First Floor #217 – Set Me on Fire
a.k.a. Steve Albini and a guest essay from Martyn, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh batch of new track recommendations.
So I come back from vacation, and a few days later, Steve Albini dies.
Obviously those things aren’t related, but this wasn’t exactly the “welcome back” I was hoping for. Tributes to Albini have already flooded social media, and given that his death was totally unexpected, more remembrances and obituaries will surely surface in the days ahead. (Having already come across his interview with Anthony Bourdain and a clip of him lighting his shoes on fire while in the studio with PJ Harvey, I’m looking forward to the oncoming avalanche of Albini-related archival gems.)
I won’t attempt to summarize the man’s life and career here, but I will say that his influence on independent music culture during the past 40 years is immeasurable. Albini himself likely hated—and actively shrugged off—that sort of praise, but perhaps only Ian MacKaye (of Fugazi, Minor Threat, Dischord Records, etc.) has played a bigger role in shaping the ethos of the “underground.” Yes, Albini was something of a grouch and an edgelord (something which he openly copped to and apologized for in recent years), not to mention an avowed hater of dance music. But he was also an idealist, someone who helped define DIY culture, railed against the mainstream music industry—his 1993 essay for The Baffler, “The Problem with Music,” is still essential reading—and, most importantly, stuck to those principles across multiple decades, even as many of his punk-rock peers set aside their ethics and cashed in. In 2024, a time when the entire notion of “selling out” has become largely passé, that made Albini something of a walking anachronism, but for multiple generations of independent music fans—particularly those who came of age during the ’80s and ’90s—he was an aspirational figure, the human embodiment of how a better, less money-oriented music ecosystem ought to work.
It certainly helped that Albini often expressed these values while employing a healthy dose of cynical humor and / or righteous anger—two things that are basically catnip to overconfident, overly opinionated independent music fans—but the guy was also an incredible artist and recording engineer. (He famously shied away from calling himself a producer.) Nirvana, The Pixies, The Breeders, The Jesus Lizard, Joanna Newsom, Slint, Low, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor… that’s just a partial list of the many, many artists he worked with in the studio over the years, and yet he was still offering his services for just $900/day at the time of his passing. And when he wasn’t in the studio with other acts, he was making serrated, fire-breathing music in iconic bands like Big Black and Shellac, along with a handful of other outfits—some of which, admittedly, were rather despicably named.
Even so, I long admired Albini from afar, and though I never met him in person, I did at one point fly halfway across the US to see him in action. As a music journalist, I’ve attended countless festivals over the years, but the only out-of-town festival that I’ve ever gone to entirely of my own volition (i.e. not for work) was in 2006, when the Touch & Go label put on a three-day event in Chicago celebrating its 25th anniversary. There were so many bands on the bill that I wanted to see (Three Mile Pilot, Pinback, Black Heart Procession, !!!, Calexico, CocoRosie, Quasi… seriously, look at that line-up), but a huge part of why I decided to buy a plane ticket was because Big Black was reuniting specifically to play at this event. (Their set was only going to be 15 minutes, but that was enough for me.)
Albini wasn’t a big fan of festivals (shocker), but Shellac, oddly enough, has long been something like the house band at Primavera Sound here in Barcelona. The group has literally played the festival 15 times, and continued to be booked each and every year, even as the line-ups have increasingly drifted away from indie and rock sounds. It was almost amusing to see Shellac on the Primavera flyer, and I have to admit that I’ve rarely made a point to see them in recent years, just because I figured that I’d always have another chance. Albini was only 61 years old. He wasn’t supposed to die. Not yet. I’m sure I’ll find myself at Primavera Sound again in a few weeks, and when I’m there, I’ll be thinking about Albini and the (undeniably grumpy) legacy he left behind.
In the meantime though, I have a newsletter to write. Before we get into it, I do want to thank Kieran Press-Reynolds, Henry Ivry and Michael McKinney, all of whom served admirably in my absence. But now we’re back to just me, and I’ve assembled the usual First Floor digest, rounding up news, new release announcements and links to interesting articles. This week’s edition also includes a guest essay by Martyn, who’s provided First Floor with an exclusive preview of one of the pieces he wrote to accompany his forthcoming Through Lines compilation. You’ll find that below, along with a bunch of new track recommendations, all of which come from releases that dropped during the past week. And if that’s not enough, I’ve also enlisted NYC experimental artist and 29 Speedway founder Ex Wiish to drop in with a guest recommendation of his own.
RIP Steve Albini. You probably wouldn’t have liked most of the music I write about in this newsletter, but I’ll miss you anyways. (In the last 24 hours, I’ve already listened to “Kerosene” and “Prayer to God” more times than I’ve listened to any piece of electronic music this year.)
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 by Martyn, who looks back at the post-dubstep era of the late 2000s and early 2010s, a time when the phrase “techno-influenced dubstep” suddenly entered the dance music vernacular. More than a decade later, he considers what those words really meant, and what they said about not just the music, but the world in which it was created.
ANOTHER THING I DID
While on vacation, I did manage to put together an episode of my monthly First Floor radio program, which aired last week on dublab BCN. The show, along with its complete tracklist, has since been archived here, and includes new(ish) songs from Ulla & Ultrafog, Matrixxman, marine eyes, Coral Mophologic & Nick León, D.Dan, Low End Activist, Jubilee & Astrolith and many others.
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 No Tags podcast is not even six months old, but hosts Chal Ravens and Tom Lea have already made it into a must-listen affair, especially now that it’s going out weekly. The latest episode features an interview with famed music journalist Simon Reynolds, who talks about his new book Futuromania, but also touches on the current state of music, culture, journalism and much more—including his next big project. (First Floor readers may remember that he was also interviewed here in the newsletter last year.)
During the past decade, Shinichi Atobe’s releases—most of which have surfaced via Demdike Stare’s DDS label—have been showered with praise, but in all that time, the Japanese techno artist never did an interview. As writer Joshua Minsoo Kim found out, it wasn’t because he wasn’t interested in talking; it seems that no one bothered to ask if he’d be up for a chat. Kim, however, did ask, and their wide-ranging conversation was published last week in the Tone Glow newsletter.
Speaking of Tone Glow, the publication also posted an interview with Shed, who spoke with Kim about growing up in East Germany, his current family life, his thoughts on contemporary DJ culture and more, including the new record he just released from his Wax alias (more on that later).
ESG is one of those late-’70s / early-’80s groups whose output and influence have been lauded and lionized more times than I can count, and yet, it still feels like the South Bronx outfit hasn’t really received its proper due. Will another fawning article help? Probably not, but Daniel Dylan Wray nonetheless did an excellent job recounting ESG’s history—with an assist from group co-founder Renee Scroggins, who provides extensive quotes—in a new feature for DJ Mag.
While I was away, the 2024 edition of the annual IMS Business Report dropped, and though its findings are too numerous to neatly summarize here, the biggest takeaway is that the global electronic music industry once again increased in value last year, and is now worth approximately $11.8 billion. The full report, which was written by Mark Mulligan and MIDiA research, is available for free to anyone who goes here and provides their email address.
Fresh off his excellent Airdrop album for the Peak Oil label—an effort I described as “deconstructed hardcore”—Low End Activist has put together a retrospective piece for Ransom Note, highlighting 10 rave and hardcore records from the “Where were you in ’92?” era that helped to shape his musical worldview.
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 recommend that you either inquire at your favorite local bookshop or try one of the online sales links that have been compiled here.
JUST ANNOUNCED
A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past week.
Although light-years initially served as an outlet for Caterina Barbieri’s own music, the Italian artist has turned her imprint’s attention toward other musicians during the past year, and will soon be releasing a new collaborative album from Grand River and Abul Mogard. In uno spazio immenso is the duo’s first LP, and though it won’t arrive until June 21, opening track “Dissolvi” has already been shared.
To kick off what will apparently be a new series of HTRK remixes and covers, the Australian duo asked Loraine James to rework something from their back catalog, and the London artist decided to take on “Dream Symbol,” a song which first appeared on 2019’s Venus in Leo album. Her remix is out now via Ghostly International.
FaltyDL has a new full-length on the way. Billed as a “brilliantly genre-voracious record,” In the Wake of Wolves is the Brooklyn-based producer’s first outing on Central Processing Unit, which has already shared LP cut “Minds Protection.” The rest of the album is scheduled to follow on June 7.
Burial no longer feels quite as mysterious as he once did, but it’s still a rare occasion that the UK artist remixes someone else’s work. Given that, it was quite surprising to see his name pop up on a rework of “Only the Good Times,” a track from the forthcoming L.B. Dub Corp (a.k.a. Luke Slater) album Saturn to Home. That LP will be released on May 24 by Dekmantel, but both the original version of “Only the Good Times” and the Burial remix are already available here.
Nikki Nair has released a lot of records during the past few years, but the Atlanta-based producer has never before teamed up with the LuckyMe label. That’s due to change on May 17, when the celebrated UK imprint releases the Snake EP. In the meantime, the song “Worm” has already been made available.
Having spent much of the past few years working with FKA twigs and lending his talents to other projects, Koreless officially returned to his solo output earlier this week, dropping a new single called “Seven.” It’s out now on the Young label.
Back in 2022, Pizza Hotline (who also makes excellent dubby techno under the name El Choop) released Level Select, a pitch-perfect full-length that reinvigorated the spirit of liquid drum & bass with a healthy dose of Y2K-era video game sounds. The LP was reissued last year by Swiss label WRWTFWW, and now that same imprint is poised to release a new Pizza Hotline record, a Level Select sequel called Polygon Island. The first two tracks from the album have already been shared here, and the full LP is slated to drop on June 28.
Fans of thoughtful bass music will be pleased to know that dBridge and Forest Drive West have joined forces on a new collaborative record. The plainly titled EXITVS009 - dBridge vs Forest Drive West is part of the long-running Vs. series from dBridge’s Exit imprint, and it’s scheduled to drop on May 24. Ahead of that, the pair have already made opening track “Death Race 3000” available.
It’s hard to believe that buttechno has never before done a record with the Kalahari Oyster Cult label, but the genre-hopping Russian producer will soon be rectifying that with a new EP, solstice peaks. It’s due to surface on May 31, but in the meantime, EP closer “bleeps” is already available.
Most of Al Wootton’s solo material during the past few years has come out via his own TRULE imprint, but the dub-loving UK artist recently teamed up with Berceuse Heroique to release a new album called Lifted from the Earth. Out now, it might be the weirdest, most psychedelic thing he’s has ever done.
With London artist James Connolly (a.k.a Dance System) having recently returned to his beloved L-Vis 1990 alias—a decision he detailed in a First Floor interview a few months back—it makes sense that he would do a bit of digging through his archives. Back in 2014, he made an edit of Sade’s “Never Thought I'd See the Day,” and yesterday he decided to give it away on Bandcamp as a “name your price” download.
More than two years removed from his last solo release, Manchester stalwart Finn returned to the Local Action label this week with a new single, a ’90s-house-indebted cut called “You've Got To (NO!!!).” It’s available now.
EX WIISH 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 Ex Wiish, a NYC-based ambient / experimental artist—check out his 2023 album Shards of Axel on Incienso if you missed it the first time around—who also heads up the impeccably curated 29 Speedway label and event series. As someone who plays a big role in platforming emerging avant-garde artists and left-of-center sounds in one of the world’s key cultural hubs, I knew that he’d have something good to share, and true to form, he pulled out an under-the-radar record that dropped just a few weeks ago.
Orchestroll “Succubus Ripchord” (Garmo)
The new mini-LP Hyperwide Lustre by Orchestroll—the collaborative project of Jesse Osborne-Lanthier and Asaël Richard-Robitaille—is out now on naff’s sub-label Garmo, and it takes the cake as one of last month’s most underrated releases. When I first heard the single “Succubus Ripcord,” described by the duo as “jester-like,” I felt demonically energetic. As someone who collects clown memorabilia, I’ve learned that the jester is a universal symbol that often represents the dualities of humanity. On the surface, one can laugh and also cry, but in this case, we have two reclusive entertainers; are they laughing at you or with you? I imagined the two working in the studio, maniacally and especially meticulously piecing the track together, its ever-evolving patterns a product of respectable diligence from two self-proclaimed “puppetmasters who lost control of their puppets long ago.”
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.
Wax “90009A” (Wax)
René Pawlowitz has gone by many, many names over the years, and while Shed rightly remains his most celebrated moniker, his work as Wax—a project he once told me is devoted to “raw, very simple house tracks” and “good music for DJing”—has always been excellent. The German producer’s new WAX90009 EP will do nothing to detract from that sparkling reputation, and its lead cut, “90009A,” is a no-frills pumper, its workmanlike chug merely the foundation for the song’s enticing array of wistful, soft-focus melodies. Like much of Pawlowitz’s best work, it’s both pensive and functional, the sort of tune you’d be happy to hear at 5 a.m. at the club or in the middle of the afternoon at an outdoor party in the sunshine.
Sei A “Mirrors” (Aus)
Love & Chaos, the new album from veteran UK artist Sei A, isn’t meant for cramped basements, or even sweaty warehouses. It’s far too cinematic for that, and not in a way that’s trite or maudlin. It’s just… big, dialing up both the gauzy reverb and melodic grandeur to 11 while offering up a series of booming, IDM-indebted breakbeats. Aphex Twin feels like an obvious reference point, but so does Bicep, and Sei A has carved out a happy medium between the two, most impressively on LP standout “Mirrors.” It’s undeniably lush—the song’s breakbeats nearly get lost amidst all the swirly synths—but it’s also openly emotive, with Sei A tugging at heartstrings as he weaves the wordless laments of an unknown female vocalist into the song’s billowing shimmer.
Legowelt “Seven Challenges” (L.I.E.S.)
Legowelt has always been prolific, but it’s not often that the Dutch eccentric has two different records come out on the same day. That’s exactly what happened last Friday, and while his The Sad of Life of an Instagram DJ EP undoubtedly had the better title, and also hilariously included a song called “No One Wants to Buy My NFT,” his new Like a Song from Your Dream album arguably had the stronger material. Billed as a collection of “murky, cold-as-ice, Hague-style slammers from the king of Smack,” the LP shines particularly bright on “Seven Days,” a stripped-down slice of electro-funk that sounds like something that would have been blasting out of a Bronx boombox in the early 1980s. Sci-fi-inspired and breakdance-ready, it’s a blippy gem from a one-of-a-kind artist who simply refuses to lose a step.
DJ Hockey “Restraint” (Fixed Rhythms)
Any time I get bummed about how much cities like Berlin, London and New York tend to dominate the dance music conversation, I need to remind myself that one of the best curated labels in North America is based in Oklahoma City. Fixed Rhythms is one of those outposts that somehow never seems to put out a bad record, and Vancouver producer DJ Hockey’s new Push:Pull EP is no exception, offering up four tracks of heady—but groovy—techno. Opening number “Restraint” is the best of the lot, its minimal (not mnml) approach, persistent pulse and slightly cosmic bent channeling the space-age symphonics of Jeff Mills.
Arcane & Jon1st “Tears” (Defrostatica)
Having already turned heads with their 2022 debut collaboration Bloodstone, it was only a matter of time before UK artists Arcane and Jon1st got back in the studio together. The new Waves EP is the duo’s second joint release, and much like its predecessor, it’s a genre-mashing affair, splicing together elements of juke, tribal breakbeats, jungle, dubstep and more. It seems that the only “rule” that these guys followed was “avoid linear rhythms at all costs,” and that reliance on skitters, shudders and other broken beat patterns only makes the drum programming—and, in essence, the tunes themselves—all the more lively. “Tears” opens the record with a confident swagger, its breezy footwork-isms gradually giving way to an onslaught of brawny basslines and rowdy drum & bass.
floating shrine “Looking Back” (Decaying Spheres)
Can glitch be twee? floating shrine seems to think so. In fairness, the Australia-based Italian prefers to describe his music as “glitchy textural ambient,” but there’s a palpable sweetness to “Looking Back,” a whimsical, piano-streaked standout from his new Connecting album. Taking cues from new age and video game soundtracks alike, the song employs both birdsong and the same sort of synthesized woodwinds one might hear in a Legend of Zelda title, and floating shrine even manages to make his jittery synths sound peaceful. It’s mellow, to be sure, but far from sedate, and conjures images of verdant gardens and babbling brooks—all rendered in 8-bit graphics, of course.
ezmeralda “Allá” (AMBIE—TÓN)
Considering that TraTraTrax decided to cheekily name its new ambient imprint AMBIE—TÓN, one could be forgiven for assuming that the Colombian outpost wasn’t entirely serious about its latest endeavor. A quick listen to ezmeralda’s new Ruido y Flor tape, however, should put any concerns about the label’s direction to bed. An effort designed to explore one of life’s biggest questions (“What happens when we die?”), its contents are anything but a joke, and are frankly quite beautiful, especially on “Allá.” Led by a radiant melody that gently rises and falls like an ocean tide, the static-laced tune invites total immersion—or, better yet, surrender. There are no drums, no vocals, not much of anything; there’s just that melody, slowly pulling listeners into the surf and toward the unknown. It should be terrifying, but ezmeralda makes oblivion feel like a warm embrace.
Not Waving & Romance “When the Rose Every Doth Petal Unfold” (Ecstatic)
The Birth of Venus is one of the most iconic paintings of all time, but neither its towering influence nor its resplendent magnificence deterred Not Waving and Romance from making Botticelli’s masterpiece the inspirational starting point of their new album Infinite Light. Like everything the anonymous Romance does, the new LP is gorgeous, and while its contents are technically ambient in nature, nothing about the record is meant to fade into the background. The synths aren’t just lush, they’re opulent, and album highlight “When the Rose Doth Every Petal Unfold”—which actually does contain an underlying kick drum, albeit one that’s been almost completely buried in reverb—is an awe-inspiring affair, its golden strings sounding as though they’re emanating from heaven itself.
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.)
Have a great 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.