First Floor #201 – Down the Drain
a.k.a. Thoughts on Pitchfork and the supposed music blogging revival, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh batch of new track recommendations.
Pitchfork is being gutted. Sure, parent company Condé Nast is framing what’s happening as a “restructure,” with Pitchfork being folded into men’s magazine GQ, but considering that editor in chief Puja Patel has already been let go, along with many of the site’s other writers, editors and staffers, it’s difficult to see this as anything other than an extremely dark moment for music journalism.
Say what you will about Pitchfork. (Full disclosure: I have contributed a smattering of reviews and features to the site during the past five years.) It wasn’t perfect, and its poptimist turn wasn’t something I particularly appreciated. But irrespective of that, Pitchfork was still a place that not only continued to make room for meaningful reporting, but also continually shined a light on relatively obscure and experimental corners of the music world. It was also one of the only sites left still doing thoughtful, properly edited music reviews, and its editors used that form to develop and platform promising new writing talent in a way that few other outlets even attempt these days.
It’s not a stretch to say that Pitchfork was quite possibly the most influential music publication in the world—it was certainly on the shortlist—and yet, even that didn’t matter in the end. For Condé Nast, the site was ultimately just another asset on their spreadsheets, another legacy property that could be leveraged for brand money. Perhaps it’s premature to be talking about the site in the past tense; it appears that not everyone has been laid off, at least not yet, and depending on how the merger with GQ takes shape, Pitchfork could potentially continue in some (probably zombified) form. Nevertheless, what’s happened already feels like the definitive end of an era, and is yet another warning sign that the music journalism field, which was already on life support, is in danger of total collapse.
In light of this news, it’s weirdly fitting that I published an essay about the return of music blogging earlier this week. There’s more on that below, but as promising as the recent resurgence of independent newsletters, blogs and podcasts may seem, it’s absolutely tied to the ongoing disintegration of the professional music media. More importantly, even if there’s some sort of independent media ecosystem forming, it’s extremely fragile, and shouldn’t be seen as an adequate replacement for what’s been lost. If we want to keep quality music journalism alive, people are going to have to pay for it, and as of now, consumers’ appetite for that appears to be limited.
Sigh.
Maybe I’ll have more to say about this in the future, but in the meantime, I assume most of you are here for the weekly First Floor digest. If so, then read on. You’ll find bits of electronic music news and a bunch of new release announcements, along with a handful of track recommendations from records that dropped during the past week. I’ve also recruited one of my favorite writers and editors, Marke B., to drop in with a track recommendation of his own, and it’s a real firecracker.
Music journalism is in trouble, yet electronic music soldiers on. Let’s dive in and see what’s been happening.
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, examines what some are calling a “blog renaissance,” taking stock of not just why so many independent newsletters, blogs and podcasts have popped up during the past few years, but whether the nascent ecosystem they’re forming has a legitimate chance of long-term survival.
REAL QUICK
A round-up of the last week’s most interesting electronic music news, plus links to interviews, articles and other things I think are worth sharing.
Aside from the Pitchfork news, music journalism had another, admittedly less momentous “end of an era” moment earlier this week when FACT revealed that its in-house mix series would be coming to an end after 16 years. The news was embedded in the writeup that accompanied the series’ final installment, a mix from Tati au Miel.
Over the past week, a number of artists—including Scratcha DVA, Kampire, Raji Rags, Jyoty and Manuka Honey—publicly pulled out of the upcoming CTM festival in Berlin, which is partially funded by the German government. While each artist gave their own statement, their cancellations were by and large a response to how the German government, in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, has moved to curtail pro-Palestinian speech and protest. (NYC’s Dweller festival cited similar reasoning when it recently announced that it would not be returning to Berlin this year.) More specifically, some artists are also taking issue with the government’s increasing adoption of the the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-semitism, and how that limits (and, in some cases, completely stifles) critique of the Israeli government, particularly when arts and cultural organizations face the threat of losing funding if they deviate from said definition. In response to the cancellation, CTM issued a statement stating that it “respected the artists’ decisions.” It remains to be seen how this will affect the festival’s viability, both now and in the future, but considering just how many clubs, festivals and collectives in Berlin (and, presumably, much of Germany) receive at least some government funding—this link from the Berlin Clubcommission lists 40 grant recipients from just a few months ago—this issue is unlikely to go away anytime soon.
In related news, French-Lebanese artist Arabian Panther last week accused vaunted Berlin nightclub Berghain of cancelling his January 12 booking at the venue due to his vocal support of Palestine. Furthermore, he claims that the club attempted to conceal their reasoning for the cancellation, and wound up cancelling the entire night—a Italorama Bar X Ritmo Fatale event—under the guise of unforeseen maintenance. Ritmo Fatale label manager Kendal confirmed many of these details in a subsequent news story by Resident Advisor’s Arielle Lana LeJarde, but Berghain itself has yet to comment. (And given the club’s long-standing avoidance of the press, it most likely won’t.)
The definitive Mister Saturday Night interview has dropped. The duo of Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin, who also own NYC venue Nowadays, are currently celebrating the party’s 15-year anniversary, and to mark the occasion, they sat down with Vivian Host’s Rave to the Grave podcast for an extensive, two-part conversation that details their backstory, but also dives deep into the history of NYC dance music and the (not always glamorous) particulars of running a nightclub.
A clip from UK quiz show University Challenge recently went viral in dance music circles—it involves perplexed teenagers giving “drum & bass” an answer, when host Amol Rajan was looking for “jungle”—and while the resulting conversation prompted all sorts of bemusement, it got writer Joe Muggs feeling fired up. Surveying people’s comments and noticing just how much incomplete (and, in many cases, incorrect) narratives have solidified around the differences between jungle and drum & bass, he decided to push back, exploring the matter at length in a thought-provoking essay for The Quietus.
UK radio mainstay Annie Nightingale, who was both BBC Radio 1’s first female presenter and its longest-tenured on-air personality, passed away at the age of 83. Having first started on the BBC in 1970, she was still working there at the time of her death, and had been one of the station’s dance music specialists since the 1980s.
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.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
Joy Orbison dropped a surprise new single, “flight fm,” which is out now via Hinge Finger and XL. A real belter, the track is (enthusiastically) dissected in a bit more detail in the “New This Week” section below.
This item should have been included in last week’s digest, but over the holidays Ron Morelli released Rhythm Master, a mini-LP of gritty, ’80s-inspired house cuts that could be seen as an addendum to his 2023 album Heart Stopper. (For those who missed it the first time, Morelli discussed that album and much more in a highly entertaining interview with First Floor last year.) Rhythm Master is available now on L.I.E.S.
Burial has been teasing new music in recent weeks, and while all the details have yet to be revealed, it seems that he’s linked up with the XL label and will be releasing a record called Dreamfear on February 9.
An underappreciated hero of the much-discussed Miami scene, Jonny from Space will soon be releasing his debut album. Entitled back then I didn’t but now I do, it’s slated to arrive on February 9 via Incienso, but LP cut “Live” has already been shared.
Speaking of Miami, Coffintexts—who collaborated with Jonny from Space on 2022’s CIENFUEGOS EP and followed it up with last year’s Touch EP on Clasico—dropped a new standalone single called “I Like the Way She’s Moving.” It’s available now on Florentino’s Club Romantico imprint.
Nick León’s “Xtasis” put TraTraTrax on the map back in 2022, but it was the no pare, sigue sigue compilation that truly solidified the Colombian label as a force to be reckoned with. Now the imprint has put together a sequel. no pare, sigue sigue 2, which contains contributions from Henzo, Doctor Jeep, 3Phaz, Siete Catorce and many others. February 9 is the release date, but several tracks from the record have already been shared here.
Eris Drew and Octo Octa’s T4T LUV NRG is one of the few prominent outposts that remains dedicated to the art of the mixtape—as in DJ mixes released on physical cassettes—and this week the label released A Night in the Skull Discotheque, a two-sided session from CCL. It’s out now, and those wanting to supplement the music by finding out more about the shapeshifting Berlin selector should also check out CCL’s recent appearance on the No Tags podcast.
Edits aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s very difficult to argue with a new package of club edits from Sinjin Hawke, Zora Jones and their Fractal Fantasy platform. FF Club Edits 2, which also contains reworks assembled by their longtime cohort Martyn Bootyspoon, is available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp.
UK percussion wizard Shackleton teamed up with Japanese artist Scotch Rolex on last year’s Death by Tickling album, and now the maverick duo have joined forces with a third musician, Ugandan drummer Omutaba. The trio’s first official outing is a heavy new record called The Three Hands of Doom, and it’s available now through Nyege Nyege Tapes.
A collaboration between veteran UK producers Appleblim and Wedge, Wrecked Lightship has a new record on the way. Antiposition is the duo’s debut on Peak Oil, and the “aquatic alien bass music LP” is due to arrive on February 23. In the meantime, two of its songs can be heard here.
Before this week, Courtesy had basically limited her production output to the ambient (or at least ambient-ish) realm, but given her long history as a DJ, it was only a matter of time before she made something for the dancefloor. New single “Let the Music Hypnotise You” is that something, and the track, which features the vocals of Klō, was released on Tuesday to inaugurate Courtesy’s new Against Interpretation label.
The music of ambient / experimental artist Nate Scheible evades easy categorization, but it’s uniformly pretty excellent. The Washington DC producer will soon be releasing a new full-length, or valleys and, via the Outside Time imprint, but before it officially surfaces on February 16, he’s already shared two songs from the record here.
Having reissued their landmark 2010 album Feed-Forward last year, techno collective Sandwell District have now prepped a retrospective singles collection called Where Next? The 12-track collection is due to arrive on February 23 via The Point of Departure label, and it contains tracks by Function, Silent Servant, Regis and other Sandwell-associated projects. As a teaser, Silent Servant’s “Sampler 1 B1 (Regis Edit)” has already been shared.
As genre names go, braindance isn’t great—though, in retrospect, it was probably better than “intelligent dance music”— but it seems that the Die Orakel label is determined to keep the word alive with a new compilation. Braindance will be issued on February 16, and includes songs from upsammy, oma totem feat. juns, Katatonic Silentio, Poly Chain, O-Wells and many others, and one track, Pépe’s “Cloudbusters,” is available now.
Bristol bass explorer Batu decided to start his 2024 with a surprise new single. “Other Means” is out now on his A Long Strange Dream label.
MARKE B. HAS BETTER TASTE THAN I DO
First Floor is effectively a one-person operation, but every edition of the Thursday digest 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 Marke B., a veteran writer and editor who’s also the co-founder of San Francisco independent news publication 48 Hills and a member of the collective that owns The Stud, the city’s oldest gay bar (which is working to reopen soon). Though he’s originally from Detroit—the man has some incredible stories about the city’s rave heyday—he’s been an SF staple for as long as I can remember, and a tireless champion for the weirdest, wildest and queerest corners of the city’s cultural landscape. Marke’s work is a welcome reminder that the tech bros haven’t completely conquered San Francisco just yet, and here he reaches into the city’s past to share a delightfully camp tune.
Timmy Spence and the Sluts “Brand New Dance” (BSU)
The fraught new year looms before us, and I’m recharging my protest and engagement batteries with a Technicolor camp classic from San Francisco’s gay golden age. This 1981 hi-NRG gem by androidal heartthrob Timmy Spence rides giddy new wave retro signifiers (space travel, muscle cars, novelty dance records, all before they became sinisterly freighted) into a synth-pop hyper-pogo zone that will warp your Memphis rug in several dimensions. The perfect video, a rare well(ish)-produced artifact of the time, teems with wigged-out local drag legends, leaping leopard leotards and enough eye-liner to slick 1000 backstreet catwalks. Yet, as the eternally fabulous Doris Fish snaps toward the end, “Who cares about your makeup, I just want to dance!”
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.
Farsight “Riptide” (Rinse)
Having quietly climbed the bass music ranks during the past few years, most notably via a series of releases on the Scuffed imprint, Farsight made to leap to Rinse last week, debuting on the iconic UK outpost with a two-tracker called Leche De Tigre / Riptide. Both songs effectively wield a low-end hammer, but it’s the vibrant “Riptide” that proves most memorable, its video game clicks nodding to “Ice Rink”-era Wiley as the track’s stuttering rhythm and ominous wubs stake out a middle ground between Baltimore club and classic dubstep.
Joy Orbison “flight fm” (Hinge Finger / XL)
2024 has its first official anthem. The latest in a long line of Joy Orbison bangers, “flight fm” is delightfully dumb, a shining example of dance music’s ability to transform something as simple as a fuzzy bass riff into a vehicle for pure euphoria. That’s not a knock on Joy Orbison’s production skills; the lack of clutter is what makes this tune work, and the fact that he apparently made it while waiting for a ride to a festival, and then road tested it in on the car stereo before debuting the song later that day, only adds to the track’s mystique. Dance music diehards (myself included) have an annoying tendency to overintellectualize the genre, but hearing the shuffly rhythm and cartoonish growl of “flight fm,” it quickly becomes clear that some of the best dancefloor moments require no brainpower whatsoever.
Sully “XT” (Uncertain Hour)
There’s no shortage of quality jungle and drum & bass on offer these days, but if we’re being honest, a whole lot of it is basically paying homage to what the music sounded like during its ’90s heyday. “XT,” however, breaks that mold, as UK producer Sully—who’s seemingly incapable of putting a foot wrong—has crafted a whirling, intensely funky tune that sounds as much like something from a ’70s spy flick as it does a night at the legendary Blue Note.
Jörmungandr “Root Mender” (Pure Space)
Eastern Distributor and Jörmungandr are two very different projects, but given that Melbourne producer Daniel Jakobsson is responsible for both aliases, it makes sense for them to sit side by side on the new An Xileel EP. The haunting textures and busted jungle rhythms of the Eastern Distributor tunes do have a certain murky allure, but it’s the Jörmungandr material that’s most compelling. “Root Mender” is particularly good, its insistent pulse and tweakily rippling synths coalescing into the same sort of (tastefully) epic tech-trance that Paul van Dyk was making during the latter half of the ’90s.
Sacre “Porbo” (Plor)
To kick off their new label, the members of Dutch collective Plor—who refer to themselves as a “trans-intentional creating factory”—assembled a compilation called Non Static Alcove. Though the 10-track collection doesn’t adhere to any one genre, smudgy atmospheres and off-kilter drum patterns are something of a constant throughout, and those elements come together most impressively on Sacre’s “Porbo.” An IDM-infused, not-quite-techno cut, its galloping rhythm does motion towards the dancefloor, but thanks to Porbo’s soft chords, the song also functions as a kind of meditative lullaby.
Monty Luke “Nightdubbing” (Rekids)
The phrase “low and slow” usually refers to BBQ, but it’s also an effective descriptor for a certain strain of late-night deep house and techno. Having spent decades in dance music, Monty Luke knows that strain very well, and “Nightdubbing”—the title track of a new two-part EP series—is a laid-back gem, its soulful grooves acting as a kind of a spiritual salve during those bleary-eyed moments when you know it’s time to go home, but just can’t seem to leave the dancefloor.
zakè “akin” (quiet details)
Slow Dancing Society “Empty Lake, Empty Streets...The Sun Goes Down Alone” (Past Inside the Present)
While these two songs come from different releases, they occupy a similarly majestic space, and are further joined together by zakè, who both heads up the Past Inside the Present label and just dropped his own Lapis album on the quiet details imprint. His “akin” stretches out across nearly 10 contemplative minutes, its soothing, almost orchestral melodies gently ebbing and flowing like lapping currents of an ocean tide. “Empty Lake, Empty Streets...The Sun Goes Down Alone,” a standout from Slow Dancing Society’s expansive new Do We Become Sky? full-length—the LP clocks in at 86 minutes—is just as grand, though the Washington producer notably puts a touch of cinematic sparkle in the mix, his free-floating arpeggios and pensive guitar riffs conjuring a pleasing bit of ’80s nostalgia.
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.)
Until next time,
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.