First Floor #214 – Get Me Out of Here
a.k.a. The devolution of dance music discourse, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh slate of new track recommendations.
As I mentioned last week, I’m about to go on vacation, and given the onslaught of mind-numbing DJ discourse that’s flooded the internet in recent days, I’m thinking that I’ve picked a perfect time to step away and take little breather.
I spelled some of this out in the essay I published earlier this week—you can find that below—but so many of the present conversations happening online around dance music seem to be primarily fueled by anger, frustration and (usually petty) conflict. It’s genuinely weird to be involved in a music scene in which the music itself, especially the new stuff, so rarely seems to inspire much passion—unless someone is trashing it, of course. As a music journalist, I’m all for thoughtful critique, and I’ll openly admit that this newsletter has been responsible for occasionally stirring the discourse pot during the past few years. But right now, when the dominant discourse largely consists of asinine debates and fevered pile-ons, it’s difficult to maintain interest, or even take those participating all that seriously.
Don’t worry, this isn’t some sort of “I’m quitting dance music” diatribe. As painful as the discourse has become, we’re thankfully living through a time when there actually is a lot of great new electronic music out there. (Not a whole lot of it is particularly innovative or original, but that’s another matter.) Highlighting the good stuff is one of First Floor’s main objectives, and today’s digest contains a slew of track recommendations, all of which are taken from new releases that surfaced during the past week. I’ve also convinced Phran, a Barcelona-based artist and general “guy who makes good things happen,” to stop by with a guest recommendation of his own. Elsewhere, I’ve rounded up a bunch of news items and new release announcements from the past seven days, along with links to several articles that are very much worth a read.
And yes, I’m getting on a plane tomorrow, but I’m happy to say that First Floor will continue in my absence. During the next two weeks, three different music writers—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Henry Ivry and Michael McKinney—will be helping to keep the newsletter afloat. All of them have done excellent work elsewhere, so I’m honestly thrilled to see what they’ll do in this space.
In the meantime though, I’m still here, so let’s go ahead and get into today’s digest.
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 responding to the recent explosion of online DJ discourse, the vast majority of which seems to revolve around conflict. Has dance music reached a point where anger is the only thing that motivates people to actually talk about it? What role does social media itself play in this mess, and how much are these conversations (if you can call them that) a byproduct of much bigger issues, not just in dance music, but in the world at large?
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.
With claire rousay’s sentiment album arriving tomorrow, there’s been a flurry of press coverage devoted to the LA-based artist and her unique brand of “emo ambient.” Of course, rousay was interviewed by First Floor back in January, but she’s also the subject of a new feature by Ryan Dombal that the Guardian published earlier this week. It’s a relatively compact read, but it covers a lot of ground, touching on not just her music, but her evangelical upbringing, her exploration of gender and sexuality, her ongoing struggles with depression and more.
Most musicians probably don’t need more reasons to be annoyed with Spotify, but according to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the streaming giant is currently developing tools that would allow users to “speed up, mash up and otherwise edit songs from their favorite artists.” While not yet available, these tools are said to be a response to the current prevalence of sped-up songs on various platforms, especially TikTok.
Barcelona-based writer Ben Cardew is a font of Daft Punk knowledge—he wrote an entire book about their Discovery album—and he’s just penned a new article for DJ Mag that specifically focuses on not on the French duo’s music, but their iconic brand. Although the group officially called it quits several years ago, Cardew highlights how their robotic brand has remained remarkably active since then, and theorizes how it might continue to evolve in the years ahead.
Touring in the United States is something that most artists around the world would probably like to do, at least in theory. But as anyone who’s ever tried to obtain a US touring visa already knows, the application process is expensive, time-consuming and heavily bureaucratic. Given that, Resident Advisor’s Nyshka Chandran has put together a new feature—which also features thoughts from Verraco, Deena Abdelwahed, Paranoid London and others—that considers whether jumping through all those hoops is actually worth it.
Anyone who’s ever visited the Dream House in NYC will be saddened to know that Marian Zazeela, the acclaimed light artist and longtime partner of avant-garde music icon La Monte Young, passed away late last month at the age of 83. Many tributes have surfaced online, but the New York Times yesterday published an obituary that recounted her decades of work.
A Lily’s new Saru I-Qumar album was highlighted here in the newsletter last week, and now the London-based artist, who also heads up the Phantom Limb label, has taken part in Ransom Note’s Track by Track series, providing bits of background information about every song on the record.
UK dance music tends to get divided up and filed into neat little genre categories, but the truth is that so many of these sounds share common ancestors—artists whose boundary-busting work laid the groundwork for multiple generations of producers and party people. Shut Up and Dance was once such outfit, and a new Badcamp Daily piece by Wrongtom unravels the crew’s complex history, from their reggae beginnings as the children of Jamaican immigrants in London, to the ways that they over time folded hip-hop, techno, rave, jungle and more into their craft.
For the latest edition of his 10 Táto Strana Európy newsletter, Adam Badí Donoval has interviewed Piotr Kurek. The experimental Polish composer talks about his upbringing and musical beginnings, his work with theater and his various collaborations with international labels—including Australian outpost Longform Editions, who just released a new piece from him last week.
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.
A new full-length from µ-Ziq (a.k.a. Planet Mu boss Mike Paradinas) is on the way. Designed to reclaim “the ‘dance’ part of the woeful term IDM,” Grush is said to be full of “weird bangers,” and it’s slated for June 14 release. In the meantime, Planet Mu has already shared one of those bangers, “Hyper Daddy,” along with the song’s accompanying (and rather insane-looking) music video.
Most of the attention paid to claire rousay this week will (rightly) be focused on her new album, but last week, she offered up a rather epic remix of hinako omori’s “foundation.” The original song was released by Houndstooth last year as part of the London-based Japanese artist’s stillness, softness... LP, and that same label has also issued rousay’s remix, which is out now.
Following up on his Bolted album that dropped last October, UK artist Forest Swords has released a companion piece, Torch / Pearl of Hail. Both tracks were written during the same sessions that produced Bolted, and they’re available now via Ninja Tune.
Scott Montieth has been using the name Deadbeat since the late ’90s, and over the past 25+ years, he’s steadily built a sizable catalog of dub-laden electronic sounds. (A lot of it can rightfully be called dub techno, but that’s not all he’s done.) During the past week, however, the Berlin-based Canadian announced that he’d decided to permanently retire the Deadbeat alias, and would be operating under his own name moving forward. He also unveiled a new release, The Lichen Diaries vol 1, which is said to be the first installment of what will be a regular series. It’s out now via his own BLKRTZ label.
Experimental artist Flora Yin-Wong heads up the Doyenne label and publishing house, and she’s taken her curation in a surprising—and intriguing—direction with the new Venus Rising from the Sea compilation. Released last week and currently available exclusively via Boomkat, it’s a collection of love-themed cover songs, on which artists like Salamanda, claire rousay, aya, Christina Vantzou, Teresa Winter and Maria Minerva put their spin on tracks by The Cure, Mariah Carey, The Carter Family, Debussy and more. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that the record also includes a contribution by my wife Dania, who takes on a song from The Cranberries.)
PHRAN 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 Phran, a Barcelona-based Venezuelan whose projects—pretty much all of which revolve around the dancefloor—are almost too numerous to list. As a solo artist, he’s made all sorts of electro and techno, both solo and as one half of People You May Know alongside Ylia. The duo just yesterday released a new EP, Monosodium, via Dimana, the digital offshoot of Phran’s Vimana label.
A native of Caracas, he’s also been a longtime champion of the city’s raptor house / changa tuki sound, and while he delivered his own take on the genre during the late 2000s and early 2010s under the name Pacheko, he’s more recently been working to highlight its ’90s originators, reissuing classic tracks from pioneering figures like DJ Babatr and DJ Yrvin through his ACA label (which he runs in collaboration with NAP). Last year he also helped put together a book, Logos of the Venezuelan Minitecas, that shined a light on the country’s historic soundsystems.
Phran clearly has a passion for bringing attention to others, and here, he shares something from another one of Barcelona’s behind-the-scenes MVPs.
Shelly “GUI41” (Abundance)
Shelly is a Catalan producer exploring the weirder sides of modern club music, with a broad range of personal excursions encompassing electro, digital dancehall, bass music and deconstructed club tracks. New Balance was his first solo EP on Abundance, and “GUI41,” a collaboration with local diva Marina Herlop, as well as Mans O and Ranso, stands out as a definite highlight. With its exquisite-yet-minimal vocals and future-electro aesthetics, it at times evokes the styles of producers like Objekt or Untold, albeit with a distinct “ciudad condal” flavor that is hard to explain.
His live set at the 2023 Mira festival here in Barcelona was one of the high points of the weekend, as Shelly's easygoing and unpretentious attitude, along with his proper dub treatment of live bass music, brought a real freshness to the dancefloor. A co-founder of Abundance, which is both a label and crew, he also plays a role in managing local underground space El Pumarejo, and generally serves as an authentic catalyst and force in the contemporary Barcelona scene. Respect!
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.
Sami.Moe “Can’t Get Over It” (1432 R)
Signed to Ghostly International’s Spectral Sound imprint, DC crooner dreamcastmoe has been busy during the past few years, dropping Sound Is Like Water in 2022 and following it up this past February with the MOLLY’S SON EP. Those records had their moments, but his silky pipes sound particularly good on “Can’t Get Over It.” The housey cut leads off Crash and Build, a seemingly impromptu collaborative EP with 1432 R co-founder Sami that the label released this week to celebrate its 10th birthday. Deliciously deep and a little bit raw (in a good way), the shuffling tune is a chilled cruiser, and though dreamcastmoe’s lovelorn laments serve as the song’s emotional center, its plush synths and velvety flute help to make his pain go down smooth.
ASC “Mirage” (Auxiliary)
Dreamy, lush and sounding like it came out in 1996, Reflections is the latest full-length from veteran producer ASC, who’s been successfully tapping into the spirit of atmospheric drum & bass during the past few years. Anyone longing for the glory days of artists like LTJ Bukem, Photek and Calibre can happily dive into this LP, and will likely find the womb-like “Mirage” to be especially pleasant. Stocked with luminescent, Fern Gully-esque synths, the song’s softly glowing sound palette is closer to new age than tech-step, and while its percussive backbone is certainly sturdy, ASC never allows his beats to detract from the otherworldly atmosphere he’s conjured up.
Château Flight “Clair de Lune à Mykonos” (Versatile)
La Folie Studio is not meant to be a comeback record, but it is the first proper release from Château Flight (a.k.a. the long-running collaborative project of French artists Gilb’R and I:Cube) since 2018 and the duo’s first album since 2004. Created over the course of two years, the LP largely dispenses with notions of genre, opting instead for a jammy, exploratory and often hallucinogenic vibe that cranks up the reverb while touching on house, ambient, avant-garde skronk, tripped-out library music and a litany of other sounds that defy easy categorization. Clocking in at more than 12 minutes, “Clair de Lune à Mykonos” is easily the longest track on the record, but it might also be the most compelling, its sleazy, slow-motion chug plotting a mesmerizing course through vintage sci-fi soundtracks and freaky psychedelia.
Low End Activist “Airdrop 03 (Mayhem on Barton Hill)” (Peak Oil)
At some point during the past few years, Low End Activist made the proverbial “leap” and became one of the most inventive producers in bass music. Following a slew of releases on labels like Sneaker Social Club, ESP Institute and his own Low End Activism imprint, he’s now linked up with Peak Oil for a new full-length, Airdrop. Remember when “deconstructed club” was a thing about a decade ago? Well, what Low End Activist is doing on the album could be described as “deconstructed hardcore,” as his frantic creations offer up a sort of Frankenstein-ed version of classic UK rave sounds. With its jagged synth stabs and rough-and-tumble rhythms, the standout “Airdrop 03 (Mayhem on Barton Hill)” hits all sorts of familiar notes, but its spazzy energy and decidedly non-linear progression are way more “out there” than anything that dropped back in 1992. It’s the sort of tune that only the most acrobatic ravers could actually dance to, but there’s no denying that it brings the ruckus.
DJ Plant Texture “Mechanical Bongos” (Ilian Tape)
The phrase “bongo techno” doesn’t get too many people excited these days, but anyone who hears DJ Plant Texture’s “Mechanical Bongos” won’t be able to stand still for long. A highlight of the Italian producer’s new Let the Machine Speak EP, the track is a rambunctious rumbler, its pile-driving percussion bounding ahead like a poorly trained puppy. There are no real bells or whistles here, just drums—lots and lots of drums. Yet “Mechanical Bongos” never feels monotonous or punishing. It’s brimming with energy, it’s got some swing in its step and, most importantly, it’s a whole lot of fun.
Khotin “Mornings II” (Khotin Industries)
Edmonton’s top ambient groover dropped a 7-inch last week, and the B-side is the luxuriously laid-back “Mornings II.” There’s something distinctly ’80s about the track—the vibe is somewhere in the neighborhood of “hanging by the pool at a Miami mansion in 1987—but Khotin expertly avoids kitsch, steering his warbling textures and various new ageisms into euphoric waters. “Morning II” isn’t going anywhere fast, but that’s exactly the point, so grab your inflatable mat and dive in. The water’s warm.
Seabuckthorn “Sage Word” (quiet details)
Guitar is at the center of this warm, this late, the beautifully subdued, Americana-infused new album from Seabuckthorn. Born in England and now based in the French Alps, he doesn’t technically have the Old West or Appalachia running through his veins, and the record is entirely instrumental, but its stripped-down compositions nonetheless have something of a meditative cowboy spirit. LP standout “Sage World” is a particularly striking cut, and as its intricate twangs echo across the metaphorical plain, their emotional weight is bolstered by some moody double bass (provided by Phil Cassel, who features throughout the album) and a healthy dose of reverb.
Dekalb Works “At a Canter” (29 Speedway)
The NYC club scene is clearly having a moment right now (and pretty much has been ever since the pandemic began to wane), but in the midst of everyone shouting to the rooftops about the city’s DJs, the Big Apple’s more experimental contingent—including pretty much everyone in and around the 29 Speedway label and event series—is often getting overlooked. The imprint’s latest offering is For Barney, Who Was a Bad Dog, But a Good Boy, and Very Much Loved., a new full-length from ambient / experimental duo Dekalb Works. It’s said to draw heavily from the sound palette of American country music, and that comes through on album highlight “At a Canter”—most obviously in the form of clomping horse hooves—but the track also deals in haunted trip-hop, weighty dub emanations and the sludge-stained ghost of grunge. Feelgood music it is not, but there’s a lot of wonderfully moody depth in its darkness.
Madeleine Cocolas “A Current Runs Through” (Room40)
Australian ambient / experimental artist Madeleine Cocolas says that she considers her new Bodies LP to be a companion to 2022’s Spectral. But while that record—which was brilliant—offset its emotional weight with airy textures and resonant piano melodies, her latest dispenses with many of those niceties, especially on “A Current Runs Through,” a song whose imposing wall of sound is closer to the drone-metal of Sunn O))) than the discreet music of Brian Eno. That’s not a bad thing, and Bodies—which is meant to explore the relationship between bodies of water and actual human bodies—is a potent record in its own right. It has some tranquil patches too, but throughout the LP, Cocolas seems to be at her best when she’s navigating turbulent waters, her music’s serrated currents threatening to capsize the boat at any moment.
Ulla & Ultrafog “dumb rain” (Motion Ward)
Can glitch be beautiful? Ulla and Ultrafog seem to think so. “dumb rain”—the opening number from their new joint album, It Means a Lot—is something akin to an angel-voiced slowcore ballad, but its digital hiccups make the track sound like it’s being played back on a RAM-deficient PC that keeps buffering every 20 seconds. In less skilled hands, the effect might be jarring, but the international duo—Ulla is an American living in Berlin, and Ultrafog is Japanese—elegantly weave those flutters into the song’s tapestry, ultimately winding up with what feels like a post-modern lullaby.
marine eyes “mended own” (Past Inside the Present)
“Sad serenity” might be an oxymoron, but it’s also a perfect way to describe the music of marine eyes. The Los Angeles ambient artist deals in billowing textures and softly glowing atmospheres, but no matter how pillowy soft her compositions may be, they always seem to be streaked with melancholy. Perhaps that’s because she’s essentially a singer-songwriter, one whose old scars and heart-on-her-sleeve sensibilities can’t be obscured by even the warmest and most welcoming layers of reverb. “mended own” appears on her new to belong LP—a family affair that also features musical contributions from her husband and two children—and like many of the best marine eyes songs, it shines by leaning into vulnerability. While it’s by no means weepy, it is ruminative, and as her soaring (and quite lovely) voice echoes out into the world, one gets the feeling that she’s momentarily dropped her natural defenses and allowed everyone to have a peek at whatever’s been lurking in her psyche. Love, loss, pain, regret, connection… it’s all in there, and marine eyes always finds a way to make it sound beautiful.
That brings us to the end of today’s First Floor digest. 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.)
I’ll be back in a few weeks, hopefully feeling a little less grumpy.
Take care,
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.