordering on gamelan as they majestically drift into the night sky.
bvdub & James Bernard “Interactions in Isolation” (Past Inside the Present)
Fans of long-form ambient melodrama are likely flocking to the new Burial EP this week, but they’d also be well served by Departing in Descent, the new collaborative album from veteran producers bvdub and James Bernard. Like all the tracks on the LP, “Interactions in Isolation” embraces the epic, with a runtime approaching the nine-minute mark. Yet while its soaring sonics and patient melodic drift evoke endless skies and cinematic grandeur, the song is also peppered with hints of humanity, its quietly cooing vocal adding a remarkably tender touch.
Yair Elazar Glotman “A Mirror” (SA)
A close affiliate of the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, Berlin artist Yair Elazar Glotman brings a similar sense of emotional weight to his new Speculative Memories album. While much of the record takes on a sort of filmic largesse, rolling out brooding thunderclouds of rumbling drone and distortion, “A Mirror” is one of the LP’s more intimate selections, stripping back the strum und drang and instead spotlighting what sounds like a pair of children angelically singing. Simultaneously both peaceful and a little eerie, their voices are sweet enough to have even non-believers casting their gaze toward the heavens.
That’s all for today’s newsletter. Thank you so much for reading First Floor, 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.)
Until next time,
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.