First Floor #202 – Ghosts of the Past
a.k.a. Thoughts on Silent Servant's passing and a look back at Y2K-era trance, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh crop of new track recommendations.
By now, most people reading this have already heard about the untimely death of Silent Servant (a.k.a. Juan Mendez), along with his wife Simone Ling and musician Luis Vasquez, better known as the creative force behind The Soft Moon. Within music circles, and particularly within the specific corner of music where techno, industrial, EBM and post-punk all blur together, this was a devastating blow. For me, and undoubtedly for many others, Mendez—who, aside from his solo work, was also a member of iconic techno collective Sandwell District—was someone who was not just a brilliant artist, but a figure whose influence, which cut across multiple scenes and generations, is all but impossible to properly measure. By all accounts, he was also an exceedingly kind person, and that was certainly my experience whenever we crossed paths during the past decade.
Mendez and I actually met for the first time in 2013, when I was working at XLR8R. Like many people, I had fallen in love with his debut solo album, Negative Fascination, so I asked if he’d be willing to take part in the magazine’s popular In the Studio series. He generously obliged, inviting me and a photographer into his home—that’s where his (surprisingly compact, albeit impeccably laid out) studio was located—as though we were old friends. While the resulting feature did lean heavy on gear and production methodology, he also spoke lovingly of his influences, shared stories of his early music-making attempts and even gave props to underground San Francisco hero Kit Clayton, who had served as a kind of early mentor. It was a fun talk.
Five years later, I got the chance to interview Mendez again, this time for First Floor, which at that time only existed as a weekly radio show for Red Bull Music Academy. The episode is archived here (the interview begins roughly halfway through), and though our conversation was primarily focused on his second album, Shadows of Death and Desire, Mendez also opened up about how he’d decided to take a break from life as a touring DJ, explaining that it had led him down a destructive path during the years prior. (At the time, he’d even resumed working full-time as an art director, which had long been his main gig.) Listening again this week, it was good to hear his voice; although we were speaking on the phone, I think his warmth and humility shined through, even during what was essentially a promotional exercise. But of course it also made me a bit sad, knowing that Mendez did eventually return to the road—which, as a fan, I was excited about—and that the darker aspects of that lifestyle, which he’d knowingly wrestled with and once sought to avoid, eventually caught up to him.
I’ve never even been a big goth / industrial guy, but there was something truly special about not just the work Mendez did, but the larger role he played in multiple creative spheres. As Shawn O’Sullivan wrote in one of the many remembrances that have flooded social media during the past week, “He connected the dots. He brought worlds together. More than anyone, he made techno cool again, wrenching a radical musical form from the sterile clutches of clubland.”
Sandwell District played in Barcelona last November, and though Mendez and I traded messages about meeting up while he was in town, it ultimately didn’t happen. I’m obviously regretting that now, and I imagine anyone else who knew him, even casually, is lamenting his sudden departure. (Just FYI: there’s currently an online fundraiser going to help his family with funeral expenses.) At least we still have his music—and, again, it’s incredible—but right now, it’s not nearly enough.
Anyways, I suppose I should get on with the newsletter, no?
Maybe Mendez’s death got me thinking about the past, but earlier this week I dug into my own musical history, reflecting on the brief period during the late ’90s and early 2000s when I was heavily into trance. After listening to a bunch of tunes from that era, I wrote a whole essay about it, examining the genre’s trajectory and trying to figure out if the music I loved back then was really as bad as people—myself included—have often made it out to be.
That essay is below, but today’s First Floor also has the usual assortment of news items, links to interesting articles and upcoming release announcements. I’ve also put together a bunch of new track recommendations, all of them from releases that dropped during the past week. And to top things off, I’ve enlisted fast-rising bass producer Farsight to stop by with a recommendation of his own.
I know I started things off on a heavy note, but there’s a lot of stuff in today’s newsletter, and hopefully at least some of it will make you smile.
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, is an essay looking back at the years when trance broke big, transforming from a relatively niche concern into something with a massive global audience. More specifically, it looks at my personal experiences with the genre—I was a newbie raver at the time—and digs up a few of the era’s most defining tunes.
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.
It’s not often that I’ll share other publications’ year-end lists and features here in the newsletter, but Michael McKinney’s round-up of the best DJ sets of 2023 for Passion of the Weiss is a wonderfully detailed, passion-filled piece that provides a genuinely comprehensive look at the whole of contemporary “underground” electronic music, highlighting countless artists, labels, crews, genres, mix series and trends along the way. (For what it’s worth, this is the second time McKinney has been mentioned here in the past few weeks; Passion of the Weiss may technically be a rap blog, but his electronic music coverage there is well worth following.)
Veteran UK music journalist Neil Kulkarni unexpectedly passed away earlier this week. A longtime contributor to Melody Maker, The Quietus, The Wire and many other outlets, he cast a wide net, but was perhaps best known for his writings on hip-hop—and his willingness to buck the critical status quo. Fond remembrances have not been hard to find in recent days, but his friend and former colleague Simon Price wrote an extensive, loving tribute for The Quietus, and former Wire editor Derek Walmsley wrote a great piece on Kulkarni for his Slow Motion blog.
For decades, Pioneer has arguably been the most trusted DJ equipment brand in the world, which makes this week’s announcement that all future Pioneer DJ products will be released under the name of the product line’s parent company, AlphaTheta, a somewhat baffling decision.
Although minimal techno has morphed and changed in all sorts of ways during the past three decades, Robert Hood’s 1994 album, Minimal Nation, remains the closest thing the genre has to a foundational document. Writer Ben Cardew revisited the LP in a new feature for DJ Mag, examining its impact and getting extensive quotes from Hood himself about the record’s genesis and how it affected both his career and the wider techno sphere in the years that followed.
As of now, there’s nobody left at Pitchfork commissioning features, but the departing editors did manage to get one last long-form piece published before exiting last week: a deep dive into what writer Kieran Press-Reynolds calls “shitpost modernism.” It’s one of those articles that will likely leave most readers over the age of 30 feeling totally befuddled, but it lays out a growing (and hyper-online) musical paradigm that’s as informed by street rap and niche electronic music as it is by trolling and bizarre YouTube trends.
Last year’s Signs album—which was legitimately excellent—made Purelink a hot commodity, to the point where the NYC-based trio has become the ambient act that even your friends who don’t like ambient know about. Even so, the group’s backstory has remained largely untold, which makes this new feature that Oli Warwick penned for Crack magazine a worthwhile read. Talking to all three members at length, he details the group’s origins in Chicago and traces how they broke out from the rest of the ambient pack.
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.
Doc Sleep cemented her ambient bona fides with her (supremely underrated) 2023 debut album, Birds (in my mind anyway), but she’s heading back to the club on her follow-up LP. The newly unveiled Cloud Sight Fade is billed as “a love letter to the West Coast’s magnificent natural landscape,” and though it won’t arrive until March 8 via Dark Entries, the opening track, “Professor Eucalyptus,” has been already been shared.
Jlin has a new full-length called Akoma on the way, and while the Indiana producer’s talents are obviously the main attraction, the record does feature an impressive slate of guest contributions from Björk, Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass. The latter features on the album’s first single, “The Precision of Infinity,” which was shared late last week, but the LP officially drops on March 22 via Planet Mu.
Keeping things in the Midwest, Michigan lifer Tadd Mullinix will soon be returning to his beloved Dabrye alias on a new release. Super-Cassette is apparently something of a “back to basics” affair, an effort devoted entirely to instrumental hip-hop tracks, and though Ghostly International won’t be issuing it until March 8, opening cut “The Most Deliciousest” has already been made available.
Back in 2021, Dial co-founder Lawrence dropped a name-your-price release called The City of Tomorrow, and now he’s continued the series—which he describes as “dedicated to the modernist architecture of the 1950s and its promises for a future city”—with a second installment. The City of Tomorrow II is available now, and like its predecessor, it’s being offered as a name-your-price release on Bandcamp.
Squarepusher has completed a new LP, and though the bass virtuoso and IDM icon has yet to say much about what inspired it, he has shared that it’s called Dostrotime, contains 12 tracks and will be released on March 1 via Warp Records. In the meantime, first single “Wendorlan” has been shared.
Bullion has signed to Ghostly International, and the UK producer—who has some of the sharpest pop instincts in all of electronic music—also has a new album on the way. Affection will officially surface on April 26, and it includes guest appearances from Panda Bear, Charlotte Adigéry and Carly Rae Jepsen. The latter features on first single “Rare,” which is out now.
More than 10 years removed from his last full-length, Peter Van Hoesen has finished a new album. The Belgian techno veteran, who’s currently based in Ho Chi Minh City, has entitled the LP Towards the center of time and surrounded by spirits, and the Vlek label will be releasing it on March 1. Before that happens, closing track “Twilight Static Dilemma” has already been made available.
Back in 2022, Madeleine Cocolas released the excellent Spectral album, and now the Australian ambient artist has completed Bodies, which she describes as a sort of companion record. Blending field recordings with the sounds of her own voice and breath, the LP will arrive on April 12 through the Room40 imprint, but closing track “Bodies II” can be listened to now.
Building on the legacy of their long-running Glasgow club night Optimo Espacio, JD Twitch and Jonnie Wilkes (a.k.a. the duo better known as Optimo) have assembled a new compilation, Optimo 25. The two insist that it’s “not a ‘Best of Optimo’ or a ‘Greatest Hits of Optimo’ compilation,” but is instead a snapshot of tracks they’ve played during the past 25 years. Containing songs by Liquid Liquid, Mike Dunn, Chris & Cosey, African Head Charge and many others—the full tracklist is here—it will be released on February 2, and there’s actually a launch event happening tonight (i.e. January 25) at Monorail in Glasgow, at which Optimo will play music and take part in a conversation with Becky Marshall (a.k.a. Ribeka).
FARSIGHT 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 Farsight, a Peruvian-American San Francisco artist whose bass-heavy productions primarily draw upon Latin / Caribbean rhythms and the low-end-heavy legacy of UK soundsystem culture. Having made his mark with releases for Scuffed, Maloca and a bevy of other labels, he’s quickly becoming your favorite bass-loving DJ’s favorite producer, and fresh off his excellent new Leche de Tigre / Riptide two-tracker for Rinse, he’s dropped by to share one of his favorite club tunes.
Galtier “Balms” (Files)
Back in 2017, Galtier was investigating a speed and tonality of dance music I hadn’t encountered before. Although now there is a healthy crop of dark, bassy, 100 bpm-adjacent music with a distinctively UK flavor (and looser acknowledgements of Latin dance music), its earlier manifestations were much fewer and further between; the ones that did exist back then almost felt like curiosities, since there were relatively few tracks in the same vein that you could play alongside them in a DJ set. This particular cut by Galtier, “Balms,” stands out to me, even today. As a producer, I find there to be something exceptionally tricky about constructing an exciting rhythm between 110 and 120 bpm. “Balms” sits quite self-assured at 116, slinking, hissing and trilling along, exuding a singularly devious energy that I find irresistible. A unique feature is introduced at about the halfway mark, where the track sheds its percussion and sublimates into an ominous, otherworldly hum. Momentarily, the listener is left in suspended animation, as if we've been let out of the airlock and exposed to the unsympathetic void of outer space, if only briefly.
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.
Prayer “If I Can Feel” (YUKU)
Prayer “Loss of Meaning” (YUKU)
Prayer “Third Life” (YUKU)
If Bicep are the kings of big-room sad, then fellow London-based producer Prayer definitely deserves a position in their administration, perhaps as the Minister of Emotional Drum & Bass. Having previously dropped an impressive string of misty-eyed releases on a number of different labels—including a pair of top-shelf EPs for Hooversound—he’s now leveled up his craft even further on new full-length Now I Know Paradise, an 11-track effort he says is rooted in an “exploration of ecstatic sorrow and [the] search for catharsis.” Many of its songs pursue that objective via Prayer’s uniquely grief-addled strain of jungle and drum & bass, and while that does mean that the club is perhaps not first and foremost in his mind, LP standouts like the rousing, ’90s hardcore-referencing “If I Can Feel” and the kinetically gleaming “Third Life” are backed by some serious bassweight. Album opener “Loss of Meaning,” on the other hand,” ditches the dancefloor entirely, setting the tone with its majestically soaring, Tangerine Dream-in-a-cathedral vibes. A natural extension of Prayer’s already imposing skillset, it’s proof that big emotions don’t always require big drums.
Kassian “The Machine (Long Island Sound Remix)” (Faux Poly)
As long as I’m talking about big-room sad—and, yes, it does seem that this term is quickly becoming my attempt to make fetch happen—this Long Island Sound remix of Kassian’s “The Machine” is perfect for tearing up in the middle of a giant dancefloor. It’s taken from the new Faux Poly: Remixed 003, which compiles reworks of the label’s back catalog (i.e. mostly Kassian tunes) and includes contributions from STE Roberts, Edmondson, Tom Jarmey, Manuel Darquart and many others. (One of those others is Olive T, and her rousing take on “Akkala Falls” sounds a bit like classic Lil Louis.) Unlike the original “The Machine,” a breaky and relatively stripped-down number from 2022, this Long Island Sound version cranks up the melody and borrows a few tricks from the trance playbook. As such, it’s got a somewhat cinematic trajectory, but the Dublin duo manage to find an emotional sweet spot without ever tipping into full-blown melodrama.
B from E “Amnesia” (Haŵs)
After spending a few days researching and putting together this week’s First Floor essay, I definitely have ’90s trance on the brain, and “Amnesia”—the title track of Danish producer B from E’s new EP—is very much in that mold. With its glistening synths and plinky melody, it recalls the early work of Paul van Dyk, and its disembodied vocal clips, which might be nonsense but nonetheless sound like the words of some unknown new age guru, add to the track’s retro appeal. It’s a little silly, but given that there’s no bombastic breakdown, “Amnesia” is the kind of a trance cut you can enjoy without feeling any major sense of embarrassment.
Donato Dozzy “Velluto” (Spazio Disponibile)
Donato Dozzy “Lucrezia” (Spazio Disponibile)
It’s tempting to calling Donato Dozzy’s new Magda album a “return to form,” but doing so would imply that the Italian veteran’s various musical excursions during the past decade—into ambient, acid and even the mouth harp—weren’t worthwhile endeavors. That said, his new LP does feel like a return to the sort of spaced-out, psychedelic techno that is A) still his primary calling card and B) something he does better than most other producers on the planet. Though Magda is a solo effort, it occupies a similar space as his celebrated Voices from the Lake collaboration with fellow Italian Neel, comfortably venturing far from the dancefloor for long stretches. Album opener “Velluto” all but buries its scattered kicks under a dense array of twinkling arpeggios, intermittent synth groans and a looming fog of hiss and reverb, but it’s mesmerizing all the same. “Lucrezia,” which closes the LP, is another clear standout, and though it’s a touch more propulsive, its power resides in the hypnotic pull of its sparkling synths and celestial swells. Getting lost in the minutiae is the point here, and it’s what makes Magda such a captivating listen.
Marco Shuttle “On a Razor’s Edge” (Marco Shuttle)
Much like fellow Italian Donato Dozzy, Marco Shuttle is someone who thrives on techno’s weirdo fringe. Having taken a break following his 2021 album for Incienso, Cobalt Desert Oasis, he’s now returned with a new eponymous label and a new EP, MSP01. “On a Razor’s Edge” opens the record, and it’s a deceptively tense cut, a boiling pot of jagged edges and feverishly percolating rhythms that somehow coalesces into a narcotic groove. Though it’s headier than the average techno production, it’s probably still something best experienced on the dancefloor, as that’s the only place where one could exercise all the knotty stress that Shuttle has baked into the track.
Loula Yorke “Staying with the trouble” (Truxalis)
Like many artists, the UK’s Loula Yorke has lived many different musical lives. There were the years spent in live rave duo TR-33N, followed by various forays into noisy experimentation and sound art, but on her new album Volta, she’s taken a more deliberate path, forgoing improvisation and leaving the sludgy detritus of her old projects behind. What’s left is an elegant exercise in modular synthesis, one whose clean palette and playful spirit lean heavily on the legacy of synth giants like Suzanne Ciani and Laurie Spiegel. Yet Yorke goes beyond mere hero worship, injecting her songs with a distinct sense of curiosity—and, at times, out and out weirdness—that prevents Volta from feeling like a passive listen. The billowing standout “Staying with the trouble” is one of the album’s more blissful numbers, but don’t let its pillow-soft, new agey melodies fool you; with each passing minute, Yorke adds a little more chaos to the mix, and half the fun is observing how she manages to keep things from going completely off the rails
Tradecraft “The Urgency Pt. II” (Berceuse Heroique)
It was less than a year ago that Guy Brewer, who for many years was best known for the techno he created as Shifted, announced that he’d adopted a new moniker, Carrier, which would from then on be his primary musical vehicle. As it turns out though, the Belgium-based British artist had another alias up his sleeve, which he debuted last week via a surprise cassette called The Body Needs Purpose. The Tradecraft material was actually created during the period between the end of Shifted and the beginning of Carrier, a time when Brewer was openly searching for a new direction. Perhaps that’s why the tape’s contents veer between styles, exploring corroded textures, scratchy ambient, technoid meditations and more. It’s all held together by a sense of underlying darkness, but much of the material is also quite beautiful; closing track “The Urgency Pt. II” could even be described as delicate, its gentle tones and persistent (albeit paper-thin) forming what almost sounds like a lullaby.
And with that, we’ve arrived at 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 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.