First Floor #263 – The Pluses and Minuses of Perpetual Recycling
An interview with Carré, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh bundle of new track recommendations.
Real life is finite, but when it comes to music, nothing ever truly dies. Not even the stuff that was legitimately horrible the first time around.
In the past few years alone, how many genres have been revived, revisited, reexamined or reevaluated? Just a few days ago, Daniel Dylan Wray penned an article for The Guardian about how bassline has “bounced back.” Last week Andrew Ryce dedicated an entire issue of his Futureproofing newsletter to his evolving relationship with Skrillex and the aggressively wobbly strain of dubstep that made him an EDM superstar. And that was just a few weeks after Meaghan Garvey did something similar in an installment of her Reality Blues column for Pitchfork. Zooming out a bit, arguably the most talked-about trend in dance music during the past few months has been the supposed return of minimal, a genre that until recently was largely regarded by most “serious” listeners as being good for nothing but a steady stream of Ricardo Villalobos memes.
Need more examples? Trance, indie sleaze (which is largely just a repackaging of electroclash and bloghouse), nu-metal, hardcore (both the punk and rave varieties), jungle, Latin club (a new amalgamation of poorly / offensively titled tends like baile funk and tropical bass), dub techno ... the list is practically endless, and it’s likely only a matter of time before trends from the 2010s start popping up again. Deconstructed club, anyone?
Humans, for better or worse, love to recycle, reimagine and recontextualize ideas, and in a music marketplace where nostalgia is one of the few consistently profitable products, the specters of the past will likely continue to loom large over the culture for many years to come. Add in the rapid disappearance of context, particularly online, and we might also find ourselves in a dystopian place where huge swaths of the listening public won’t be able to actively distinguish between new and old music, and, even worse, might have no real impulse to do so.
It’s easy to get all doom and gloom about this stuff, or start ranting about how the music world has seemingly run out of original ideas. I’ve certainly engaged in that sort of thing here in the newsletter over the years. Yet even at my absolute grumpiest, I can’t deny that the culture’s seemingly endless excavation and regurgitation of prior eras isn’t all bad, particularly when:
A) The ideas being resurfaced didn’t get their proper due the first time around, and
B) The folks doing the excavating and regurgitating were too young to have experienced the music when it was actually new.
Good things can happen when old ideas meet fresh perspectives. That’s definitely part of the reason why I wanted to talk to Carré, a native Californian and fast-rising artist whose brawny dubstep productions sound like something that came out of a Croydon basement in the early 2000s. But while what she’s doing is absolutely informed by the past, our conversation made clear that Carré herself isn’t driven by nostalgia, or even a desire to counter the prevailing narratives about LA dubstep. You’ll find that interview below—and yes, the paywall on it is currently down.
Elsewhere, today’s First Floor digest is laser-focused on the present, highlighting what’s been happening in electronic music during the last seven days. Read on for an assortment of news items, new release announcements and suggested reading links, and if new music is primarily what you’re after, I’ve also got you covered. After going through the absolute deluge of music that dropped during the past week—thanks to Bandcamp Friday for that—I’ve put together a fresh batch of choice tunes, and if that’s not enough, I’ve also enlisted Canadian talent Khotin to offer up a special guest recommendation.
Let’s get started.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Every Tuesday, First Floor publishes a long-form piece that’s initially made available to paid subscribers only. But if you’re not part of the paid tier, now’s your chance to see what you missed! The latest piece is now (temporarily) open to everyone, and it’s an interview with Carré, an artist who got her start in Los Angeles and has quickly become one of the dubstep circuit’s most promising new talents. We talked about her lengthy love affair with UK bass, the origins of her Fast at Work party / crew and how she feels about LA’s less-than-stellar reputation when it comes to dance music, and dubstep in particular.
REAL QUICK
A round-up of the most interesting electronic music news from the past week, plus links to interviews, articles and other things I think are worth sharing.
What is the new Anthony Naples album all about? The NYC artist provided no real backstory when Scanners was unveiled earlier this year, but now that the LP has been officially released, he’s taken some time to lift the curtain in a lengthy new interview with Philip Sherburne for the latter’s Futurism Restated newsletter. As you might expect, much of their conversation focuses on the new record, but Naples also talks about his work doing A&R for the XL label and explains that Scanners (along with a second new full-length that’s still under wraps) was actually created in the wake of him scrapping another record that was basically finished and ready to go.
Speaking of Philip Sherburne, his ambient-leaning Balmat imprint—which he runs alongside Lapsus founder Albert Salinas—has been named Beatportal’s latest Label of the Month. Written by April Clare Welsh, the accompanying feature lays out the label’s origins and details how its musical offerings have evolved over time, to the point where the “ambient” tag doesn’t always fit.
Hardcore—the rave kind, not the punk kind—is often looked down upon by the wider dance music world, but its history dates back more than 30 years, and has taken all sorts of fascinating twists and turns along the way. Holly Dicker, who’s arguably written more about hard dance music than anyone during the past decade-plus, knows the genre intimately, and she’s now channeled her knowledge into a forthcoming book, Dance Or Die: A History of Hardcore. Slated for a June 6 release on Velocity Press—which, full disclosure, is also the publisher of my own book—Dance or Die is billed as “the first critical and expansive study of hardcore as a music, a subculture and an enduring ‘phuture’ rave movement.”
Having just released their Patterns of Vibration album on Dekmantel, Steffi and Virginia are the subjects of Mixmag’s latest installment of The Mix. As the series’ title implies, the duo have crafted a new DJ mix for the occasion, and they also had a long chat with writer Marcus Barnes about the new LP’s genesis, their ever-evolving relationship (both personal and musical) and their life in the Portuguese countryside.
Given the witchy mystery that frequently surrounds her work, deciphering Penelope Trappes’ music can prove challenging. But in a new Track by Track feature for Ransom Note, the UK-based Australian provides some key insights, methodically going through her recent A Requiem album and providing a color, season, inspiration and setting for each one of its songs.
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.
Verraco’s Breathe... Godspeed was one of 2024’s most celebrated releases, and today the TraTraTrax co-founder has shared plans for a follow-up. Landing on the vaunted XL label for the first time, the Colombian producer will be releasing the Basic Maneuvers EP on May 29. The record, which features a guest appearance by Kenyan-Ugandan rapper MC Yallah, was created during a time that Verraco was relocating from his hometown of Medellín to the capital of Bogotá, and its boisterous title track has already been shared.
Fully embracing his place in the storied lineage of French dance music, Simo Cell this week unveiled plans for a new EP, FL Louis, that he describes as “four tracks of party smashing daft funk and ed banging house jackers.” His own TEMƎT label will be issuing the record on June 19, but opening track “Circuits” is available now.
Andrea has long been a core member of the Ilian Tape roster, and earlier this morning, the Italian producer returned to the label with a surprise new album. Entitled Living Room, the 12-track effort arrived without much in the way of supporting information or context, but it’s available in full now.
claire rousay is many things, but the LA-based Texan has consistently proven to be an enthusiastic collaborator. On the upcoming quilted lament, which the mappa label announced last week, she’ll be teaming up with fellow experimental artist Gretchen Corso. Made remotely, stuffed with field recordings and true to both artists’ self-described “emo core,” the record is slated to arrive on May 27, but its opening song, “find yourself on a hole in the beach,” has already been shared.
London-based experimental artist and Doyenne founder Flora Yin Wong has a new tape out. Released on Paralaxe Editions—a Barcelona label that, full disclosure, is run by my wife Dania—it’s called Dead Loop, and is rooted in two very different things: a now-forbidden gymnastic maneuver known as the Korut Flip, and the manipulated sounds of the kemençe, a stringed instrument from the Eastern Mediterranean.
Jake Muir has a new album on the way. Where his latest full-length, 2023’s acclaimed Bathhouse Blues, was informed by the steamy sleaze of vintage gay porn soundtracks, his upcoming LP, Campana Sonans, turns to church bells as a source of inspiration. Built out of recordings the Berlin-based American captured in both Germany and the UK, the album consists of two long-form compositions, and is due to surface on June 6 via the enmossed label. In the meantime, an extended (i.e. nearly 10-minute) preview clip of the track “Changes” has been made available.
Italian producer Piezo—who First Floor readers might remember from his recent guest recommendation here in the newsletter—offered up a surprise new EP on the Haunter label last week. Foreground includes collaborations with Heith, Daniele DeSantis and LOREM, and it’s available in full now.
Fans of restless rhythms and hardware-driven dance music may have clocked this already, but UK duo Rezzett and Chicago mainstay Beau Wanzer have joined forces on a new project, Borez. The trio’s self-titled debut quietly slipped out via The Trilogy Tapes last week.
KHOTIN 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 Khotin, a Canadian artist who’s spent the past decade-plus perfecting the art of the downtempo groove. Though he hails from the Great White North (Edmonton, to be exact), his ambient-ish music often has a sun-kissed, quasi-Balearic quality, its chilled melodies and reverb-dusted textures tinged with nostalgia and informed by an underlying sense of cosmic wanderlust. Khotin’s last two albums (2023’s Release Spirit and 2020’s Finds You Well) came via Ghostly International, but he’s most frequently found on his own Khotin Industries imprint, which just last month released his latest EP, Peace Portal. Here he shares one of his favorite tunes, an oddball cut from 1985 that exudes the same sort of charming eccentricity that defines much of his own work.
Doxa Sinistra “The Other Stranger” (ADN / Trumpett)
I first discovered this song a couple of years ago thanks to the remaster / reissue on the Midnight Drive label, run by Brian Not Brian, and I honestly can’t recall another track that has ever clicked so instantly for me. The stripped-back, bubbling 303 melody and off-kilter time signature feel like they’ve been forever etched into my brain at this point. Some absolute hero on YouTube actually dug up all of the original voice sample sources and uploaded them—the group must have originally recorded these straight off their TV set. It makes perfect sense that this song was made over 40 years ago, and yet it feels utterly surreal at the same time.
LISTEN UP
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.
Torn Hawk “Two Footprints and a Pillar of Flame” (Not Not Fun)
Luke Wyatt isn’t afraid to try new things. Whether he’s making music as Torn Hawk or using one of his litany of other aliases, the New Jersey native has in recent years offered up everything from industrial skronk and shimmering shoegaze to self-helpy spoken word, though the latter was seemingly (hopefully?) a sort of satire in which he was fully committed to the bit. His latest full-length, the wonderfully titled Watching Heat on Mute, is something of a back-to-basics effort, one that leans heavily into the washed-out guitars and smeared textures that first put him on the map during the early-to-mid 2010s. “Two Footprints and Pillar of Flame” is one of several hazy standouts on the album, its somber boom-bap providing the foundation for the melancholy—albeit undeniably cinematic—flair of Wyatt’s grungy guitar work.
Karen Vogt “Spirit” (Wayside & Woodland)
Voice and guitar are the key elements of Karen Vogt’s music, and they’re both in exceedingly fine form on “Spirit,” a stirring highlight from the Paris-based Australian’s new Haunted Woodland Volume Five release. In fairness, some effects pedals and field recordings also factor into the mix, but Vogt herself is the main attraction here, her register fluctuating as she emotively sings the song’s title—and nothing else—over and over again. Add in the track’s pensive, heavily reverbed guitar tones, and “Spirit” starts to conjure memories of Mazzy Star, or maybe even Dido, its dreamlike atmosphere perfect for pondering life’s big questions on a chilly autumn afternoon.
venus the archivist “tm2uq” (blush)
Launched in 2022, the Somewhere Press label got off to an impressive start with releases from Alliyah Enyo, Chantal Michelle and Man Rei, but it was a compilation, 2023’s The Blue Hour, that truly crystalized that Glasgow imprint’s vision—and its penchant for textured ambient and avant-pop sounds. Now blush, a separate imprint that Somewhere Press co-founder Tim Dalzell started last year, appears to be following a similar trajectory, dropping shadow garden, which the young label describes as “a moonlit anthology of contemporary DIY guitar music.” Stuffed with fuzz-laden songcraft and lo-fi laments, the record revels in the perfectly imperfect, serving up the sort of intimacy that only songs made in bedrooms can offer. venus the archivist’s “tm2uq” is one of several highlights, a woozy drifter in which a looping synth melody and a scattered array of half-stoned digital percussion lay the groundwork for the UK upstart’s wordless vocalizations and mellow guitar meanderings. Endearingly unpolished and dreamily introspective, it defies simple categorization, but it’s a captivating example of the unassuming, yet richly fertile ground that blush inhabits.
Sinemis “Farewell” (Injazero)
Inspired by the steady erosion of democracy and civil liberties in her native Turkey, Sinemis sees her new Farewell LP as a “scathing indictment” of the country’s government. Sonically, however, the artist—who’s now based in London—has channeled her feelings of rage and despair into something that’s often quite beautiful, her glowing synths and slow-brewing drones occupying a space that’s undeniably meditative, but perhaps too emotionally charged to be considered truly ambient. Closing with its titular track, the album ends on a high note, the song’s multi-layered arpeggiations swirling endlessly skyward as Sinemis says her goodbyes. It’s not clear whether she’s paying tribute to the homeland she once knew or yearning for a brighter future that might never come, but either way, the emotional rush of “Farewell” is tinged with what feels like hope.
clairaudience “grief guitar” (kshack)
Considering that “grief guitar” appears on a new album called Letters from Emptiness, it’s fair to say the clairaudience project has a serious sad streak. Sadness, however, doesn’t always mean bleakness, and here the Queens-based musician has tapped into a potent well of miserable bliss, his heavy-hearted shoegaze bringing to mind the transcendent work of bands like Slowdive and Chapterhouse. Vocalist Jess Paps—who contributes to several tracks on the LP—also deserves a good chunk of the credit; though her siren-like voice is so buried in fuzz that her words are essentially indecipherable, the feeling of sorrow she communicates cuts straight through the song’s soupy expanse, quickly latching onto the heartstrings of whoever happens to be listening.
Loscil “Ash Clouds” (kranky)
Do you like Loscil? Then there’s a very good chance you’ll like Lake Fire, the latest album of widescreen sonics and detail-laden ambient from an artist who’s been doing this sort of thing for more than 20 years. That consistency does have its drawbacks, and might lead some to dismissively think, “Oh, it’s just another Loscil record,” but while it’s true that the Canadian veteran hasn’t radically invented his sound, Lake Fire is intriguingly laced with a persistent sense of dread. That largely boils down to the fact that the LP was inspired by the massive wildfires that have become a terrifyingly normalized part of life on North America’s West Coast, yet the music on offer notably feels more like a mournful elegy than a raging diatribe. Contemplating humanity’s capacity for self-destruction is enough to make anyone feel forlorn, and the low-lying drone of album standout “Ash Clouds”—which features the grumbling thrum of James Meager’s double bass—keeps the track gloomily shackled to the scarred landscapes of Planet Earth.
Susu Laroche “The Moth” (Doyenne)
The new War Against the Lie album is an exercise in myth-making, one that French-Egyptian artist Susu Laroche bills as a “post-fictional account” of ancient civilizations in Persia. Considering the degree to which the true history of that part of the world has been obscured (and, at times, openly defiled) by colonialism, the album serves as a kind of creative defiance, one in which Laroche holds court as a goth mystic. On the spellbinding “The Moth,” her hypnotic talk-singing is bolstered by regal, horn-like drones and thundering drums, and while Katie Gately’s grief-stricken 2020 album Loom immediately comes to mind, so does the work of PJ Harvey, Mezzanine-era Massive Attack and the Tri Angle label. In other words, Laroche appears to be remarkably comfortable dancing (or perhaps swaying) in the darkness, and the tales she spins, spooky as they may be, are so alluring that she’ll likely have no problem getting others to join her in the pitch black night.
Naturalisten “Woodpecker” (E2-E8)
At its core, Forms—the promising debut record from Naturalisten (a.k.a. Rado of London’s Unknown Species collective)—is a techno record. More specifically, it’s a deep techno record with a psychedelic undercurrent, and sits comfortably alongside the work of inventive artists like Donato Dozzy, Marco Shuttle, Konduku and Tammo Hesselink. EP cut “Against the Tide” is a particularly good example of Naturalisten’s prowess in that sonic realm, but it’s ultimately outshined by “Woodpecker,” a drum & bass-flavored outlier that sounds like something Warp or Rephlex would have dropped in the late ’90s. Buoyed by gleaming synth tones and a steadily bubbling bassline, the track shakes off the constraints of four-to-the-floor drum programming and swaddles its jittery rhythms in the same sort of lush string pads that often populate best late-night Detroit techno.
Peverelist “Pulse XIX” (Livity Sound)
Speaking of Detroit techno, the genre has played a major role in shaping Peverelist’s highly acclaimed Pulse series, which the Bristol bass icon officially brought to a close last week with the release of his Pulse Decay EP. As good as UK techno can be, it’s more often than not very much its own thing, more indebted to the legacy of old-school industrial and the depths of the hardcore continuum than anything from the Motor City. Peverelist, however, has tapped into what feels like a happy—and effective—medium, taking cues from artists like Carl Craig and Underground Resistance without engaging in full-blown mimicry. With its surging synths and fluttering string flourishes, “Pulse XIX” does perhaps share a tiny bit of DNA with the classic “Strings of Life,” but it’s ultimately just a top-shelf slice of sleek, sci-fi techno, one that might leave Peverelist fans hoping that he’ll change his mind about putting the Pulse series to bed.
Surgeon “Soul Fire” (Tresor)
Why don’t the words “live techno” spark more excitement? Probably because we’ve all seen far too many live sets that felt less like visceral music experiences and more like watching some dude check his email for an hour. Yet when Surgeon is on the bill, audiences should have no such concerns. After decades of refining his performance skills, the UK icon has in recent years elected to simply bring his live set-up into the studio, hit record and see what happens. That bare-bones approach fueled his last album, 2023’s Crash Recoil, and it’s also the foundation of his latest full-length, Shell~Wave, a collection of single-take, in-the-moment recordings that he sees as his answer to the question, “What is techno to you?” As it turns out, his thoughts on the matter are quite varied across the course of the LP; the standout “Dying,” for instance, is a beatless excursion led by a deliciously freaky vocal loop. “Soul Fire,” however, sits at the other end of the spectrum; it’s a proper techno marauder, one whose metallic drum hits and distorted synth riffs make a convincing case that techno—and live techno in particular—still has plenty of life left.
Anthony Naples “Mushy” (ANS)
In an era when the narrative around a new album routinely receives more attention than whatever music it happens to contain, it’s refreshing to see Anthony Naples go in the completely opposite direction, dropping Scanners into the world with very little in the way of additional context. Aside from letting people know that the LP contains 10 tracks of what he describes as “house and techno or what might also be called Tech House,” the New York-based artist and Incienso has largely chosen to let the record speak for itself, and to his credit, its main message seems to be, “these are some sick tunes.” Even that might be a little too strong, as Scanners is characterized by a persistent sense of confident cool, consistently opting for vibey, no-frills grooves over elaborate sound design and attention-grabbing bells and whistles. The highlights are numerous, as Naples is one of the few house / techno producers who thrives in the album format, but “Mushy”—the only song on the record that might qualify as rowdy—stands out with its brawny beat and retro synth tones, which sound like they were sourced from Atari-era arcade games.
Dubbel Dutch “Perfect Storm” (Rare Earth Tones)
Trance Plants is the name of Dubbel Dutch’s latest release, but its contents are far more indebted to the elastic rhythms of classic grime than anything Tiësto ever did. Rooted in project files the now-Hawaii-based producer rescued earlier this year from a discarded laptop, the record not surprisingly recalls the wildly creative bass music that was coming out of North America during the first half of the 2010s, when artists like Nguzunguzu, Kingdom, Sinjin Hawke and Dubbel Dutch himself were playfully infusing the hardcore continuum with elements of dancehall, hip-hop, Latin music and East Coast club sounds of all shapes and sizes. What’s truly impressive though is that listening to Trance Plants never feels like a retro experience; these tunes still sound like the future, and the standout “Perfect Storm” powers its time machine with neon synths, twitchy, high-stepping drums and precision-guided blasts of chest-rattling bass.
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.)
Until next time,
Shawn
Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn and Instagram—and make sure to follow First Floor on Instagram as well—or you can just drop Shawn an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.