First Floor #206 – A Trend Worth Celebrating
a.k.a. Love for the cello, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh crop of new track recommendations.
When I was in fourth grade, I played the clarinet for a year. My elementary school had a band and orchestra program at the time, and when they offered my grade the chance to take up an instrument, I leapt at the opportunity. As an aspiring young rocker, guitar would have been my first choice, but it wasn’t part of the school ensemble, so I figured that the second-coolest option was the saxophone. (I think this was based on my rudimentary knowledge of Clarence Clemons and his contributions to Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.) Unfortunately though, kids weren’t allowed to go straight to the sax; they had to first learn clarinet, and then could choose to make the switch after a year. I, unfortunately, never made it that far, as I quickly learned that I hated practicing. Once fourth grade came to an end, the clarinet—which my parents had rented—went back to the shop, and my career as a musician was effectively over.
Maybe things would have been different if I’d chosen the cello. Back before I’d officially selected the clarinet, the band and orchestra teachers had staged a sort of demonstration for all of the fourth-grade students, introducing us to each of the instruments we could potentially play. I don’t even think I’d heard of a cello before that day, but I specifically remember being dazzled by the teacher’s three-minute performance, to a point where I seriously considered picking it. What stopped me, however, was the idea of lugging that thing around. I’d seen orchestra kids struggling with their giant cases—I still feel bad for the unfortunate souls who elected to go with the upright bass—and ultimately decided that the clarinet would be a much more practical choice.
Would I have been an amazing cello player, or even a competent one? Probably not, and for most of my life, I honestly didn’t pay all that much attention to the instrument. So perhaps the article I published earlier this week, which highlights a variety of cellists and their contributions to electronic and experimental music, was my unconscious attempt at re-dedicated myself to the instrument and seeking some sort of karmic retribution. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Either way, there’s a lot of good cello music out there right now, so scroll down to find the piece I wrote, which is now open to everyone.
And if you don’t care about the cello? Fear not, because today’s digest also includes the usual round-up of electronic music news and releases announcements, plus links to interesting articles and a big batch of new track recommendations. Even better, I’ve also convinced composer and modular wizard Maya Shenfeld to drop in with a recommendation of her own.
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started.
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, was born out of a simple realization: a lot of great cellists are making experimental music right now. It’s something I’ve alluded to numerous times in the newsletter over the years, but this piece presents all of my favorite cello-wielding artists all in one place.
ANOTHER THING I’M DOING
Tomorrow (i.e. Friday, February 23) I will be in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the MENT festival / conference. More specifically, I will be taking part in CE/MENT, which is specifically focused on electronic music, and will be interviewed by music journalist Jaša Bužinel—who, among other things, authors the Hyperspecific column for The Quietus—about First Floor and many of the topics I’ve written about here in the newsletter.
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.
The most engaging feel-bad read of the week might be “The State of the Culture, 2024,” a piece that Ted Gioia penned for his Honest Broker newsletter. While it’s undoubtedly alarmist in tone and likely goes too far by referring to tech companies as a “dopamine cartel,” the article makes some salient points about just how much of the contemporary culture industry is dedicated to not art, or even entertainment, but distraction.
Pakistan rarely shows up in discussions of electronic music and club culture, which makes Karachi at Night, a new documentary short that Shahbano Farid put together for Resident Advisor, an illuminating watch. The film includes commentary from a number of different Pakistani artists and promoters, and highlights both the rudimentary nature of the Karachi scene and the severe challenges faced by those trying to build it up. Though I wish it had gone deeper—not much is said about the actual music being played / created, and there’s no real mention of how class comes into play, despite the fact that nearly everyone in the film appears to come from (relatively) privileged backgrounds—it’s nonetheless a worthwhile window into a place that is often ignored by audiences in other parts of the world.
In a trial that appears to be the first of its kind, a Danish man is being prosecuted for streaming fraud, with authorities alleging that he fraudulently earned 4.38 million kroner (about $635K in US dollars) in royalties. The Guardian reports that aside from “data fraud,” he’s also accused of “breaching copyright law by allegedly taking works from other artists, changing their length and tempo, and publishing them under his own name.” The man, for his part, has pleaded not guilty.
Given that he’s worked with Tadd Mullinix (a.k.a. Dabrye, James T. Cotton and several other names) for more than two decades, there’s probably nobody better to write a definitive summary of the man’s career and impact than Sam Valenti, who made the Michigan producer the focus of the latest edition of his Herb Sundays newsletter / playlist series. His words may be infused with a certain level of bias—something which Valenti cops to—but what he’s written is both thorough and heartfelt, championing the contributions of an artist who, despite all the accolades he’s received over the years, is probably still severely underrated.
Writer Matthew Collin, who previously authored acclaimed books Altered State and Rave On, has a new title on the way. Dream Machines: Electronic Music in Britain From Doctor Who to Acid House casts a wide historical net, exploring genres “as diverse as space rock, electro-pop, ambient, dub, industrial music, prog, electro, hip-hop, hi-NRG and house.” Omnibus Press will be releasing the book on April 11.
When I wrote last month about the recent resurgence of music blogging, I wrapped up the piece with a long list of blogs, newsletters and podcasts that I make a point to check out on the regular. Last week, Chicago music journalist Josh Terry did something similar in his No Expectations newsletter, paying tribute to the blogrolls of the early 2000s and early 2010s by sharing his own extensive list of reading recommendations.
Yesterday Mixmag launched a new flagship weekly mix / interview series, which is simply called The Mix. The first edition puts a spotlight on Danny Daze, who speaks to journalist Grant Albert about life in Miami, his recent album ::BLUE::, his planetarium-ready audio-visual show and more. (Keen-eyed First Floor readers may remember that Daze touched on many of these topics when he was interviewed here in the newsletter last November.)
Nearly 10 years have passed since the death of DJ Rashad, and while his story has subsequently been told many times, this mini oral history that John Morrison put together for Bandcamp Daily passes the proverbial mic to DJ Spinn, RP Boo and Taso, allowing them to both share their memories of the footwork icon and their thoughts on the legacy he left behind.
OBLIGATORY BOOK MENTION
My first book is out now. It’s called First Floor Vol. 1: Reflections on Electronic Music Culture, and you 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.
The muted response to DJ Yirvin’s recent Changa Fusion EP left me feeling so frustrated with the press that I wrote a whole essay outlining how regional music trends (i.e. sounds from outside of Europe and North America) are often treated like disposable fads. Perhaps the major electronic music publications will do better with the newly unveiled El Máximo Creador, a full album of archival tunes from one of the earliest heroes of Venezuelan raptor house. The record, which also includes a newly crafted remix from Siu Mata & Amor Satyr, is due to arrive on March 15 via the ACA label, but several tracks have already been made available here.
Nick León is one of the leading lights of Miami’s club scene, but he’s cooked up a new ambient record alongside the duo Coral Morphologic. Projections of a Coral City is their collaborative debut album, and it’s due to be released by the Balmat label on April 5. In the meantime, opening track “Deep Call” has been shared.
Daniel Martin-McCormick has compiled quite the resume during the past 20+ years. Part of the newly reformed Black Eyes, he was also a member of the now-defunct Mi Ami, and as a solo artist, he worked for years as Ital and Sex Worker before adopting the Relaxer alias nearly a decade ago. While it doesn’t appear that another name change is on the horizon, the upcoming Relaxer album, In Softening Air, does represent a not-insignificant change in musical direction. Setting aside the humid techno the project is known for, the new LP combines spoken word and detailed sound design in an effort that “spelunks into moist, mossy, fleshy crevices of the psyche.” The album, which also includes a remix from K Wata, is due to surface on Martin-McCormick’s own Lovers Rock label on April 1, but two tracks from the release have already been made available here.
Veteran drum & bass producer ASC has an enormous catalog, but few of its entries are as explicitly personal as Loss, an album he created in the aftermath of his wife’s unexpected death last year. The Past Inside the Present label will be issuing the LP on February 28, but multiple tracks from the record have already been shared here.
Kelly Moran has completed a new album, one born out of sessions with a Disklavier player piano. The unique instrument allows players to record their performance, which the Disklavier then plays back on its own. Moran was alone with one during lockdown, and it became a sort of duet partner, one whose uncanny perfection allowed her to craft music that would have been impossible if she’d been playing on her own. The LP is called Moves in the Field, and though it won’t be released by Warp until March 29, opening track “Butterfly Phase” is available now.
AceMo is nothing if not prolific, and though the NYC producer is only a few weeks removed from the release of his Save the World album, he already has another full-length ready to go. Entitled Moblu, it’s said to come “from the merky depths,” and though it’s scheduled to surface on March 1, two songs from the LP can already be heard here.
Inspired by the media and its obsession with lurid tales of crime, Prefuse 73 has finished a new album, New Strategies for Modern Crime Vol. 1. It’s due to arrive on March 22 via the Lex label, but several songs from the record have already been made available here.
Joker, the Bristol producer whose “purple” sound was the toast of the bass music sphere during the late 2000s and early 2010s, has been relatively quiet in recent years. Last Friday, however, he dropped his first new music since 2018, a two-tracker entitled Juggernaut / S Wave for the Kapsize label. It’s out now, and he also has another offering on the way, an archival live recording called JOKER - LIVE AT SÓNAR 2009. Already available to stream, it will be released on cassette by the Never Sleep imprint on March 29.
MAYA SHENFELD 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 Maya Shenfeld, a Berlin-based composer and synthesist whose sophomore album, Under the Sun, is arriving tomorrow via the Thrill Jockey label. A true student of sound, her work is both detailed and deliberate, whether she’s exploring celestial bliss or constructing dense thickets of pulsating drones. Here she pays tribute to one of electronic music’s most storied sonic sculptors, highlighting a track from the incomparable Suzanne Ciani.
Suzanne Ciani & Jonathan Fitoussi “Coral Reef” (Transversales Disques)
I’ve always been inspired by the timelessness of analogue synths. In a way, as analogue synths became a part of the general consciousness (expanding on their original development in experimental avant-garde music) in the 1980s, they often symbolized a sort of a sci-fi sound of the future. Fast forward to 2024, the sound of the analogue modular is as popular as ever, and it’s still often used in film and other media to depict sci-fi futurist narratives. But now that we have more than 50 years of electronic synth music, this sound is now for me a symbol of a time loop, both forward and backward movement, a sort of a retro-futurism, which I’m fascinated by.
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.
Jaymie Silk “Monica” (Self-released)
An obsession with Monica Bellucci is something that French artist Jaymie Silk likely shares with thousands (millions?) of people around the world, but while others simply fawn and admire from a distance, he’s funneled his feelings into something constructive: an entire EP devoted to the iconic Italian model and actress. “Monica” is the title track, and it’s a funky slice of swung techno, one in which conversational clips of Bellucci, synth stabs and a persistent rave whistle gregariously jockey for position atop the song’s joyous groove.
aadja “post notal drip” (trip)
Clocking in at 150 bpm, “post natal drip” is both hard and fast, but unlike many contemporary techno offerings in the same tempo range, it’s not braindead. A highlight of aadja debut’s album pyrocbs, the track is a heads-down techno ripper. The Canadian producer has a taste for chunky grooves, and even leans into distorted, sledgehammering beats elsewhere on the LP, but “postal natal drip” is rather sleek, its (still imposing) brawn taking a back seat to the track’s warped synth excursions and rumbling gallop.
E-Male “Genesis Calling” (Squirrels on Film)
The identity of E-Male isn’t exactly clear—the Squirrels on Film label says he’s a friend they first encountered in the San Francisco rave scene during the ’90s—but “Genesis Calling,” the title track of his new EP, is a hell of a tune. Infusing the squelchy funk of Detroit electro with a hint of industrial menace, he winds up somewhere in the neighborhood of Belgian new beat, albeit with a somewhat relaxed, subtly psychedelic groove. If Liquid Liquid had somehow managed to do a record for Wax Trax, maybe it would have sounded like this.
DJ HEARTSTRING “Take My Hand” (Teenage Dreams)
I shouldn’t like this. I don’t want to like this. It’s pop, it’s trance and it’s been distilled into a tidy, easily digestible package that’ll surely do numbers on streaming and socials. And yet… DJ HEARTSTRING—a Berlin outfit that actually consists of two people (yes, it’s confusing)—does this sort of thing brilliantly. “Take My Hand” is the relentlessly perky closing track from their new In Your Arms EP, and while its carefree bounce and day-glo palette provide an instant shot of adrenaline, the real magic lies in the song’s use of (chipmunked, of course) vocal clips, which have been chopped, pitched and stitched back together into something resembling an earnest love song. This one’s potent enough to melt the hearts of even the crustiest cynics, myself included.
Black Cadmium “Deepwatered (Danny Daze Remix)” (Omnidisc)
The original version of “Deepwatered,” itself a standout from Black Cadmium’s new Engkanto EP, is a slightly freaky, arpeggio-filled excursion that could have soundtracked a montage in an ’80s drama flick. Danny Daze keeps much of that weirdness intact on his remix, but he also offers something better suited to the dancefloor, pairing the song’s fluttering synths with a steady rhythmic chug. (Intriguingly, that chug also seems to involve the use of stuttering vocal clips.) What results is still a little strange—in a good way; the work of ‘80s oddballs Yello comes to mind—but that’s not surprising, as Daze has repeatedly made it clear that he prefers to do things his own way.
Earl Grey “Atanas Aconite” (Rua Sound)
The drums do the heavy living on “Atanas Aconite,” which makes sense, as its name stems from the influence of Atanas Dochev, a Bulgarian percussionist who previously lived with veteran UK producer Earl Grey. During lockdown, the two recorded a bunch of Dochev’s drumming, and those recordings became the foundation of the new Death Rattle EP, a record which resides in a low-end-heavy space somewhere between early dubstep and autonomic drum & bass. Yet even with its percussive churn, “Atanas Aconite” feels deep and meditative, and the use of assorted non-Western chimes, flutes and strings—inspired by (no joke) an episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown—further enhances the song’s muggy allure.
O-Wells “Deep Concentration” (Die Orakel)
Of all the electronic genres names out there, intelligent dance music (a.k.a. IDM) has to be one of the worst, though the term most often cited as an alternative—braindance—can feel similarly cringe inducing. Even so, the Die Orakel label is running with the word, and has put together a new compilation, Braindance, that seeks to showcase the music as not only a bastion of “kaleidoscopic and whimsical quirktronica,” but something that’s very much still vibrant today. With contributions from upsammy, oma totem, Pépe, Reptant, Gacha Bakradze and many other artists, there’s more than enough evidence to back up the latter claim, while the former is best demonstrated by O-Wells’ excellent “Deep Concentration,” a piano-flecked slice of cinematic boom bap that’s more Mo’ Wax than Rephlex.
Danielle Boutet “14e siècle” (Freedom to Spend)
When Danielle Boutet released her Pièces cassette in 1985, she initially managed to sell only a few dozen copies around Montreal, where she was living at the time. A beautiful collection of minimal, not-quite-pop songs that borrowed from jazz and chanson, the tape stayed largely under the radar for the next 40 years, but it’s now been given new life via a reissue on the always impeccably curated Freedom to Spend label. Boutet herself admits that the modest music on Pièces is largely unclassifiable—apparently it was listed as new age back in the day—and that holds true for “14e siècle,” which closes out the release with a welcome bit of dramatic flair. Employing multiple layers of her own voice, Boutet assembles a sort of conversation with herself, her impassioned cries at times recalling the androgynous pipes of contemporaries like Jimmy Somerville and Alison Moyet.
C. Diab “The Excuse of Fiction” (Tonal Union)
Now that shoegaze is apparently A) back and B) a word that can be applied to just about anything, providing it has a little bit of fuzz in the mix, Vancouver artist C. Diab could potentially be slotted right into the movement. In truth, his new Imerro LP is not really a shoegaze record, but album standout “The Excuse of Fiction” does have both some epic tendencies and some billowing clouds of distortion. The work of slowcore giants like Low and Codeine comes to mind, especially during the song’s more subdued opening minutes, but as the drama (and the noise levels) begin to surge, Diab lands in a cinematic zone that’s closer to groups like Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky, capturing their knack for widescreen wistfulness.
Nate Scheible “outlined in” (Outside Time)
The opening track on Nate Scheible’s new or valleys and cassette, “outlined in” is a typically enigmatic number from the DC-based experimenter, who always seems to find a way to wring emotion from the most unexpected of sound sources. Built around a warbling series of melodic fragments, the song has an almost sci-fi feel, its glassy tones—which seemingly flicker in and out of existence—sounding like the sort of thing one might hear when facing a mysterious portal to another dimension. Adding to the intrigue is a persistent fog of static. Is it the sound of a crackling fire? Crumpling plastic? Rainfall? Something else? It’s not clear, and it doesn’t really matter, because “outlined in” is genuinely captivating.
Dubfire “Dark Matter” (Maral Remix)” (SCI+TEC)
Maral remixing a track from Dubfire is not something many people had on their 2024 bingo card, and given that the track in question is a big-room techno cut like “Dark Matter,” the link-up feels like even more of a surprise. That said, one only needs to hear a few seconds of the LA-based artist’s rework to realize that she’s brought the song squarely into her own soundworld. Dialing up the darkness while slowing down the tempo, she also brings in some heavily reverbed guitar, its echoing twang stretching out and looming in the air like cigarette smoke in a poorly ventilated room. Gritty and sweaty, the remix is ultimately a lot closer to goth icons like Bauhaus or The Birthday Party than anything you’d hear on the dancefloor in Tulum. Let’s hope Maral gets the call to do this sort of thing more often.
That’s all for today. 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.