First Floor #148 – No One Has Time for That
a.k.a. Do albums still make sense? Plus a round-up of the week's electronic music news and a fresh crop of new 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.
THE ALBUM YOU MADE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A GIANT WASTE OF TIME
Back in September, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bambounou, and while most of the conversation focused on his unorthodox (albeit successful) approach to social media, the French producer also said something interesting when asked whether he had any plans to make a new album:
People have short attention spans, and although I don’t necessarily want to constantly be releasing music, I also don’t want to work on an album for five years just so someone can listen to it for 15 seconds and say that it’s shit. What’s the point of that? I’m not saying I’ll never do an album again, but not right now.
He’s likely on to something.
In a time when consumers are constantly being bombarded with content, attention spans have grown perilously short, and even the biggest stars in the world sometimes have trouble cutting through the noise. With platforms—and their listeners—increasingly focused on tracks (and other things that frequently have little to do with actual music), does slaving away—potentially for years—on an album still make sense?
I put together some thoughts on the matter in an essay 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.
Over the weekend, Low’s Alan Sparhawk announced that his wife and bandmate Mimi Parker had passed away following a battle with ovarian cancer. Active since the early ’90s, the slowcore pioneers consistently experimented and updated their sound over the years, quietly building up a towering influence in the process. The outpouring of grief following Parker’s death was widespread, and while there’s no shortage of heartfelt goodbyes out there (both on social media and in the formal press), this Pitchfork tribute from writer Nina Corcoran isn’t a bad place to start.
Blawan and Pariah talked in detail about their hardcore- and metal-influenced Persher project when they were interviewed here in the newsletter last month, but anyone who missed that (or simply desires another deep dive into the English duo’s raucous exploits) can also check this new Crack magazine feature written by Xavier Boucherat.
Fresh off the release of his excellent new Żałość LP, Polish producer Naphta has been interviewed by Mariia Ustimenko for The Quietus, and the conversation includes his frank thoughts about his homeland and the realities of being an Eastern European artist in today’s electronic music landscape.
Gamelan is a genre that gets referenced semi-regularly in electronic music, but many people (myself included) aren’t deeply familiar with its history. That makes this short primer that George Grella put together for Bandcamp Daily rather useful, as it lays out the basics of the Indonesian genre and suggests several releases (both historical and modern) for those looking to dig deeper into its wondrous sound.
In the face of rising costs, several independent online radio stations have hit troubled waters in recent months, prompting writer Harold Heath to take a closer look at the situation in a wide-ranging new feature for DJ Mag.
Speaking of online radio outlets, Los Angeles-based broadcaster dublab will soon be releasing a new retrospective book. Dublab: From the Archives of Future Roots Radio was originally announced back in 2019 to commemorate the station’s 20th anniversary, but a pandemic-induced publishing delay prompted a rethink—and, ultimately, an expansion—of its contents, which include a wide range of photos, illustrations, interviews, stories and more. It’s due to arrive on February 1.
In honor of the seminal album’s 30th anniversary, writer Darran Anderson has revisited Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 85-92 in a new retrospective piece for The Quietus.
The 1942 strike by the American Federation of Musicians is something I initially learned about from David Turner of the unparalleled Penny Fractions newsletter—he’s referenced the event countless times in his work, but it was perhaps most prominently featured within his 2019 long-form essay Nu-Music: A Gig Economy Solution—but those interested in an audio version of the story ought to check last week’s episode of the One Year: 1942 podcast. Entitled “The Day the Music Stopped,” it details how unionized musicians—in the middle of World War II—banded together and refused to record new music (for more than two years!) until the major labels granted them a bigger share of their profits.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
Throughout 2022, Floating Points has periodically been releasing standalone singles, the most recent of which, “Someone Close,” surfaced just yesterday on Ninja Tune. On December 16, the track will also appear on a new vinyl EP alongside previous offerings “Vocoder,” “Grammar” and “Problems.”
CS + Kreme’s 2020 album Snoopy has become something of a cult classic in experimental music circles, and last week the Melbourne duo surprised everyone with another full-length, Orange, which is available now on The Trilogy Tapes.
Los Angeles label Peak Oil appears determined to finish up 2022 on a high note, and will be releasing music from Lamin Fofana and Topdown Dialectic on December 2. The former has completed a new album, Unsettling Scores, which is said to be a collection of “fractured soundscapes, displaced rhythms, and tectonic unease.” (Two songs from the LP can be heard here.) As for Topdown Dialectic, the label has prepped a reissue of the anonymous producer’s hard-to-find 2013 debut, and while all eight of its dub-smeared tracks are untitled, two have already been shared here.
Tim Reaper is never shy about releasing new music, but much of the UK junglist’s 2022 output has come in the form of collaborations and remixes. Last Friday, however, he dropped a new solo EP, Submerged into Darkness, on his own Future Retro London imprint.
In 2018, rave experimenter Rian Treanor took a life-changing trip to Uganda for a residency at the Nyege Nyege studio in Kampala. The experience inspired his 2020 album File Under UK Metaplasm, but it’s now set to bear additional fruit in the form of Saccades, a new, improvisation-heavy LP he made with Acholi fiddle player Ocen James. It’s scheduled for a January 20 release on Nyege Nyege, but opening track “Bunga Bule” has already been shared.
UK duo Giant Swan have completed a new EP, Fantasy Food, which they describe as “uncompromising” and a record that “doesn’t fuck about.” It’s slated to arrive on January 13 via the group’s own KECK label, though the EP’s hard-charging closing track, “RRR+1,” is available now.
The end of the year usually brings a rash of new label compilations, and these three were all announced during the past week:
To Illustrate is a collection from UK outpost Wisdom Teeth, and includes “electronic music of various hues around the 100 bpm mark” from artists such as Nick León, Salamanda and Henzo. Before it’s released on November 25, the track “Kiss Me, Can’t Sleep” from label founders Facta & K-Lone has already been shared.
SHOUTS 2022 is a sprawling, 29-track collection from London’s Rhythm Section International. Due to surface on December 2, it features tunes from James Bangura, Martyn Bootyspoon, Jurango, Fiyahdred and many others, and several of its tracks can already be heard here.
Imaginary Landscapes is a charity compilation—all proceeds go to non-profit organization ONETREEPLANTED—that includes music from Kareem Lofty, Yu Su, Aria Rostami and others. It’s set to be released on December 2 by the 99CHANTS label, who’ve already shared the album’s opening track, “Temporal Frame,” which was contributed by KMRU.
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 if you prefer to listen to them all in one place.
THE BIG THREE
Ulla “gloss” (3 X L)
Ulla “popping out” (3 X L)
Ulla “foam angel” (3 X L)
Working both solo and alongside like-minded artists such as Perila, Pontiac Streator, Ben Bondy and Special Guest DJ, Ulla has offered up a lot of music during the past few years, most of it in the weirdo ambient vein. On her new album foam, however, she essentially does away with textural detritus and haunted field recordings, adopting instead a brighter, more playful approach that hints at classic glitch and IDM, but never feels overly wanky or academic.
Like most tracks on the LP, “gloss” doesn’t even crack the three-minute mark, but it’s filled to the brim with clipped rhythms and finely chopped vocal fragments; Ulla somehow pastes them all together with a sort of Y2K sheen, landing in a zone that sounds like early Prefuse 73 trying his hand at digital dream pop. The similarly excellent “popping out” has been built with a bit more breathing room, which allows its cartoonishly tweaked vocals to frolic and take flight, and melancholy LP closer “foam angel” doubles down on that vocal-centric formula, ultimately sounding like a jazzy hyperpop lament penned by a soon-to-be-decommissioned android.
Daniel Avery “Wall of Sleep” (Phantasy Sound / Mute)
Daniel Avery “Chaos Energy” (Phantasy Sound / Mute)
Daniel Avery “Ultra Truth” (Phantasy Sound / Mute)
After releasing three full-lengths (two solo LPs and a collaborative album with Alessandro Cortini) in 2020 and 2021, Daniel Avery would be forgiven for taking a little break to recharge his creative batteries. Instead, the seemingly tireless UK producer has returned with yet another long-player, Ultra Truth, which just might be his finest effort to date. At the very least, it’s the most consistent album in his catalog, and skillfully demonstrates what’s possible when an artist takes cues from the club but refuses to be tethered to the dancefloor.
Ultra Truth is meant to be a big swing—Avery claims it’s inspired by albums from acts like Deftones, Portishead, Nick Cave and Mogwai that profoundly affected him as a teenager—and as such, there’s nothing timid about its contents. At the same time, it’s not a collection of mindless bangers either. The LP’s dreamy title track feels like a loving tribute to the woozy drift of Boards of Canada, and while “Wall of Sleep” is built atop booming kicks, the song’s allure lies in its glimmering, wall-of-sound sonics and hypnotic vocal refrain, which was provided by HAAi. She’s one of numerous guests on an LP that also features Jonnine Standish, Marie Davidson, Sherelle and James Massiah, along with Kelly Lee Owens, who adds some brooding prose to “Chaos Energy,” setting the tone for the spacey breakbeat cruiser before it suddenly morphs into a growling bassbin rumbler.
Karistocat “Summer Love (feat. Tasty Lopez)” (3024)
Agôn “Q&A” (3024)
Continuing his run as one of dance music’s consummate good guys, Martyn has assembled Everything Merged, a new compilation series which, much like last year’s It Was Always There, is meant to showcase the talents of the (largely unknown) artists who’ve taken part in his ongoing mentoring program. That said, the compilations aren’t some kind of charity on his part; the 3024 boss is a stickler for quality control, and the tunes he selects stand comfortably alongside those of more established acts.
The first volume of Everything Merged dropped last week, and though picking favorites is no easy task, it hits particularly high notes with Karistocat’s “Summer of Love” and Agôn’s “Q&A.” The former is a bass-infused garage shuffler that harkens back to the days of early 2010s post-dubstep (early Joy Orbison comes to mind), while the later is a spritely drum & bass cut whose digital shimmer can only be the work of someone who spent endless hours playing video games as a kid.
BEST OF THE REST
Mosca “You Smell That, Marsha?” (Rent)
In a time when many producers are content to endlessly rehash sounds of old, Mosca—who was interviewed here in the newsletter back when he first launched his Rent imprint back in 2020—continues to break new ground. “You Smell That, Marsha?” does bear traces of Club Constructions-era Night Slugs, but the bubbly tune doesn’t feel like a deconstructed version of anything, its confident vocal chants—apparently sampled from a South American children’s choir—blaring atop a pounding rhythm that could pass for a gqom-influenced take on Chicago house classic “Percolator.”
rRoxymore “Sun in C” (Smalltown Supersound)
Following up on her brilliantly idiosyncratic 2019 LP Face to Phase, rRoxymore has moved even further afield on new album Perpetual Now, which consists of what are billed as four “extended soundscapes.” The French producer does intermittently reference house, techno and various strains of bass music across the record, but the hypnotic standout “Sun in C” barely nods toward the dancefloor, its plinking, almost gamelan-like synths and swirling textures—not to mention the track’s brief detour into a bout of torrid saxophone—charting a psychedelic course into the outer reaches of human perception.
µ-Ziq “Hello” (Planet Mu)
Three decades into his celebrated career, µ-Ziq (a.k.a. Planet Mu founder Mike Paradinas) is having one of his most prolific years ever, dropping a trilogy of releases (Goodbye, Magic Pony Ride and the newly released Hello) loosely inspired by the technicolor glee and manic breakbeats of his 1997 album Lunatic Harness (which was also reissued a few months back). The piano-flecked “Hello” joyously taps into the same spirit, though its bright colors and effervescent glow also make it sound like a sugar-fueled spin on something from the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack.
Romance “Believe” (Ecstatic)
Originally issued as a cassette-only companion to Romance’s Once Upon a Time release from earlier this year, In My Hour of Weakness, I Found a Sweetness—which contains additional reconstructions of music by (no joke) Celine Dion—has now found its way to Bandcamp, and “Believe” is one of its heart-tugging highlights. A lush bit of ambient R&B, it’s something like a wistful lullaby, with chopped and stretched fragments of Dion’s voice poignantly floating atop a bed of of pillowy melancholy.
Deepchild “Dreams Within Dreams” (A Strangely Isolated Place)
Described as a “post-script” to his recent (and notably grief-stricken) Fathersong LP, Mycological Patterns is, as the title implies, an effort rooted in Deepchild’s love of mushrooms. That love plays out in a variety of (largely ambient) ways, and reaches a creative zenith on “Dreams Within Dreams,” an Enya-like number where warmly robotic (and likely Vocodered) vocals emote amongst a welcoming suite of soft chords and tinkling synth tones.
Angélica Salvi “Crina” (Lovers & Lollypops)
The harp is often associated with stuffiness and overly formal settings, but Angélica Salvi—a Spanish artist based in Porto—does away with button-down rigidity, imbuing the instrument with a pastoral lightness on her new album Habitat. LP highlight “Crina” evokes images of verdant gardens, its softly plucked notes effortlessly gliding through the air like dandelion puffs caught up in a springtime breeze.
Carla dal Forno “Side by Side” (Kallista)
Carla dal Forno “Deep Sleep” (Kallista)
Now back in her native Australia following extended stints in London and Berlin, Carla dal Forno offers up a fresh batch of minimalist pop bliss on new album Come Around. LP opener “Side by Side” showcases both her beguiling voice and her knack for dreamy hooks, conjuring memories of Broadcast and Young Marble Giants with its lilting melodies and chunky post-punk bassline, while “Deep Sleep” forgoes vocals altogether, indulging in a bit a soupy reverb as the song’s haunting chimes ring out through the cold night air.
Unt “U,m1” (Enmossed x Psychic Liberation)
A (mostly) long-distance collaboration between ambient talents Forest Management and Florian T M Zeisig, Unt debuts with Clips of Perspective, an LP that touches on new age, screwed hip-hop and even dub techno (although the dub/techno split is probably 80/20 in favor of the former). “U,m1” is an unassuming cut that buries its percussive hits under mounds of reverb, yet there’s something enticing about the song’s slow churn and skittering, static-kissed underbelly, which coalesce into what ultimately sounds a bit like Actress scoring a documentary about an ant colony.
JK Flesh “Washed Up” (Pressure)
Justin K. Broadrick—who’s best known for his work with Godflesh and Jesu, but has literally dozens of projects on his resume—has spent decades finding transcendence in the grottiest of sounds, and his new Sewer Bait album is another rewarding dive into the muck. Full of gnarled textures and corroded, slow-motion techno grooves, the record is anything but warm and fuzzy, yet LP closer “Washed Up” still feels triumphant, its sludgy march and unrelenting chug burrowing headlong into the darkness, confident that something glorious is waiting on the other side.
David Scopes “Final Boss” (Junction)
The presence of a Hodge remix on the new Junction 008 EP will undoubtedly attract the attention of anyone hungry for a new bass-techno hybrid, but the record’s best tune is actually a David Scopes original. The UK producer’s “Final Boss” doesn’t rely on bells and whistles; it’s a relatively straightforward, drum-heavy cut that reliably pummels its way across the dancefloor, its thundering percussion flanked by convulsing atmospherics and an insistent chime that recalls the sound a car makes when someone forgets to put on their seatbelt.
Homemade Weapons & Dailiv “Wolfsbane” (Samurai)
Homemade Weapons “Open Water” (Samurai)
Many label compilations are stuffed with tunes from “name” artists who’ve never actually appeared on said label before—which is fine—but Samurai Hannya II takes a different path, foregoing ringers and instead showcasing those acts whose music has made Samurai into one of the drum & bass genre’s most reliable outposts. Devoid of stars but loaded with talent, the record has plenty of heaters, but it’s the songs from Seattle producer Homemade Weapons that truly stands out. “Wolfsbane,” a collaboration with Dailiv, is a furious maelstrom of whirling drums and wrecking-ball bass, while “Open Water” injects a bit more sci-fi menace into the equation, terrorizing listeners with lazer-like synth bursts and a looming sense of doom.
That’s it 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.)
Have a good one,
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.