First Floor #174 – This Job Used to Be Cool
a.k.a. The cringy state of modern DJing, plus a round-up of the week's electronic music news, a fresh batch of new track recommendations and some BIG updates on the First Floor book.
Let’s get this out of the way. I know a lot of you are anxious to read the full “Being a DJ Is Embarrassing” essay that was published earlier this week. The paywall is currently down and you’ll find a link to the piece below.
Otherwise, I have some very exciting updates about my book. It’s due back from the printer next week, and though the official release date is still July 7, copies will be mailed out early to anyone who preorders from my publisher Velocity Press. Even better, everyone who preorders (or has already preordered) will also be sent a digital copy of the book. Those are ready to go now, so if all you want is the digital version, go ahead and order one from Velocity Press; they will send it out immediately.
Long story short, if you want a copy of the book—physical, digital or both—ordering now from Velocity Press is the fastest way to get it. (And for those who aren’t in a hurry, some alternate sales links are here and of course there’s always Amazon too.)
In other news, I’m finally ready to announce the details of my upcoming book tour, which will begin making its way through the UK and Europe later this month. Obviously I’ll be talking about (and selling) the book at these events, and thankfully, I won’t be doing it alone; at each stop, I’ll be joined by a local artist who’s kindly agreed to moderate the conversation. (If you’re a regular First Floor reader, you’ll surely recognize some of these names.)
The dates are as follows:
June 25 - London, Cafe OTO (moderated by patten)
June 27 - Bristol, Dareshack (moderated by Bruce)
June 28 - Glasgow, University Chapel (moderated by Andrew Thomson)
June 29 - Manchester, O! Peste Destroyed (moderated by John Howes)
July 2 - Berlin, Bar Neiro (moderated by Matrixxman)*
July 4 - Barcelona, Llibreria Finestres (moderated by John Talabot)
*The Berlin venue has very limited capacity; please RSVP to firstfloorberlin@gmail.com if you’d like to attend.
If you’re in any of these cities, please do feel free to come down. Most of the events are free, and after years of emailing you all every week, I’m really looking forward to finally meeting some First Floor readers in person.
In the meantime though, let’s get into the newsletter. Today’s edition features a special guest appearance from none other than Jubilee, plus the usual assortment of electronic music news, links and track recommendations.
And yes, there’s also a whole essay about how being a DJ is embarrassing.
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, which is now (temporarily) open to everyone, looks at the current state of DJ culture, and examines how profound shifts in dance music have left a lot of veteran artists (and their fans) wondering, “What the hell happened?”
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.
Angus Finlayson is best known these days for the music he makes as Minor Science, but once upon a time he was a music journalist—and a good one at that. Somehow the folks at Ableton recently convinced him to come out of his semi-retirement from writing, and he’s assembled a startlingly good two-part feature on the intersection between AI and music making. Written specifically for producers and music makers, the piece is both detailed and comprehensive, looking at the past, present and possible future of AI while considering its potential technical, creative, financial and ethical ramifications. Also included are thoughts from patten, Mat Dryhurst, Jaymie Silk, Scott Young and several other very smart people.
Although it has nothing to do with electronic music, this investigative feature on the current (broken) state of streaming television that Josef Adalian and Lane Brown put together for Vulture is an eye-opening read. Moreover, it’s not difficult to draw parallels between what they’re describing and how streaming has similarly upended the music industry, creating systemic problems that don’t appear to be easily solvable.
Resident Advisor this week announced that Cherie Hu, the founder of music industry-focused research and intelligence network Water & Music, would be stepping in as a guest editor throughout the month of June. She’ll be curating a series of music tech-focused features, and in her introductory letter, she explained that the articles will aim to “explore a range of tools and trends that artists, their fans and their creative ecosystems can leverage to build relationships with each other and drive music culture forward.”
Over the weekend, it was reported in Deadline that Paul Oakenfold was being sued for sexual harassment by a former assistant, who alleges that the veteran UK artist repeatedly “exposed himself and masturbated in front of her.” After reporting the incident to her bosses, she claims that she was pressured to sign a non-disclosure agreement and was later fired. In a response posted on social media, Oakenfold called the accusations “baseless” and stated, “I categorically deny any and all claims of improper conduct.”
LA experimental artist Maral featured prominently in a recent news segment on the resurgence of cassette tapes. Broadcast by the PBS NewsHour, the six-minute clip likely won’t include much new information for the average First Floor reader, but it’s a fun watch and also includes an appearance by music journalist (and regular Bandcamp Daily columnist) Marc Masters, whose upcoming book, High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape, will be released later in the year.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
Last year Paralaxe Editions—a Barcelona label run by Dania, who also happens to be my wife—held a showcase at London’s famed Cafe OTO, and yesterday the imprint released a limited-edition cassette to commemorate the occasion. Live at Cafe OTO is available now, contains excerpts of performances by Perila, Ylia, Rupert Clervaux and Dania herself, and will likely sell out very quickly.
Anz resurfaced this week with a new standalone single on Hessle Audio, her first outing for the label since 2020’s “Loos in Twos (NRG).” The Manchester artist’s new track is called “Clearly Rushing,” and it’s out now.
Colleen has completed a new double album. Entitled Le jour et la nuit du réel, it’s being billed as a “reinvention” (one of many throughout her career) and is also the Barcelona-based French artist’s first purely instrumental work in more than 15 years. Rooted in her exploration of synthesis, the record—which consists of several multi-track movements—is slated to drop on September 22 via Thrill Jockey. Ahead of that, she’s already shared “Subterranean,” the LP’s opening movement; its three parts can all be heard here.
Al Wootton has new full-length on the way. We Have Come to Banish the Dark is something the UK artist describes as “a product of dystopic times,” but it’s not a nihilistic effort, instead offering ideas of “unity, liberation and resistance to a darkening world.” The LP will be released on June 23 through Wootton’s own TRULE label, but one track, “A Pox Cast,” can be heard now.
Collaborations happen all the time in drum & bass, but last week Tim Reaper and his Future Retro London label went a step further, dropping something from a veritable supergroup. Out now, the title track of the Synergy EP features the combined talents of Sully, Coco Bryce, Dwarde and Reaper himself, and the record also includes three different remixes of the song by those same contributors.
Ana Quiroga, a London-based Spanish artist who was formerly one half of the Editions Mego-affiliated duo LCC, has put the finishing touches on her debut album and signed with the Houndstooth label. Azabache, an effort partially shaped by the Celtic heritage of her native Asturias and, more specifically, the region’s “mines, minerals, and mystical feminine energy,” is scheduled to arrive on September 8. In the meantime, LP cut “Wallada” has already been shared.
June 17 has been declared Baltimore Club Music Day, and Unruly Records, the label most synonymous with the genre’s legacy, has put together a new retrospective compilation to celebrate. Unruly Records Anthology 1991-1995 focuses on the early years of Baltimore club, and includes tunes from DJ Class, DJ Booman and several other Charm City heroes. The vinyl is set to drop on June 16, and more details can be found here.
Kyle Hall and Steven Julien (a.k.a. Funkineven), have a new collaborative EP on the way, their first in a decade. Crown will be released by Julien’s Apron imprint on June 16, but one track, “Page 3” (which also features K15), is available now.
JUBILEE 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 Jubilee, a longtime Mixpak affiliate who’s spent the past few years running her own Magic City label. Though she’s lived in NYC for more than a decade (and has even been referred to at times as a “Brooklyn bass queen”), this South Florida native will forever have Miami in her heart, and both her fun-loving, genre-hopping DJ sets and her own music—including recent single “DELETE”—frequently channel that city’s unique brand of party energy. Today, however, she’s kept things closer to home, highlighting a song that specifically champions the late-night vibes of New York City.
Dana Lu “2AM in NYC” (Self-released)
I love Dana. She’s a good vibe, a nice person, a really fire DJ and is also great on the mic. She really just does her own thing and has some solid music and edits out, but this one kinda came out of nowhere and I felt like I had a secret weapon when she sent it to me. It is a certified peak-time club banger. Speaking of peak time, I LOVE to play this song at 2 a.m. for my own entertainment. Things in NYC clubs are usually crazy by then and it just makes people go nuts. It also could go in any set—a techno set, an EDM set, a club music set… it’s really for everyone, plus it’s about the best city in the world.
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
Toumba “Janoob” (Nervous Horizon)
Toumba “Rashash” (Nervous Horizon)
It was only a few months ago that Toumba set an exceedingly high bar for himself with the Petals EP, but his follow-up quickly makes clear that his stellar outing on Hessle Audio was no fluke. It’s rather poetic that the new Janoob EP arrives via Nervous Horizon—it was hearing a track from label co-founder TSVI back in 2019 that inspired the Jordanian artist to start producing in the first place—but irrespective of what logo has been printed on the record’s sleeve, the music on offer is electrifying, weaving a distinctly Middle Eastern musical sensibility into the fabric of the UK hardcore continuum.
Linear rhythms are few and far between (this is a good thing), and while the EP’s title track recalls the slinky oddity of songs like Objekt’s “Cactus,” it’s just as easy to imagine Toumba taking inspiration from the sounds of a Bedouin drum circle. Things get even trippier on “Rashash,” a spaced-out slice of post-dubstep that might best be described as “Livity Sound on an acid trip.” These are bold, sonically adventurous tunes, but even as they veer off into the stratosphere, there’s little question that they can be devastatingly effective in the club.
Anthony Naples “Morph” (ANS)
Anthony Naples “Strobe” (ANS)
After his 2021 album Chameleon indulged in organic instrumentation and largely abandoned the dancefloor, it’s no surprise that Anthony Naples has continued to float through the ether on his new orbs LP. Easily his most psychedelic effort to date, the record is full of soupy textures and digital drift, but it’s not exactly ambient music; there are far too many jazzy flourishes and funk-infused basslines for that. “Strobe” might even qualify as a club track; its underlying pulse hits about as hard as someone tiptoeing through the house late at night, but in combination with the song’s subtly ravey chords, it’s enough to conjure hazy memories of youthful misadventures and wild nights out. “Morph” is a bit more luxurious, but the track ultimately resides in a similarly transportive zone, its shimmering warble and pert bass notes steeped in soft-focus nostalgia and half-remembered bliss.
Perc “Resistor” (Perc Trax)
Perc “Resistor (Tassid Remix)” (Perc Trax)
First released in 2021, “Resistor” has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face, but the punishing, laser-filled techno tune is still an absolute thrill ride, showcasing Perc’s unique talent for marauding, industrial-flavored techno mayhem. (The fact that its feverishly throttling synths sound like the dying yelps of an overloaded 1970s computer also adds to the fun.) And while the original track is still perfectly capable of doing damage, it’s now been reworked by a trio of producers (Tassid, Jensen Interceptor and Wallis) on the new Resistor Remixed EP. Of the three new versions, it’s Tassid’s that stands out, upping the tempo towards 150 bpm and thickening up the drums while also injecting a little more breathing room, lulling clubbers into a false sense of security before unleashing pure pandemonium in the song’s latter half. (There’s a reason that Perc himself has apparently been closing his sets with Tassid’s remix.)
BEST OF THE REST
C-thru “The Otherworld” (Pacific Rhythm)
Landing somewhere between ambient trance, lush new age and celestial trip-hop, “The Otherworld” is the gorgeous title track from the new album by C-thru (a.k.a. Texas producer Jesse Edwards, who previously worked as Red Morning Chorus and collaborated extensively with kranky artist Jessica Bailiff). With its sumptuous textures and softly glowing pastels, the song has an almost narcotic effect, and its gentle, wave-live undulations just might trigger the sweetest nap you’ve had all year.
KMRU “Lune” (Byrd Out)
KMRU “MicroVerse” (Rewire)
Though he’s always been prolific, it’s not often that KMRU pops up on two different releases on the same day, but last Friday, the Kenyan ambient / experimental artist did just that. “Lune,” taken from the Windbags / Lune EP, is a slow-burning—and at times symphonic—composition, its bellowing strings joined by delicately shuddering melodies that sound like the harmonic vibrations of champagne flutes during an earthquake. Much more muscular is “MicroVerse,” an ominously gurgling, almost volcanic long-form composition he first created for an online edition of the Rewire festival back in 2021. (Now available on digital and vinyl formats, it’s part of the festival’s new Remotely Together compilation, which also includes collaborative works from claire rousay & Morita Vargas and Maria Chavez & Valentina Magaletti.)
David Toop & Lawrence English “Whistling in the Dark” (Room40)
A highlight of the collaborative new The Shell That Speaks the Sea LP, “Whistling in the Dark” is dripping with doom. Eerie from the jump, it opens with lonely whistles and scattered rustles, but it’s not long before experimental veterans David Toop and Lawrence English drop the hammer, rolling out a steady procession of corroded drone blasts as they steadily up the tension. The whole thing feels like the precursor to an invasion—or at least what movies have trained us to expect that will sound like—and even though it peters out after a few minutes, it’ll surely leave folks feeling unnerved.
ASC “Azure” (Auxiliary)
LMajor “Intelligent Control” (Future Retro London)
Although they come from two different artists—and two different releases—both “Azure” and “Intelligent Control” tap into a particular vein of ’90s jungle, one in which the drums are dialed back (just a touch), allowing swirly melodies to come to the forefront. (Although I’m reluctant to bring up Photek for approximately the millionth time here in the newsletter, he was exceedingly good at making this stuff.) That said, neither of these songs is exactly chill; LMajor’s “Intelligent Control,” the lead track on the new FR014 EP, offers quite the percussive battering, and even ASC’s undeniably floaty “Azure,” a standout from his new Falling Through Time EP, provides a proper drum workout. There’s a lesson here: quality drum & bass doesn’t always require brute force.
Breaka “Lime Bike Elf Bar” (Self-released)
“Lime Bike Elf Bar,” the second of two tracks on Breaka’s new Like Water EP, is said to be influenced by the “existing palette of UK-driven sounds,” but the track’s swaggering rhythm and bruising bass blasts seem to take clear cues from South African gqom—or at least the way that gqom has gradually mutated in the hands of British producers. Colorful and vibrant, it definitely adds some rave energy to the genre’s usual formula, resulting in something that should light up dancefloors on both sides of the equator.
Redshape “Acid Leak” (Running Back)
The title track of Redshape’s latest EP, “Acid Leak” channels the spirit of classic Detroit techno, its chopped string flourishes sounding like a direct nod to “Strings of Life.” That said, the German veteran has put his own spin on things, building the entire song atop a wiggly acid line that lends the proceedings a joyously bouncy groove.
Ben Kaczor “Tramuntana (Efdemin Remix)” (Dial)
Ben Kaczor “Uspon (Martinou Remix)” (Dial)
Na Nich “Subway” (Delsin)
The term “deep techno” gets thrown around from time to time, and while it’s certainly an effective descriptor, something like “techno for introverts” might better capture the vibe of these three tracks. The Ben Kaczor reworks come from the new Petrovo Uho Remixes (I), which Efdemin opens by transforming “Tramuntana” into a plinky, low-key bubbler. Martinou’s take on “Uspon” is also rooted in restraint, inserting plenty of white space into the track, but it does get a bit dramatic, particularly once the song’s underwater chug is joined by radiant melodies and a sense of cinematic flair. “Subway,” a highlight of Ukrainian producer Na Nich’s new Black Soil EP, follows a more straightforward path, its heavily reverbed pulse quietly booming in the distance as the song’s barely-there melody hypnotizes everyone within earshot.
That brings us to the end of today’s 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 weekend,
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.