First Floor #208 – Even That Guy Is Unhappy?
a.k.a. Thoughts on James Blake and the EU's ruling against Apple, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh crop of new track recommendations.
Before this week, I honestly thought that I would never write about James Blake again. I have no real problem with the man or his music, but he long ago crossed into the world of major labels and pop production, and at some point I more or less lost interest in what he was doing.
(I know his 2023 album Playing Robots Into Heaven was billed as a return to his roots and was supposedly more electronic in orientation, but I didn’t care enough to sit down with it and find out. Maybe that was callous or incurious on my part, but I figured James Blake already had enough champions in the world and my listening time could be put to better use elsewhere.)
Well, now I’m interested in James Blake again. Over the weekend, he fired off a series of social media posts criticizing the contemporary music industry, specifically pointing out how music culture is being hollowed out by streaming and social media. As anyone who reads First Floor already knows, that kind of talk is catnip to me, and it inspired an essay of my own, which was published earlier this week. (You can find that below—the paywall is currently down—but know that the piece also focuses heavily on the massive fine the EU levied against Apple this week, which unfortunately is far less exciting than it might initially seem.)
Otherwise, today’s newsletter digest does its best to take the past week in electronic music and whittle it into something resembling a manageable form. There are news items, new release announcements and links to several articles / videos / etc. that I think are interesting. Having gone through the veritable avalanche of new music that dropped during the past seven days—allow me to reiterate just how much I’ve come to loathe Bandcamp Fridays—I’ve also assembled a list of new track recommendations that I think you’ll enjoy. And just to sweeten the pot, experimental artist MJ Guider drops by with a special guest recommendation of her own.
It was a busy week. 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, is an essay reflecting on how streaming and social media are reshaping the music industry, giving rise to a situation in which a growing number of artists, even the seemingly successful ones, are vocally unhappy. The problems are obvious and have been discussed ad nauseam, yet nobody seems capable of fixing them. What’s to be done?
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.
Most electronic music fans know that there is no shortage of online mixes in the world. Back in 2021, I actually penned an essay about their dwindling impact in an oversaturated marketplace, but just this week, a new editorial and mix platform has emerged that’s seeking to reverse that trend. It’s called wav.world, and it intends to not only pay all of the artists providing mixes, but all of the music journalists and visual artists who create the accompanying content. (Even better, the artists and songwriters whose music appears in wav.world mixes will also be compensated using the Aslice platform.) The plan is to fund all of this through paid memberships, and while all of the mixes will be free to the public, the paid tier will provide access to “exclusive editorial content, tracklists, discounts, benefits and more.” For the first six months, however, everything on the site will be free, and wav.world kicked things off this week by putting a spotlight on Fever AM, interviewing label co-founders Mor Elian and Rhyw and also sharing an exclusive mix from each of them.
Mabe Fratti was one of the artists highlighted in my recent round-up of experimental cellists, but a new feature that Philip Sherburne wrote for Pitchfork goes much deeper. Based around a lengthy interview / hang session at last year’s Unsound festival in Krakow, the piece explores the Guatemalan artist’s upbringing and traces her journey into the heart of Mexico City’s experimental music circuit, but it also spotlights her personality and humor. It’s also a rare instance in which Sherburne—whose usual writing tone is fairly buttoned up—allows himself to fan out a bit, as his obvious enthusiasm for Fratti shines throughout the piece.
Long before The Lot became New York City’s coolest online radio station, DJs from around the world flocked to East Village Radio. A new, unbylined article in Clash recounts EVR’s history—quoting liberally from old pieces by the Guardian and the New Yorker—but what’s most interesting is that it claims the station plans to return in April 2024. Aside from a plan to fund the endeavor with sponsors, not many additional details are shared, but considering how prominent EVR was in the years before it closed in 2014, it’ll be interesting to see what a new iteration looks like.
Looking for a compact primer on the history of jungle? A new short film from Resident Advisor, What Makes Something Jungle?, is exactly that, as it covers the genre’s roots and evolution while also highlighting dozens of classic tunes.
Speaking of short films, Roland last week released Somewhere in Detroit, a documentary about Underground Resistance and Submerge that explores techno’s past, present and future in the Motor City.
DJ M-TRAXXX and music journalist Jacob Arnold have teamed up on a two-part podcast dedicated to Chicago house pioneer Ron Hardy. Released to coincide with the 32nd anniversary of Hardy’s death, the show features a previously unreleased mix the legendary DJ recorded at the Muzic Box in 1984, along with interviews with two of his contemporaries, Byron Burke (of Ten City) and David Britton.
Based in Prague, the YUKU imprint has become one of bass music’s most essential (not to mention prolific) outposts during the past few years, and co-founder Jef—who got his start in London, throwing a night called Yardcore alongside Djrum—laid out the label’s backstory and philosophy in a new feature that Andrew Moore penned for Clash.
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.
p.s. Velocity Press recently opened its own brick-and-mortar bookshop in London’s Peckham neighborhood.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
Laurel Halo—who was interviewed here in the newsletter last year—dropped a new composition last Friday. It’s called “Octavia,” and the 21-minute piece is one half of a joint release on Portraits GRM with Jessica Ekomane, who contributed her own extended piece, “Manifolds.”
Machinedrum has completed a new LP. Entitled 3FOR82, it was initially inspired by a birthday trip to Joshua Tree, and the vocal-centric record features a long list of guest contributors, including KUČKA, Duckwrth, AKTHESAVIOR, Mick Jenkins, Ezri, Tanerélle, Deniro Farrar, Topaz Jones, deem spencer, aja monet, ROZET, Will Johnson, Ian Maciak and Tinashe. The latter features on first single “ZOOM,” which is available now, but the full album will be released on May 24 by Ninja Tune.
Ruff Sqwad is one of the most influential grime crews of all time, and last week the UK group released their first new material in more than a decade, a mixtape called Flee FM.
Cooly G was one of the most unique talents to emerge from the UK funky / post-dubstep / whatever-you-want-to-call-it scene of the late 2000s and early 2010s, and last week the Hyperdub alum self-released a new EP called 2.0 Rebirth.
Following up their underrated Colours of Air album from last year, Loscil and Lawrence English have teamed up on a new full-length, Chroma. Born out of their preparation for series of live performances, the LP is slated to arrive via English’s Room40 imprint on April 5, but closing track “Indigo” is available now.
Danny Daze—another artist who was interviewed by First Floor last year—has new music on the way. Adopting his Danny from Miami moniker, he’s teamed up with MJ Nebreda on the Con Cariño EP, which will be released on April 12 by the Fool’s Gold label. First single “Tiki Tiki Style” drops tomorrow, though a little preview is already circulating online.
One of electro’s (mostly) unsung MVPs, Gesloten Cirkel largely stays out of the spotlight, but pretty much every record he makes is a killer. The latest is his I Live in the Midwest EP, which the Selvamancer label will be issuing on March 15. Ahead of that, closing track “Balls” has already been shared.
Ambient / experimental artist Dylan Henner is another figure who often flies below the radar, but the AD 93 and Phantom Limb affiliate will soon be releasing his first-ever film soundtrack. Created to accompany a hand-drawn animated short, The Shepherds is slated to arrive on March 22 via Phantom Limb, but one of its three parts, “Movement III: It Was Once a Forest,” is available now.
Speaking of soundtracks, Oliver Coates—another one of those experimental cellists I featured a few weeks back—did the score for UK television series Mary & George, and it was released earlier this week by the Invada label. (Unexpected fun fact: one of the tracks, “1 minute 1 life,” is a collaboration with Malibu.)
Fresh off the NRG EP from his Soft Crash collaboration with Pablo Bozzi, techno / EBM producer Phase Fatale has announced a forthcoming solo record, Love Is Destructive. It’s scheduled for a April 19 release through his own BITE imprint, but the EP’s title track has already been shared.
How to Dress Well has a new album on the way—his first in six years—and it features collaborations with CFCF, Joel Ford, Anenon and a number of other artists. The LP is called I Am Toward You, and it will be released on May 10 via the Sargent House label. Videos for the songs “New Confusion” and “No Light” have already been shared, and both songs can also be heard here.
Back in 2020, I interviewed Auntie Flo about his newly founded Ambient Flo radio platform. It’s still going today, but the UK artist has brought it under the umbrella of something bigger, A State of Flo, which is both a newsletter and a new record label. The young imprint’s first release features both Auntie Flo himself (under his birth name, Brian d’Souza) and Irish artist Or:la in collaboration with harpist Róisín Berkeley. Due to arrive on April 19, it’s called Mycorrhizal Fungi, and one of its tracks, d’Souza’s “Mycorrhizal Fungi (Reishi),” is available now.
MJ GUIDER 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 MJ Guider, an experimental artist from New Orleans who heads up the modemain imprint and has also released a pair of albums on kranky, the most recent being 2020’s Sour Cherry Bell. Just last month, she pushed the flute—which she’s been playing since childhood—to its limits (and beyond) on the Youth and Beauty EP, but today she’s decided to share something that reflects her love of a different musical instrument.
Helen Money / Will Thomas “Thieves” (Thrill Jockey)
This newsletter recently highlighted a bunch of great cellists, so I thought I’d throw another one into the hype pool. I really enjoy the solo work of Alison Chesley (a.k.a. Helen Money), who has played cello with dozens of familiar names over her decades-long career. Her most recent Helen Money release is Trace, a collaborative LP made with Will Thomas that came out last year. “Thieves” is a standout track from that record that I keep coming back to. I love the way it pushes the listener around. One second you’re floating through the air and the next you’re flat on the ground. You’re dancing, you’re falling. There’s no tranquility without tension.
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.
Samurai Breaks & Napes “Violent Violin’s” (Time Is Now)
Razor-sharp grime with heavy metal flair. That’s arguably the best way to describe “Violent Violin’s,” a dramatic standout from Samurai Breaks & Napes’ new Wavelord Bizniz EP. As the title implies, it puts the violin center stage, but the instrument—or, more likely, samples of it—acts more like a hell-raising electric guitar, serving up power chords (and undoubtedly inspiring some riotous fist-pumping along the way) as the track’s wubby basslines and jittery percussion go to work. What would a collaboration between Metallica and Slimzee sound like? In all honesty, it would probably be terrible, but it’s nice to imagine it could sound something like this.
Carré “Soft Fascination” (Fast at Work)
Dubstep came late to Los Angeles, and by the time it peaked in the city during the late 2000s and early 2010s, the genre had drifted alarmingly far from its roots, providing a haven for the worst excesses of wobble bass and an entire generation of EDM-adjacent bros who bizarrely insisted on referring to Skrillex as “Sonny” at all times. That era (thankfully) came to end, but over the past few years, young LA producer Carré has quietly been adding a new chapter to the story, pushing a deeper variant of heavy bass sounds that’s much closer to Croydon than EDC. Soft Fascination is her latest EP, and though its title track—which clocks in at 150 bpm while jumping between a weighty half-step beat and a skippy techno rhythm—may not technically qualify as dubstep, Carre’s self-described “fast not hard” approach freshens up a tired template, rumbling the dancefloor without obliterating the brain cells of everyone in earshot.
Fonzo “Spirit Rush” (ec2a)
As much as the UK bass sphere often feels like a giant recycling plant, with artists endlessly piecing together various bits of garage, dubstep, drum & bass, grime and other subwoofer-rattling sounds, it’s labels like ec2a that prevent the whole operation from going stale. The imprint’s latest offering is Fonzo’s Ring Ring EP, a record that’s practically bursting with youthful exuberance. The standout “Spirit Rush” is a giddy jungle-techno hybrid, one whose weightless wobbles excitedly bounce alongside the track’s breathy vocal fragments. With its bubbly demeanor and a runtime of less than three and a half minutes, it almost feels like a pop song, but “Spirit Rush” very much belongs in the club. It’s just economical, the sort of tune that quickly makes a splash but also refuses to linger any longer than necessary.
Submerse “Sega Shoreline” (Future Retro London)
During the late 2000s and early 2010s, Submerse was a force to be reckoned with, a hyper-prolific (and, frankly, underrated) talent who released a torrent of 2-step-inflected tunes before moving into footwork rhythms and hazy hip-hop beats. That said, the Tokyo-based producer had basically fallen off my radar in recent years, but thanks to his new FR033 EP on Tim Reaper’s Future Retro imprint, I’m now aware that he’s not only still making music, but has apparently thrown himself headlong into jungle. “Sega Shoreline” opens the record, and pretty quickly steps into “sounds like ’90s Photek” territory, combining his rollicking Amen breaks with warm pads, woozy melodies and a subtly jazzy groove. Make no mistake, the track still bangs, but Submerse has left enough headspace for those who prefer to keep their gun fingers holstered and calmly vibe out at the back of the dancefloor instead.
buttechno “angel’s break” (Self-released)
Bandcamp Friday always seems to bring a lot of subpar and hastily assembled material in the world, but lost souls—a collection of tunes that buttechno made during the past six months while working on his forthcoming (and as yet unannounced) new album—shouldn’t be written off as a mere clear out of his hard drive. Released to raise money for Ukrainian artist friends who are currently fighting on the frontlines, it moves through a variety of genres (e.g. ambient, techno, drum & bass), all of them bathed in scratchy static. Yet it’s the closing number, “angel’s break,” that leaves the strongest impression, presenting a ghostly strain of trip-hop that sounds a bit like Burial—if Burial had been from Bristol and gotten started in the mid ’90s.
Fibre Optixx “What Is Love (Priori Dee-Dub)” (KANN)
Between his many solo outings and his work with Patrick Holland in the Jump Source project, Priori is seemingly everywhere at the moment. Here he lends his proggy touch to “What Is Love,” closing out Fibre Optixx’s new Crystalline EP with a steadily pumping (albeit still somewhat laid-back) rework of what was originally an “homage to a 1990s New York house classic.” Gently easing off the accelerator and stripping out many of the vocals (while layering those words that remain in plenty of reverb), Priori’s “Dee-Dub” has a lighter touch than its source material, but with its chunky bassline and pulsing groove, it’s clearly primed for the dancefloor.
Atrice “83 Steps” (Ilian Tape)
Returning to Ilian Tape for the third time, shapeshifting Swiss duo Atrice have delivered another ace collection of smoky, bass-centric compositions on the new Multiplex EP. It’s tempting to categorize what they do as ambient (or ambient-ish), yet Atrice also fill their tunes with fast-paced rhythms that are positively electric—or, at least they would be if they weren’t popping off amidst a thicket of smeared textures and crunchy digital distortion. With its air-raid sirens and feverish breakbeats, EP highlight “83 Steps” takes cues from old hardcore records and the IDM heyday of labels like Rephlex, but there’s also something luxuriously languid about the tune, which seems to relish in the splendor of its soft-focus surroundings. Where does it belong? I’m not quite sure, but maybe that’s what makes it so compelling.
Li Yilei “Nomad, Shelter and Creed” (Métron)
Considering that Li Yilei’s new NONAGE album is being billed as “an introspective reflection on the journey through childhood,” it makes sense that a standout cut like “Nomad, Shelter and Creed” is infused with an almost palpable sense of wonder. Busy but never cluttered, the song borrows from both the standard new age palette and the artist’s Chinese upbringing, weaving its warbling woodwinds, gently clacking percussion and gleaming chimes into a sort of wide-eyed meditation. It’s a lovely listen, but on a deeper level, it also captures the feeling of those early childhood years where everything in our eyeline seems exciting and new. That sense of casual, everyday awe usually gets lost somewhere along the way—puberty often has something to do with it—but Yilei nicely captures the feeling of observing the world through a more naive lens.
Amkarahoi “Mogoul” (Impatience)
Taken from the new Uncle Reed in the Purple Mine album—the debut full-length from Russian duo Amkarahoi—“Mogoul” verges on dub techno, though its blissed-out sprawl is actually beatless. For the sake of clarity, it’s worth noting that drums do appear elsewhere on the LP, but no percussion is needed to assist “Mogoul” in its celestial ballet. Opening with a simmering cauldron of soft static, the track suddenly takes flight, its majestic synths practically glowing as they twirl and tumble towards the heavens.
ASC “Sensory Disintegration” (Past Inside the Present)
Created in the aftermath of his wife’s unexpected passing last year, ASC’s Loss album is obviously steeped in feelings of grief. (The LP’s title is no accident.) That said, it’s not a morose record, or even a particularly gloomy one. More than anything, it’s beautiful, most notably on “Sensory Disintegration,” a nine-minute expanse the veteran producer has filled with plush textures, cathedral-ready swells, delicate melodies and vocal choirs that have been slowed to a point where they sound like dispatches from another plane of existence. ASC may be exploring thoughts of what happens after we die, or perhaps he’s simply plumbing the depths of his own feelings, but either way, he’s landed on something peaceful, finding light in the darkest of circumstances.
That’s all I’ve got 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.)
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.