First Floor #192 – Creeping Corporate Influence
a.k.a. NTS Radio made a deal with Universal, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh batch of new track recommendations.
How is it that NTS Radio months ago accepted a multimillion-dollar investment from Universal Music Group, literally the biggest label and music company in the world, and nobody in the music press thought it was worth mentioning, even after the station semi-publicly shared news of the deal? Even as someone who’s openly criticized the current state of music journalism, this felt like a surprisingly major gaffe, and despite the fact that I apparently broke the story in First Floor earlier this week, it hasn’t yet been picked up by any other major music publication.
That is weird, no? Maybe these places want to do their own investigations, but in the meantime, the First Floor piece (which you can find below) is still open to everyone.
Otherwise, today’s newsletter includes a little plea for help (i.e. someone who hired me to do some work is now trying to rip me off), along with the usual assortment of electronic music news, new release announcements, links to interesting articles and track recommendations. There’s also a special guest recommendation from Daniel Bromfield, a young writer who gives me hope that music journalism isn’t completely dead just yet.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Every Tuesday, First Floor publishes a long-form piece that’s usually made available to paid newsletter subscribers only. However, given the newsworthy nature of the latest one, I made this week’s piece open to everyone. As the headline implies, it reveals that NTS Radio has accepted investment capital from Universal Music Group, and then considers what that potentially means for the future of the station.
A PLEA FOR HELP
Many of you likely saw my posts on social media about this yesterday (if not, you can still find them on Twitter and Instagram), but I was recently hired by Daniel Borine to do a large writing / editing / research project related to an upcoming release on his reissue label Family Groove. That project was completed on time, and to the satisfaction of everyone involved, but now the label is attempting to avoid payment.
Going public with something like this is very much not my style, but after months of ignored calls, texts, emails and messages (both from me and other people who know Daniel), I’ve received nothing but silence. Presumably he thinks that if he ignores me, I’ll just go away.
That’s not going to happen. Do you know Daniel Borine or Family Groove? (Just FYI, the label is based in LA and Daniel has long been a part of the digger scene there.) If you do have a way to reach him, please tell him to make this right. And even if you don’t know him, you can drop him a line at:
dborine@familygrooverecords.com
instagram.com/familygroove
facebook.com/familygrooverecords
Any assistance would be appreciated. I’m a freelancer with virtually zero worker protections, and I’m just trying to get the payment I was promised (in writing, no less).
Thank you so much.
OBLIGATORY BOOK MENTION
My first book is out now. It’s called First Floor Vol. 1: Reflections on Electronic Music Culture, and folks can order it from my publisher Velocity Press. However, if you’re outside of the UK, I’d actually recommend either inquiring at your favorite local bookshop or trying one of the online sales links I’ve compiled 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.
Last week the Music from Memory label shared the unfortunate news that co-founder Jamie Tiller had unexpectedly passed away on October 15 following a tragic accident. Social media has since been flooded with condolences and warm remembrances, and Resident Advisor yesterday published a longer tribute (written by Michael Lawson) celebrating Tiller’s life and work.
Starting next year, Spotify will be significantly altering its payout model, in an effort to both crack down on fraud and reduce a few obvious drains on its royalty pool. The proposed changes were laid out (and analyzed) in greater detail in a new article by Music Business Worldwide’s Tim Ingham, but the major takeaways are:
Artists will need to reach a certain threshold of annual streams before payments are made. (This is the most controversial change, and is already being criticized as a way for the streaming giant to pay less popular artists even less than the pittance they’re receiving now.)
Distributors will be fined for uploading fraudulent material to the platform.
Non-music tracks (e.g. white noise) will need to played for longer periods (i.e. more than the current threshold of 30 seconds) to begin generating royalties.
Now that the “trance is back” narrative has reached the New York Times, the trend will surely be on its way out soon, but this profile of Evian Christ that Isabelia Herrera put together goes deeper than genre nostalgia and revivalism, talking to the UK producer about his long-awaited debut album, elitism in electronic music and what it was like to suddenly go from making beats in his mother’s garage to working with Kanye West.
Pitchfork’s Jayson Greene spent months exploring the possibilities of text-to-audio AI music technology, even feeding reviews from the site into Google’s MusicLM tool. The results of those experiments can be heard in his lengthy feature, which also includes input from scientists who work on MusicLM and the artist patten (who’s worked extensively with these kinds of tools), along with plenty of Greene’s own worries about what this technology means for the future of music—and music criticism.
Before her debut album Rhythm Is Memory arrives next week, Ayesha has appeared in the latest installment of Mixmag’s In Session mix / interview series. Aside from sharing an exclusive new mix, the piece also finds the NYC-based artist talking to journalist Nathan Evans about her new LP, the community she’s found as a resident DJ at Nowadays and the benefits of taking one’s time.
Although DJ Deeon sadly died earlier this year, his impact continues to be felt across electronic music, which is why DMY’s Billy Ward recently enlisted Simo Cell to put together a list of his Top 10 “hidden gems” from the Chicago legend.
Environmental sustainability rarely enters the conversation when music hardware is involved, but a new article by Attack’s Adam Douglas takes a closer look at the issue, citing a report on electronics by Greenpeace and highlighting how certain gear manufacturers are attempting to be a little bit greener in their activities.
As someone who once penned a deep dive into Basement Jaxx’s 2001 album Rooty (which still feels like an obvious precursor to hyperpop), I very much appreciated Annabel Ross’ recent look back at Kish Kash—the UK duo’s similarly manic 2003 follow-up—for Crack magazine.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
It’s not often that reissues get mentioned here in First Floor, but there’s no question that Double Cup, the 2013 LP from late Chicago footwork legend DJ Rashad, was one of the most consequential albums of the past decade. On December 8, the Partisan label will be releasing a new 10th-anniversary edition of the record, one that features “new artwork by illustrator, photographer, and longtime friend of Rashad, Ashes57, and a limited edition gold vinyl pressing.” Ahead of its arrival, a new video for the song “Last Winter,” which will appear on the reissue but was previously only available on out-of-print CD versions of Double Cup, has been shared.
Otik has dropped a bevy of releases across a variety of respected labels in recent years, but the UK artist has never before released a full-length album. That’s quickly going to change, however, because he’ll soon be returning to the 3024 imprint with Cosmosis, his debut LP. It’s slated to drop on November 24, but two tracks from the record can already be heard here.
Physical Therapy is well known for his shapeshifting ways, but never before has the NYC-based artist released something that could be described as a psychedelic dub excursion. Yesterday, however, his Allergy Season label offered up Hunk, a collaborative effort with Love Letters that’s headlined by the tripped-out “Ouroboros Mix” of its title track. (For those in search of something better equipped for the dancefloor, they also included a more techno-oriented “Herculean Mix.”)
Carrier (a.k.a. Guy Brewer, who for many years primarily operated under the Shifted moniker) will soon be appearing on FELT, the impeccably curated label headed up by Perko. FATHOM is the name of his latest EP, and it’s scheduled to arrive on November 24, but its title track is available now.
Equiknoxx co-founder Gavsborg has never shied away from trying on different musical hats, but the Berlin-based Jamaican will soon be showcasing his skills on the mic, as he’s put together a vocal album under the name unkle G. Entitled an honest meal, the complete 11-track effort will surface on November 1 via Equiknoxx Music, but the song “unkle G” has already been shared.
DANIEL BROMFIELD 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. Today’s recommendation comes from Daniel Bromfield, a San Francisco-based writer who in recent years has quickly made a name for himself while covering an impressive swath of electronic and experimental music for outlets like Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, Willamette Week and 48 Hills. In a time when young journalists are generally given few opportunities and even less editorial guidance, Bromfield’s taste and talent have nonetheless shone through, and he continues that trend with his recommendation below.
Vladislav Delay “Kohde” (Mille Plateaux)
I’m a sucker for wintry stasis, and it doesn’t get much wintrier or more static than the first few Vladislav Delay albums. 2000’s Entain seemed impenetrable to me when I first discovered it about nine years ago, but thoughts of it lingered in my head, and within a matter of months, its opening track “Kohde” became the most-played in my library (many of those times, granted, were while going to sleep). Very little happens over a very long period of time—crackles of static, bass blips, a drone, what sounds like the sound of a grain silo’s contents suddenly yielding every now and then—but it feels like being lost in a blizzard, surrounded by vastness but only dimly aware of your surroundings. Whenever a tedious task takes 22 minutes (or 30, in the case of the version that appears on his debut Ele), I think of how much more quickly that time flies when it’s spent listening to “Kohde.”
NEW THIS WEEK
The following is a selection of my favorite tunes from releases that came out during the past week or so. 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.
Tristan Arp “Polymer” (SLINK)
Just a few months removed from his excellent End of a Line or Part of a Circle? EP on 3024, Tristan Arp has teamed up with NYC outpost SLINK to drop a slippery new record called The Self Elastic. It’s almost mischievous how the Mexico City-based producer always manages to defy genre convention—and do so while still delivering bubbly, dancefloor-ready tunes—and his talents are especially obvious on opening cut “Polymer,” a percolating shuffler that foregoes kick drums entirely, exudes the wondrous spirit of Japanese cartoons and somehow fashions a recurring chime (imagine the sound a car makes when someone hasn’t fastened their seat belt) into something that will bang in the club.
Luke Hess “Gratiot Ave.” (Dolly)
Many years ago, I profiled Palms Trax for Resident Advisor, and during our interview he recounted the shock he felt when he heard Luke Hess—who he described as a “real man”—playing one of his tunes at Panorama Bar. Ever since then, the phrase “real man” has popped into my head whenever I see Hess’ name, partially because it’s a funny thing to say about anyone who DJs for a living, but also because there is something unmistakably brawny about the Detroit producer’s tunes. His latest EP, These Streets, is a typically no-bullshit affair, and “Gratiot Ave.” is one of the record’s confident standouts, a smooth techno chugger that confidently cruises through the night, never flexing too hard or showing off. Hess doesn’t need to play games; he just makes solid tunes.
Fantastic Man “Spiritual Guidance” (Basic Spirit)
Trance is back. Progressive house is back. We’ve all seen these thoughts expressed a hundred times by now, and yes, Fantastic Man’s new Spiritual Guidance EP could certainly be filed into that same cabinet. But rather than just tossing together a few euphoric synth riffs and calling it a day, the Berlin-based Australian has (perhaps unintentionally) drilled down on a very specific sound, crafting something that is impressively close, both in spirit and form, to Sasha’s Xpander, a 1999 classic that’s often considered to represent the peak of the genre. In fairness, Fantastic Man doesn’t go quite as big—the title track tops out at just over eight minutes, while every cut on Xpander was 10 minutes or longer—but the record, and “Spiritual Guidance” in particular, has a knack for melodic complexity, the song’s various synth lines gracefully darting above, below and around one another as its jaunty drums and bubbly bassline practically glide across the dancefloor.
M4A4 “Kiss Your Skin” (Unknown to the Unknown)
Easily the most upbeat of this week’s recommendations, “Kiss Your Skin” is a relentlessly perky, UK garage-fueled highlight of M4A4’s new Vision Leaks EP. The track’s shuffling undercarriage alone is enough to get even the grumpiest of ravers moving, but the Irish producer creates an almost cartoonishly cheery atmosphere with his helium-powered vocal snippets, their pitched squeals happily twisting and tumbling as the song’s meaty bassline seemingly flexes every subwoofer within a five-mile radius.
Slimzee, Boylan + Riko Dan “Mile End (Extended)” (FWD>>)
Founded more than two decades ago, FWD>> is arguably one of the most influential club nights ever, at least in the UK, which sets some pretty high expectations now that it’s surprisingly spawned a new record label. That news might leave even the most ardent fans of bass music wondering, “Why now?,” but “Mile End” comes exceedingly correct, as Slimzee and Boylan have fashioned a booming, dread-inducing hybrid that pulls from dubstep and grime while recalling the siren-filled, scorched-earth sonics of artists like The Bug. The instrumental version is heavy enough to do some serious damage on its own, but the impassioned voice of veteran MC Riko Dan gives the track a gully boost, throwing some extra kerosene on what’s already a raging inferno.
Forest Swords “Munitions” (Ninja Tune)
During an era when many artists attempt to maximize their visibility and become omnipresent—in their defense, going down that path is sometimes a matter of survival, particularly in today’s hyper-crowded cultural landscape—there’s something refreshing about the fact that Forest Swords is still someone who will drop an album and then seemingly evaporate into the ether, remaining virtually unseen for years on end. Bolted is his first full-length since 2017, and it once again finds the the UK producer / composer mining the gloomy territory between trip-hop, baritone-heavy goth rock and angular electronic soundscapes. The LP is cinematic and spooky, but not without its subtle nods toward the pop sphere, and “Munitions” opens the album with a welcome bit of industrial crunch, its serrated stomp intermingling with haunted-house melodies, disembodied vocal laments and jagged shards of gurgling electronics.
Locust “γ Vel” (Mysteries of the Deep)
Trip-hop is definitely having a moment right now, and while some of that moment undoubtedly stems from young producers who only recently heard Tricky’s Maxinquaye for the first time, it’s also being fueled by veterans like Locust, an LA-based British artist whose output dates back to before Maxinquaye was released in the first place. The First Cause is his latest full-length, and while it pulls from more than just trip-hop—bits of techno and jungle are stirred into the pot, as are plenty of droney soundscapes—LP highlight “γ Vel” wouldn’t have been out of place on one of Mo’ Wax’s famed Headz compilations. The song’s blown-out drums and swirly textures have their own hypnotic allure, but it’s the creepy synth line, which sits somewhere between an EKG machine and the Unsolved Mysteries theme (a personal favorite of mine), that truly elevates the proceedings.
patten “London System” (555-5555)
Given all the attention that was showered on patten’s Mirage FM album earlier this year—attention that admittedly was fueled in part by ChatGPT and the subsequent media craze around all things AI—it’s strange that the UK artist’s follow-up, Deep Blue, has so far been greeted with a quieter reception. Like Mirage FM, it was created using text-to-audio AI samples, but where that release offered a kind of alien, funhouse-mirror reflection of contemporary pop and electronic music, Deep Blue purposely heads down a more “human” route, specifically mining jazz for inspiration and ultimately landing in a zone where the AI element is practically undetectable. Perhaps that reduces the novelty factor, but it can also make for a more palatable listen, especially on “London System,” an expertly chilled selection that brings to mind both late-night lounges and the dusty beats that artists like Teebs (and other members of the Brainfeeder family tree) were turning out in the early 2010s.
Arp “The Enormous Room” (Longform Editions)
Dania “arête” (Longform Editions)
From a purely curatorial standpoint, Longform Editions continues to run circles around most ambient / experimental labels out there, and its latest release package included compositions from Christina Vantzou, SUSS & Andrew Tuttle, Arp and Dania. The contributions from the latter two proved most rewarding to my ears, and though it’s not easy for a 22-minute-long piece to sound playful, Arp achieves that on “The Enormous Room,” weaving together a vibrant tapestry of plinky piano, plinkier synths, string flourishes and disembodied snippets of choir-ready vocals. Written down, that perhaps seems busy, but there’s a real lightness to Arp’s work, which even in its most complex moments never loses its sense of whimsy. “arête,” on the other hand, is dreamy and pensive, as Dania—who, full disclosure, is my wife—lays out a plush suite, as usual leaning on her velvety, yearning vocals, but also incorporating processed layers of flute and piccolo, instruments she first played as a child but only recently picked up again. With its extended runtime, the composition is absolutely a slow burn, but its confines are so cozy that listeners aren’t likely to be eyeing the exits once they crawl inside.
Simplists “Untitled (dub)” (Notte Brigante)
Few labels do weirdo dub better than French outpost Notte Brigante, and “Untitled (dub)” is a delightfully bizarre highlight of the new Over Simplifies Reality LP from the mysterious Simplists project. (Just FYI, a digital version of the album is currently available as a “name your price” download on Bandcamp.) With its sludgy basslines and reverb-drenched beats, the song at times sounds like something being played at the wrong speed, but it’s the lyrics—which repeatedly mention the devil and soak every mention of the Dark Lord in sinister echo—that take the track into some truly odd (and truly wonderful) territory.
That’s it for 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 great rest of the 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.