First Floor #158 – Hurry Up and Entertain Me
a.k.a. Why dance tracks are getting shorter, plus a round-up of the week's electronic music news and a fresh slate of new track recommendations.
How long should a dance track be? Five minutes? Six? More? There’s no single right answer of course, but until recently, almost nobody would have said “three minutes or less.” That, however, may be changing, which inspired the essay I wrote earlier this week. (More on that below.)
Other than that, the return of Bandcamp Fridays last week—that sound you may have heard was me groaning—unleashed a torrent of new electronic music. Both my inbox and my eardrums took a beating as a result, but I’ve weathered the storm and have put all the best bits into today’s newsletter. Let’s dive in.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Every Tuesday, First Floor publishes a long-form piece that’s exclusively made available to paid newsletter subscribers only. The latest one takes a look at the length of the average dance track, which seems to be declining—quickly. (Want proof? There’s even a graph in there!) This phenomenon is something that’s happening across the musical spectrum, but its manifestation in dance music—a genre where extended runtimes have long been the norm—speaks to something bigger than just the rise of streaming and its effect on our collective attention span.
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.
I’ve never had much personal interest in the GRAMMYs, but this investigative feature that Annabel Ross put together for Mixmag does a nice job digging into the behind-the-scenes machinations driving both the nomination and selection process, shedding some light on why its dance and electronic music picks are often so head-slappingly poor. On a related note, Gabriel Szatan also devoted the latest edition of his AD Files newsletter to the GRAMMYs, ruminating on how the awards have intersected with the likes of Daft Punk, Carl Craig and Skrillex.
After devoting an entire First Floor essay to the dire state of electronic music media last week, I wanted to take time to point out one (admittedly small) bright spot on the editorial front: Objects & Sounds. To be clear, it’s not an actual press outlet, nor does it aim to be, but this Ghent-based store, label and bar does post thoughtful conversations with artists and other thoughtful bits of content from time to time. The most recent piece is an interview with Laila Sakini by Natasha Pirard, who also spoke with Christina Vantzou and John Also Bennett a few weeks prior.
400 Floor is a new podcast from the folks at Nina protocol, a blockchain-powered infrastructure that enables artists to buy, sell and stream music online. (Side note: I know that merely mentioning “blockchain” likely sends some readers immediately running for the hills, but Nina is much closer in spirit to Bandcamp than Bored Ape Yacht Club.) The idea behind 400 Floor is that two artists “are paired up to discuss their origins in music through the scenes and relationships that shape them,” and the first episode, which features techno lifers Surgeon and Regis, went live yesterday and should be available via all major podcast outlets.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
Physical Therapy has planned for a busy 2023, lining up what he calls “a plethora of music for the attention-span recession.” More specifically, the NYC artist will be dropping at least 12 different releases (both collaborative and solo, involving an assortment of his various aliases) throughout the year via his own Allergy Season label. The first one, a Physical Therapy offering called Brick, came out last week and is available now.
Jam City has resurfaced with a new single, which was released last week by… (checks notes) Mad Decent. Diplo’s label isn’t the likeliest home for the alt-pop auteur and former Night Slugs standout, but “Redd St. Turbulence” is available now.
Hotflush founder Scuba will be spending much of next several months celebrating the label’s 20th anniversary, most notably via the release of four mixed compilations, each one highlighting a different facet of the UK imprint’s output. The first one, the self-explanatory Hotflush Origins, surfaced last week in both mixed and unmixed forms, and also includes “Opposites,” a new collaborative track Scuba made alongside Distance. It’s one of several new exclusives he’s lined up, as he plans to share both a new Scuba original and separate collaborations with Roska and Nikki Nair in the months ahead.
Galcher Lustwerk already has several aliases under his belt, and this week he unveiled a new one, The Fock, which he debuted via a new EP called The Ficus (more on that later). It’s available now via his own Lustwerk Music label.
Following a couple of brilliant albums for Houndstooth, Penelope Trappes will be releasing her next full-length on her own newly established imprint, Nite Hive. Created using “only her voice, an upright piano and an old German reel-to-reel tape deck,” the new record is called Heavenly Spheres. It’s slated to arrive on April 14, but one track from the LP, “Entangled,” has already been shared.
DJ SWISHA and Kush Jones teamed up on a new collaborative EP, (Respectfully), that the close friends and fellow NYC residents dropped on Bandcamp last week. Jones also released a new solo single, a “techno jam” called “Initial Value.”
Om Unit will soon be dusting off his footwork / jungle-oriented Philip D Kick alias for a new EP on the Astrophonica label. Entitled Off World Tales, it’s said to be the final Philip D Kick release, and though he’s already shared one of its tracks, “Orbit,” the full record won’t be available until February 24. A few weeks after that, he also has another record lined up. Far Gone / Dodgems is a collaboration with fellow UK bass veteran El-B, and before it’s released on March 8 by the GD4YA imprint, the song “Far Gone” can be heard now.
Last year’s LP.8 was Kelly Lee Owens’ darkest (and maybe best?) album to date, and now the Welsh artist has put together a companion EP, LP.8.2. No audio has been shared yet, but more details are here, and the whole thing be released on February 10 (i.e. tomorrow) by Smalltown Supersound.
I. JORDAN and SHERELLE will soon be appearing on a split for the Fabric Originals label. Each artist has contributed a single track, and while audiences will have to wait for the full release to drop on February 24 to hear JORDAN’s “M1, M3,” SHERELLE’s “GETOUTOFMYHEAD” is available now.
Kangding Ray is best known for his avant-garde techno and bass creations, but the French producer has now dipped his toes into soundtrack work, composing the original score for German film Wann kommst du meine Wunden küssen (translation: Kiss My Wounds). Both the movie and his music are out now.
Ikonika has teamed up with vocalist 45DiBoss on a new EP. Entitled Supernova and billed as “retrofuturist dancehall pop,” it’s out now via Night Slugs.
An early Logic1000 production, “My Choice” is a cheeky edit the Australian artist made of The S.O.S. Band’s 1986 electro-funk classic “The Finest,” and she’s currently offering it up as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp.
A compilation EP dedicated to the Roland TB-303, Acid Sampler contains tracks from artists like I:Cube, Katerina and DVS1. The latter’s “Lower Wacker Drive” has already been shared, but the Running Back label will be issuing the full EP on March 3.
CAT ZHANG HAS BETTER TASTE THAN I DO
First Floor is effectively a one-person operation, but every edition of the newsletter cedes a small portion of the spotlight to an artist, writer or other figure from the music world, inviting them to recommend a piece of music. This week’s installment comes from Cat Zhang, a New York-based writer and Associate Editor at Pitchfork who’s skillfully carved out her own niche at the publication. Insightful, genre-agnostic and genuinely curious, she engages with Gen Z artists and fans on their own terms, cutting a path through the hyper-online music culture of TikTok, Discord and beyond with an ease—and a refreshing lack of condescension—that eludes most journalists.
Louke Man “Shadowww” (Self-released)
This is a track by a house producer I know almost nothing about, and it samples heavily from a beloved indie pop / folk song that I’ve listened to a few times and could never previously muster more than a passing interest in (“Hannah Sun” by Lomelda). One of my coworkers randomly shared “Shadowww” over Slack last month, and it sounded instantly incredible to me—so vibrant and anticipatory, with this undercurrent of melancholy. It made me really appreciate the original song.
In the original, there’s a narrator who’s moving across the world—Chicago, Atlanta, Spain—and yet her mind is stuck on someone who she’s left behind. This person probably loved her really deeply, and she’s almost wincing thinking about how she’s hurt them because she didn’t know how to accept intimacy: “Glad you held her, glad you held him/Glad you held me too, though I didn't know how to/Be closer to you.” (My favorite lines.) Lomelda’s melodies are so strong. What I like about Louke Man’s version is how it preserves the scratch of the original, the friction of those guitar strings, but it’s more dynamic and uptempo, a bit aqueous in sound. It feels like speeding bleary-eyed across the walkway in an airport, suffused with optimism for the journey ahead but also feeling like you’ve somehow closed the door on your old life. I guess what I mean is that it conveys bittersweetness beautifully.
NEW THIS WEEK
The following is a selection of my favorite tunes from releases that came out during the past week or so. ‘The Big Three’ 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. 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
loscil // lawrence english “Yellow” (kranky)
loscil // lawrence english “Pink” (kranky)
Ambient / experimental stalwarts loscil and Lawrence English have been circling one another for decades, and while their mutual respect undoubtedly played a role in finally getting them together on the new Colours of Air album, the collaboration itself is rooted in a century-old pipe organ. Using recordings of the instrument—which resides at a museum in Brisbane, Australia—as a starting point, the two veterans have assembled an engrossing (and surprisingly diverse) collection of tunes, each one named after the color they felt it suggested.
That naming scheme obviously leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but “Yellow” is one of the LP’s brighter efforts, a fluttering cloud of ethereal fog with melodies—which at times sound more like a flute than an organ—darting through the air with an almost whimsical glee. “Pink,” on the other hand, charts a weightier, more brooding course, its grumbling baritones and orchestral swells adorned with extra-long reverb tails that hover, seemingly forever, in the night sky. Those are just two highlights, but the whole album is similarly fantastic; hopefully these two artists will someday find the occasion to make another one.
93 ’Til Infinity “Theme” (Ecstatic)
Souls of Mischief’s “93 ’Til Infinity” long ago secured its place in the pantheon of Bay Area hip-hop, and while the song is pretty much perfect as-is, the anonymous creator of “Theme” elected to chop it up anyways, and somehow managed to unlock a new level of magic in the process. Appearing on the new Catch Feelings compilation—which also includes a track from Romance, who’s previously (and rather brilliantly) pulled a similar trick using Celine Dion as source material—the track is built around the woozy chords from the original “93 ’Til Infinity,” which have been looped, screwed and layered in smudgy reverb. What results is undeniably nostalgic—particularly for anyone who still has a soft spot for the “conscious” West Coast hip-hop of the 1990s—but it’s also richly hypnotic, the song’s warbling melodies drenched in dub and sounding like something salvaged from a waterlogged old cassette single.
SEL.6 “More Than Yesterday” (Self-released)
Boosted by the success of Nick León’s 2022 breakout anthem “Xtasis,” Miami’s electronic music scene has been showered with praise during the past year, much of it touting the region’s love affair with Latin and Caribbean rhythms. Yet there’s more to Miami than just reggaeton, and on her new DESIRE V EP, South Florida native SEL.6 champions something else that’s long been part of her home state’s dance music legacy: breakbeats. More specifically, she tackles drum & bass, and while that may disappoint those hoping for a revival of DJ Icey-style Florida breaks—maybe that’ll happen on a future SEL.6 release—she’s nonetheless tapped into some very fertile ground here. “More Than Yesterday,” which opens the EP, is built atop breaks with some undeniable pep, but the track itself is more of a soulful, low-key roller, conjuring memories of vintage Goldie and the early-2000s heyday of liquid drum & bass.
BEST OF THE REST
Addison Groove “Elevator” (Pretty Weird)
It’s unlikely that Addison Groove will ever top “Footcrab,” but “Elevator” is easily the most thrilling tune he’s released in years. Taken from the UK artist’s new Eh Wut EP, the track is essentially a rework of Interactive’s 1992 Euro-techno classic “Elevator Up and Down,” but Addison Groove has outfitted that song’s distinctive, gravel-voiced vocal with a lively new chassis, its feverishly percolating drums brimming with energy as they tap into the spirit of Dance Mania.
The Fock “The Ficus (Ohio Version)” (Lustwerk Music)
The debut offering from new Galcher Lustwerk alias The Fock, The Ficus EP surfaced this week with only two words of accompanying description: “septic techno.” It’s not the most inviting turn of phrase, and true to form, there is something fetid about the gloopy undulations of the original “The Ficus,” which opens the record. This “Ohio Version,” however, casts off the muck, bathing its dingy (albeit undeniably funky) late-night pulse in lush strings and ultimately landing in a zone that’s closer to Pépé Bradock than the L.I.E.S. catalog.
Kassem Mosse “A2” (Workshop)
Six years removed from his last full-length, Kassem Mosse—an artist who built his name on hazy textures and corroded house rhythms—has delivered a surprisingly clean new album, workshop 32. It’s a surprising aesthetic change, but the record quickly makes clear that even without the murk, the German producer is perfectly capable of weaving a compelling tapestry. Like most tracks on the LP, “A2” is a relatively stripped-down affair, but there’s a lot of life in its clattering drums and puckish melodies. Playful isn’t a word that’s often been used to describe Mosse’s music over the years, but on workshop 32, it fits him like a glove.
Yushh “Look Mum No Hands” (Wisdom Teeth)
The title track of Yushh’s new EP (and debut outing on Wisdom Teeth), “Look Mum No Hands” technically clocks in at 160 bpm, but it feels more like trip-hop than footwork, which is perhaps appropriate considering that its creator hails from Bristol. In fairness, the song’s latter half does step up the energy level, but even as its basslines thicken up and the drums start to hit a little harder, it’s the track’s psychedelic haze and spaced-out vibe that prove most enticing—and also set “Look Mum No Hands” apart from the rest of the bass music crowd.
Coco Bryce “Night Safari” (Future Retro London)
“Night Safari” is apparently slated to appear on an album that Coco Bryce will unveil later in the year, but jungle obsessive Tim Reaper somehow convinced the Dutch artist to let him release the track first on his Future Retro London label. Hearing the track, it’s easy to understand Reaper’s passion, as it combines effortlessly rumbling, Photek-style grooves with chiming melodies that sound like something Ryuichi Sakamoto would have written in the early ’80s.
Pavel Milyakov “202 days of summer” (AD 93)
project Mirrors, the new album from Pavel Milyakov (a.k.a. buttechno), is billed as “a collection of loops recorded between 2016-2021,” and while that description may not sound terribly exciting, much of the record is positively bursting with color and energy. “202 days of summer” takes a whole-hearted dive into arpeggio-fueled trance euphoria, its glittering sonics charging skyward—without the help of a kick drum, or any percussion whatsoever—toward a climax that never comes. That’s not a critique; the journey alone is thrilling enough.
Toumba “Istibtan” (Hessle Audio)
The words “Levantine microtonality” likely aren’t something that Ben UFO, Pearson Sound and Pangaea originally had in mind when they launched Hessle Audio more than 15 years ago, but Jordanian producer Toumba skillfully bridges the gap between the Middle East and the hardcore continuum on his new Petals EP—and does so without ever falling into pastiche. “Istibtan” isn’t really a banger—it’s literally described as “a twist on a typical Jordanian wedding song,” and there’s no mistaking the origins of its rapid-fire synth melody or hand drums—but the song does have plenty of bassweight, its spacious composition and dubby low-end recalling the heady sound of early dubstep.
Pepo Galán & Markus Guentner “Tendom” (Fluid Audio)
Like many of Pepo Galán’s releases, the new Family Harmony album is rooted in collaboration, and features appearances by Benoît Pioulard, Karen Vogt and a handful of other artists. LP highlight “Tendom” enlists the talents of ambient veteran Markus Guentner, and though the track is a definite slow burn, it eventually ascends to breathtaking, quasi-angelic heights, unspooling billowing trails of glimmering melodies and celestial textures along the way.
Kevin Richard Martin “Sleepless” (Intercranial)
Even when he’s making ambient-ish music under his birth name, Kevin Richard Martin (a.k.a. The Bug) always manages to infuse his productions with a notable sense of heft. Above the clouds is the English artist’s latest batch of weighty dub-drone meditations, and as the title implies, it was was created from the imagined perspective of looking down upon a vast cityscape. The brawny, deeply resonant bass tones of “Sleepless” certainly speak to the grandiosity of the urban landscape (particularly when it’s viewed from above), the song’s gnashing, static-drenched sprawl reinforcing just how small we all are in the face of the world around us.
Zane Trow “Nye Effect” (Room40)
envoûteuse haleine (translation: haunting breath) is the latest album from Zane Trow, and its title perfectly captures the glowering spirit of his moody creations. (That said, the phrase “knurled electronic scrim,” which appears in the LP’s promo text, is another spot-on descriptor.) “Nye Effect” is one of the record’s ominous delights, an expertly assembled and intensely patient suite of groans, drones and ghostly after-effects that, despite coalescing into something that is often quite striking, also portend impending doom.
That brings us to the end of 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 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.