First Floor #167 – More! More! More!
a.k.a. A round-up of the week's electronic music news and a fresh slate of new track recommendations.
During the past week, I’ve basically done only two things:
Continue to work on my forthcoming book.
Make my way through the absolute avalanche of new electronic music that came out during the past seven days.
Today’s newsletter is largely focused on the latter, and includes some truly excellent new tunes, along with a special guest appearance by Bianca Oblivion.
Before we jump into that, however, I wanted to mention that Substack this week launched a new feature called Notes, which is… well, it’s pretty much like Twitter, but minus Elon, the ads, the algorithms and (at least so far) the folks who tend to make everyone’s online life miserable. Admittedly the platform is still taking shape and I haven’t been terribly active on it as of yet, but feel free to give Notes a whirl if you’re looking for a less migraine-inducing alternative to the Twitterverse.
And now, on to today’s newsletter…
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.
The latest edition of Sam Valenti’s Herb Sundays newsletter / curated playlist series features Jacques Greene. His selections lean heavily on female-led alternative music from the ’90s, and feed into a vibe that the Montreal producer describes as a “hangover at the airport, noise canceling on, hoodie up safe space.” In his own more extended description, Valenti also talks about the “High School Feelings (HSF)” present in Greene’s work, an assertion that initially sounds a bit silly, but quickly starts to make a lot of sense.
I actually meant to include this in last week’s newsletter, but Electronic Beats recently launched a new podcast called The Week, a “weekly audio newsletter” hosted by Kikelomo and OttO Kent that attempts to sum up all of the most important electronic music happenings in a reasonably sized (i.e. approximately 10 minutes) format. The first episode featured an interview with Richie Hawtin talking about his recent partnership with Aslice, while the second invited writer / editor Emilie Friedlander (of The Culture Journalist newsletter, amongst other things) to discuss the intersection of music and artificial intelligence. New episodes drop every Thursday, and The Week is available wherever you get your podcasts.
Thomas Bangalter has been doing a number of interviews lately, but for anyone who still has an appetite for what the former Daft Punk member has to say, both about the legacy of the group and his recent turn toward classical composition, he’s chatted with journalist Chal Ravens in a new feature that went live yesterday.
Jam City’s career has gone through lots of twists and turns since he dropped the game-changing Classical Curves album back in 2012, and with a new LP on the way later this year, he’s now popped up on the cover of Crack magazine. The associated feature by writer Will Pritchard digs deep into the UK producer’s backstory, along with the intensely personal artistic vision he’s cultivated over the years.
Speaking of magazine covers, DJ Bone is on the latest issue of DJ Mag, which enlisted journalist Joe Roberts to interview the Detroit native about his 35 years in electronic music and unique position in the history of house and techno. (On a related note, DJ Bone has a new album called FURTHER on the way, and while all the details have yet to be revealed, he did this week share the LP’s first single, “The Will to Overcome.”)
The ongoing UK garage revival likely isn’t news to many First Floor readers, but for anyone looking to get caught up on what’s going on and who some of the important players are, this primer that April Clare Welsh put together for Bandcamp Daily—which includes commentary from Interplanetary Criminal—is a solid place to start.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
Anthony Naples took his sound in a distinctly different direction on 2021 LP Chameleon—in fact, he was interviewed about it here in First Floor—and now the NYC artist appears to be changing things up again, today announcing a new album called orbs that he describes as “a moody portal of shoegazed and slo-mo songs suspended in thin air.” It’s set for a June 2 release on the Incienso label he runs with Jenny Slattery, and one track from the LP, “Silas,” has already been shared.
Levon Vincent has a new album on the way. In contrast to last year’s more meditative Silent Cities, the dancefloor-oriented Work in Progress is said to be focused only on “the idea that it must move you.” The record is scheduled to arrive on June 11 via Vincent’s own Novel Sound imprint, but one track, “Regarding Love,” is available now.
Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void have teamed up on a new full-length, Full-On, a genre-melding effort that will be released through the Alter label on June 30. Ahead of that, noisy LP cut “Work It Out” has already been shared.
Broken English Club frequently veered away from the dancefloor on last year’s THE ARTIFICIAL ANIMAL album, but now the UK techno / EBM / noise veteran has deconstructed and reassembled five of its tracks with an eye toward the club on the new THE ARTIFICIAL ANIMAL EDITS. Released last Friday, it’s available through his own Death & Leisure imprint.
DJ Q fans got a pleasant surprise yesterday when the Local Action label suddenly dropped Est. 2003 Remixed, an album-length collection that finds artists like Octo Octa, Flava D, Baltra, DJ Jayhood and others reworking tracks from the UK garage / bassline icon’s most recent LP.
Nearly six years have gone by since Trevino (a.k.a. Marcus Intalex) unexpectedly passed away, but a new posthumous full-length called Back—which is said to be the final Trevino album—has been readied for a May 26 release through the Birdie label. Ahead of that, the track “Gateway” has already been shared, as have preview clips of the remainder of the LP.
Omar S has a new EP, a surprisingly vocally oriented effort called Pain. Out now via the Detroit mainstay’s FXHE imprint, it features guest appearances from John FM, King Milo and Tayloe.
CFCF has completed a new EP. Never Going Home is the latest offering from the Canadian artist (who now resides in Los Angeles), and the club-focused record—which includes remixes from Ciel and Priori—will be released on May 12 though his BGM label. Before that, however, the title track has already been made available.
Yesterday MoMA Ready shared Faith in Us, a new album that the Haus of Altr founder says is “dedicated to the effect of time on relationships in an environment like New York.”
Experimental outpost Longform Editions this week issued its latest batch of expertly curated long-form compositions, which included More Eaze’s Eternity, Patrick Shiroishi & Daniel Wyche’s The Oldest House in the World, Maria Moles’ A Spark, a reminder and Rich Ruth’s Settling in.
BIANCA OBLIVION 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 LA native Bianca Oblivion. Host of the monthly NTS radio show Club Aerobics and also one of the driving forces behind wild Los Angeles party Warp Mode, Oblivion is a tireless champion of all things bass, not to mention a boundary-hopping DJ and producer whose speaker-rattling tunes have appeared on labels like Future Bounce and Magic City. Later this month, she’ll be releasing “Sinais,” a grime-flavored collaborative single with ONHELL that’s slated to drop via N.A.A.F.I., but ahead of its arrival, she’s carved out a few moments in her hectic schedule to spread the word about one of her favorite producers.
Amadeezy “Yo Girlfriend!!!” (Self-released)
I’ve known Amadeezy for nearly a decade now. We became friends when I moved to Boston and actually met DJing at Good Life, a beloved club at the center of our scene that hosted some iconic parties / DJs and sadly closed down late last year. Amadeezy, a.k.a. the Bass Boss, is one of those unassuming DJs who pulls up to the club unannounced, fitted cap and backpack in tow, slips into the booth and proceeds to tear up a set with just the right energy for literally any party. I have seen him command an open-format set for a typical Friday night crowd, and then the next night ignite mosh pits at PVRPLE, the late and great dirty south rap and trap night he ran with a few of our friends at Good Life for several years. As a producer, he spent years making rap and trap beats, it wasn’t until late 2019 that the Bass Boss really emerged, a side of Amadeezy that thrived on the sounds of Miami bass, ghetto house, electro, techno, hard house, and basically everything I loved growing up as a kid in the ’90s.
There are plenty of artists right now who are making great tracks in these genres, but for me, there’s something extra special about Amadeezy’s production. He just has that SAUCE, that same IDGAF attitude that he brings to his DJ sets, and really, they’re just fun as hell to listen to on and off the dancefloor. That’s really what draws me in most—they’re bassy and hard hitting without being pretentious. While it was hard to choose a favorite, I thought “Yo Girlfriend!!!” was a good representation of a classic Bass Boss production. Off his 100% Very Rare House Hits & Summer Anthems, it’s the perfect blend of ghetto house-style sampling (that’s Wiz Kalifa on the acapella off Juicy J’s “Gah Damn High”) with upbeat jackin’ vibes. It always goes off when I play it in my sets and is a true testament to how Amadeezy is the boss of the dancefloor.
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
Civilistjävel! “Louhivesi (feat. Cucina Povera)” (FELT)
Civilistjävel! “Valmsta” (FELT)
With less than a year of releases under its belt, the FELT label quietly continues one of electronic music’s hottest streaks with Fyra platser, the latest offering from Swedish drone-dub specialist Civilistjävel!. Those already familiar with his wintery soundscapes will find a lot to love in “Valmsta,” a patiently lurching, static-laced composition with a steady, heartbeat-like pulse that remains reliably constant, even as Civilistjävel! introduces subtle hints of chaos throughout the track’s eight-plus-minute runtime. “Louhivesi,” on the other hand, adds a bit of warmth to the proceedings. Much of that is due to the presence of Cucina Povera, whose haunting vocal laments wouldn’t have been out of place on an old This Mortal Coil record, but here combine with Civilistjävel!’s reverb-laden undulations to form what sounds like a uniquely ethereal strain of trip-hop. A beautiful song, it’s the obvious high point of Fyra platser, and makes one hope that the record’s creator doesn’t shy away from returning to this more vulnerable—and more distinctly human—path in the future.
Tim Hecker “Lotus Light” (kranky)
Tim Hecker “Anxiety” (kranky)
Tim Hecker doesn’t really make bad records, and the Canadian artist’s latest full-length, No Highs, isn’t something that will convince people otherwise. It is, however, a slight departure from much of his past work; although the LP is very much still in the ambient / experimental realm, it largely shies away from the cinematic bombast for which Hecker is best known. Billed as “a jagged anti-relaxant for our medicated age,” the most likely response to the album won’t be awed wonder, but quiet unease; it’s not a light record, and even its most soaring moments have been shot through with tension and lightly glazed in serrated static. “Lotus Light” feels particularly world-weary, its underlying pulse hurriedly pushing ahead as Hecker’s orchestral glimmers and arctic drones smash up against the night sky. The similarly engrossing “Anxiety” lives up to its title, employing tightly wound melodic loops and crashing waves of distortion that evoke images of nervously pacing as unseen disaster sits just outside the door. Easy listening this is not, but in an era when being on edge has practically become a way of life, Hecker has capably tapped into the spirit of the times.
µ-Ziq “4am” (Balmat)
µ-Ziq “Reference Gravy” (Balmat)
µ-Ziq “Pillowy” (Balmat)
1977 isn’t strictly an ambient record, yet the album is easily one of the most dialed-down efforts of Planet Mu founder Mike Paradinas’ illustrious career. LP opener “4am” sounds more like Deep Forest than breakbeat hardcore, and while µ-Ziq has never before seemed like a candidate for a Pure Moods compilation, he quickly acclimates to the song’s sense of zoned-out serenity, transforming its various vocal snippets into enchanting tendrils of aural Play-Doh. “Reference Gravy” also features a smattering of tweaked vocal tones, but the track charts a more sinister course, its piano recalling The Exorcist soundtrack as its bassline groans with subtle menace. “Pillowy,” however, brings things back into the light, diving into the same sort of brightly fluttering, trance-adjacent (but still beatless) territory that Nathan Micay has been exploring with his recent scoring work on Industry. Like much of the music on 1977, it’s an unexpected move from Paradinas, but it’s excellent all the same, and after more than three decades in electronic music, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that he had this sort record in his back pocket.
BEST OF THE REST
Peverelist “Pulse II” (Livity Sound)
Although Peverelist no longer drops new music all that often—the new Pulse EP is his first solo offering in five years—the Bristol producer’s more relaxed pace doesn’t seem to have diminished his talent for left-of-center techno-bass hybrids. Of the four tracks on the record, “Pulse II” hews closest to the classic Livity Sound aesthetic, its barely-there melodies and bubbling bass charting a weightless path above the track’s serpentine drum patterns.
Nondi_ “Long Ago” (Planet Mu)
Sometimes the best electronic music is that which is created far away from the dancefloor. Nondi_, a resident of Johnstown, Pennsylvania whose HRR net label bills itself as an outlet for “Web Folk, Nightcore, and Dubst,” has apparently never experienced the sounds of footwork, breakcore and Detroit techno in person, yet traces of them all can be heard in her delightfully inventive new album, Flood City Trax. Twinkly LP standout “Long Ago” sounds like something from a children’s anime, with playful string plucks and elastic melodies that happily bop alongside the track’s excitedly galloping drums.
Cicada Ensemble “Kepler (Otik Remix)” (Artesian Sounds)
Does describing something as “future bass” make sense when usage of that term arguably peaked sometime in the mid 2010s? Maybe not, but it still feels like an appropriate descriptor for Otik’s slinky rework of fellow London producer Cicada Ensemble’s “Kepler,” which can be found on the new Murmuration Clip EP. Built atop a stuttering rhythm, the track employs pastel synths and a twisted R&B sample, which coalesce into a kind of zero-gravity bliss—and impressively do so without completely leaving the realm of the dancefloor.
INVT “SUBELO & BAJALO” (Self-released)
Taken from INVT’s new LATIN BASS EDIT PACK, “SUBELO & BAJALO”—a bootleg rework of a track by Dominican artist Nfasis and (not joking) Italian businessman Gianluca Vacchi—initially sounds like a beefed-up reggaeton cut, right up until the Miami duo drop the hammer, unleashing the kind of gut-scrambling bassline that powered first-wave grime and dubstep tunes during the early 2000s. As production techniques go, it’s both simple and devastatingly effective, and also makes clear that when the so-called hardcore continuum was first being charted, the general omission of modern Latin club sounds—especially those from the Caribbean—was a grave error.
talpah “Murrrderrr” (Hundebiss)
Fast tempos have gotten something of a bad rap during the past year—and in all honesty, sometimes they’ve deserved it—but “Murrrderrr,” a new track from Italian artist talpah, proves that it’s possible to operate around 180 bpm without sounding totally braindead. The song is essentially a turbo-charged drum & bass cut, one that talpah has infused with a gleefully manic vibe without sacrificing any of the track’s underlying groove. “Murrrderrr” is not for the faint of heart, but there’s something undeniably invigorating about the percussive pummeling it offers.
Immediate Proximity “Star Map” (IMPROX)
After debuting the Immediate Proximity project back in 2020 with the 2334 LP, Niels Luinenburg (a.k.a. Delta Funktionen) and Diana Napirelly have returned with their own label and a new record, IMPROX 1. A moody effort that moves through various strains of bass-infused techno, electro and ambient, the EP opens with the satisfyingly crunchy “Star Map,” a hip-hop flavored tune with a serious ominous streak. Brimming with tension, it’s the sort of the thing you might hear in a film—right before something seriously heinous goes down.
NANCY Live “Molmat” (Shall Not Fade)
“Molmat” is the title track of Manchester artist NANCY Live’s latest EP, but this muscular electro-techno number has something of a retro feel, at times sounding like a long-lost cut from Vitalic, SebastiAn or some other Ed Banger affiliate. That said, while most producers going down this route give their tracks a laid-back ’80s sheen, NANCY Live has created something a bit more bombastic, pairing the song’s neon-streaked melodies with trance-style acrobatics and a growling techno underbelly.
Rezzett “Hevvy” (The Trilogy Tapes)
Much like the Trilogy Tapes label that’s long been their home base, Rezzett can’t be neatly lumped into any one genre or aesthetic. Over the past decade, the UK duo’s hazy, loosely dancefloor-oriented creations have proven to be consistently excellent, and though their new Meant Like This LP (which also happens to be the 100th Trilogy Tapes release) is rife with corroded textures, blown-out sounds and raw drum patterns that abruptly stop and start, it never feels like an overly dark or difficult listen. Album highlight “Hevvy” is constructed atop a jittery approximation of a techno rhythm, but it’s not really a club track, as its dreamily see-sawing (and at times oddly tuned) melodies make it feel more like an experiment in combining Enya-style new age with the sounds of a ’90s chillout room. It’s messy and weird, but it works.
Rachika Nayar “years & years” (RVNG Intl.)
It’s not often that the bonus material included in reissues winds up being particularly memorable, but “years & years,” which appears on the newly expanded edition of Rachika Nayar’s fragments, is a little slice of ’90s emo heaven. Like the rest of fragments, it’s a stripped-down tune that consists of little more than low-key guitar loops, but Nayar’s gentle strums exude a youthful sense of wonder, and though the song only lasts 95 seconds, its celestial sound feels like an obvious nod to the more pensive emo bands that came out of the American Midwest during the mid-to-late ’90s.
Johanna Orellana “El Jardín II” (Smalltown Supersound)
The debut album from Norwegian-Chilean flautist Johanna Orellana, Las Camelias, Tres Equinas is a profoundly intimate record. Produced, recorded and mixed by Carmen Villain, the music gets up close and personal, augmenting Orellana’s tender playing with not just quietly buzzing field recordings, but also her own breath sounds and the gentle tapping of her fingers as she presses the keys of her chosen instrument. The work of someone like Bendik Giske is an obvious parallel, but the warbling tones of LP standout “El Jardín II” create their own uniquely idyllic sound world.
That brings us to the end of today’s 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.)
Take care,
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.