First Floor #264 – Money Talks
The inescapable business-ification of dance music, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh crop of new track recommendations.
I never really liked the term “business techno.” When it first started making the rounds in the late 2010s, I obviously saw that it was a clever way to take a jab at certain strains of dance music, most often the ones were thriving in places like Ibiza and Tulum and on the whole felt like a total perversion of the culture’s DIY roots and humble origins. But as the term began to spread through the discourse, the vibe around it quickly soured, as what began as a kind of witty shorthand started to feel more like a tool of moral grandstanding, a too-easy way to not only mock those who were supposedly doing dance music the “wrong” way, but to couch the insults in the language of sociopolitical critique.
Some of that can be chalked up to the depressing norms of online existence, and the many ways that the internet actively incentivizes outlandish statements and mean-spirited behavior. Avoiding that is all but impossible these days, but when it comes to “business techno,” there’s something else about the term that always bothered me: the blatant hypocrisy of many of those who use it. Dropping the words “business techno” into a meme or angry tweet might be good for a cheap laugh, but it also requires actively ignoring that many of the tastemaker-approved artists, releases and scenes that are showered with praise are just as craven and capitalistic as the stuff that gets gleefully skewered online.
The professionalization of electronic music’s so-called “underground” began long before the term “business techno” went into circulation, and the truth is that most of us did virtually nothing to stop it, even as budgets became bloated and the presence of brands and corporate investors became largely normalized in the culture. Dance music isn’t alone in that—independent culture everywhere has been steamrolled by the unrelenting march of capital—but it is unique in the sense that its prevailing rhetoric continues to act as though the genre and its attendant culture are still bastions of not just progressive thought, but progressive action.
The reality on the ground, however, is far less encouraging, and at this point, the “business” tag might as well be applied to the whole dance music ecosystem.
That disparity is at the heart of an essay I published earlier this week. You’ll find that below—and yes, the paywall on it is currently down—and while I can’t say it’s a feel-good read, the remainder of today’s First Floor digest does take a much more positive turn. Great new music thankfully continues to be abundant, and after trawling through the avalanche of releases that dropped during the past week, I’ve assembled a batch of high-quality new track recommendations. And speaking of recommendations, I’ve also recruited Somewhere Press label co-founder Tim Dalzell to pop in with a special guest selection. Elsewhere in today’s digest, you’ll find news items, new release announcements and suggested reading links—basically everything you’ll need to get caught up on all of the latest happenings in the world of electronic music.
There’s 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 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 essay examining how the economic success of dance music has bled into the culture itself, sidelining artistic and musical concerns as artists, labels, festivals and other entities seek to maximize profits and protect their investments.
ANOTHER THING I DID
For the German speakers out there, last week I was interviewed by music journalist Aida Baghernejad—you may remember her First Floor guest recommendation from last year—as part of a show called Breitband on German public radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur. The segment, which can be found here (and begins around the 26-minute mark), focuses on how AI technology is impacting music discovery, and includes a lot of references to my recent First Floor essay, “The Fracturing of The Music Internet.”
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.
Following a report by tech publication Futurism that highlighted how a recent update to SoundCloud’s terms of service seemingly allows the platform to use artists’ content to train AI, the company quickly went into damage-control mode. A statement sent to The Verge said that, “SoundCloud has never used artist content to train AI models, nor do we develop AI tools or allow third parties to scrape or use SoundCloud content from our platform for AI training purposes.” That, however, didn’t pacify critics—many of whom pointed out that the company didn’t explicitly rule out using artists’ music for AI training in the future—so yesterday, CEO Eliah Seton published a new statement explaining that the Terms of Use are being “fixed,” and also offered a “formal commitment that any use of AI on SoundCloud will be based on consent, transparency and artist control.”
Joy Orbison doesn’t do a lot of interviews, and when he does talk to the press, the focus is usually (and understandably) on dance music. But in a new conversation with Reed Jackson for Passion of the Weiss, the UK artist speaks at length about his relationship with rap and grime, both past and present.
Few acts are better poised to recommend old techno records than Slam, and with the Scottish duo having just released a new album called Dark Channel—more on that later in today’s newsletter—they were asked by Clash to compile a list of classic tunes that shaped their musical vision.
Speaking of classic tunes, few drum & bass tracks are more iconic than Adam F’s “Circles,” and in a new DJ Mag feature, Ben Hindle lays out how the 1997 song came to be, and how it’s managed to endure for nearly three decades.
Fresh off the release of her new Dead Loop tape—which, full disclosure, was released by my wife Dania’s Paralaxe Editions label—Flora Yin Wong has been interviewed by Stephan Kunze for his zensounds newsletter. Their conversation focuses not just on the banned gymnastic maneuver that (not kidding) inspired her new cassette, but the London artist’s winding journey through experimental and electronic music.
Did you know that there’s a club hidden between the runways of Tokyo’s Narita International airport? It’s called Kinone Pension, and a new Resident Advisor article by Kim Kahan tells the story of this unusual venue, which surprisingly dates back several decades and is linked to larger protest movements against the Japanese government.
Even among in-the-know dance music fans, knowledge of Portuguese batida music—a homegrown offshoot of Angolan kuduro and kizomba—is usually limited to what’s happening with a single Lisbon-based label, Príncipe. In a piece for Bandcamp Daily, journalist Joseph Francis digs deeper into the genre, highlighting its extended network of contributors, along with some of the other labels and online outposts where the music can be found.
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.
Nick León has completed his highly anticipated debut album. Partially inspired by Joan Didion’s novel Miami and described as “an exploration of decay, disillusionment and psychedelia,” the LP is called A Tropical Entropy, and it features guest appearances from Jonny from Space, Esty & Mediopicky, Lavum, Casey MQ, Erika de Casier and Ela Minus. The latter appears on first single “Ghost Orchid,” which is available now, and the full release will drop on June 27 via TraTraTrax.
Following more than a decade of silence, Black Sites—the collaborative project of Helena Hauff and F#X—is poised to return with their first full-length. Entitled R4, it was apparently “recorded to tape with minimal editing or post-production,” and though it’s scheduled for a June 27 release via Tresor, LP track “FLIKK” is available now.
Following the release of the acclaimed Pattern Gardening compilation, the lovably playful UK label Wisdom Teeth this week announced that its next offering will be a new LP from co-founder Facta. Slated to arrive on June 20, it’s said to combine bits of “minimal, tech house, UK soundsystem music, ambient electronica, dub and more,” and the song “BDB” has already been shared.
2024 was the year that Mia Koden fully established herself as one of UK bass music’s most promising talents, but her 2025 had been relatively quiet to date, at least on the production front. That changed yesterday, when the London producer self-released a surprise new EP, Keep it steppin'. It’s available in full now.
Ambient / experimental guitarist Jonny Nash has a new album on the way. Described as the musical equivalent of a “slow-moving sunset,” Once Was Ours Forever includes contributions from Satomimagae, Tomo Katsurada, Shoei Ikeda
and Joseph Shabason. The LP is due to surface on July 4 via the Amsterdam-based Scotsman’s own Melody As Truth imprint, but two tracks from the record can already be heard here.After debuting on the fabric Originals imprint last year, Bristol mainstay Hodge will soon be returning to the label with a new two-tracker, Smoke Screen / Bumper. The vocal-driven A-side, which was apparently made in the days following his set at the 2024 edition of Glastonbury, has already been shared, and the full release will arrive on June 6.
Closing a cycle that began with the release of last year’s Everything Changes, Nothing Ends—an LP born out of his wife’s untimely passing—veteran British producer and International Feel founder Mark Barrott has prepared a two-track coda, Berlin / Pankow. Inspired by the German capital, a place his wife loved dearly, the release is out now via Ajunachill.
TIM DALZELL 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 Tim Dalzell, a Glasgow-based music aficionado who sometimes DJs under the name caapi, but is probably best known as the co-founder of the impeccably curated Somewhere Press label. Home to releases from artists like Chantal Michelle, Man Rei, Florian T M Zeisig (under a couple of different aliases), Slowfoam and doris dana, Somewhere Press has quickly established itself as an essential outpost for ambient, experimental and avant-pop sounds. That alone is impressive enough, but Dalzell last year launched a separate label, blush, which is dedicated to lo-fi haze (much of it guitar-oriented) and the intimate possibilities of unpolished bedroom pop. Released earlier this month, the excellent shadow garden compilation could be seen as a sort of blush mission statement, and as the recommendation below makes clear, Dalzell’s love of DIY “guitar music” isn’t limited to the present.
Giradioses “Corazón TV” (Nahuelito)
My partner and I have this ongoing joke that “guitar is back” whenever we hear a new iteration or revival of indie / post-rock / shoegaze. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but also hints at something true, in that every few years I seem to return to “guitar music” (from electronic-focused listening), finding new things I love.
It’s often prompted by new mutations of these genres, but what's equally fascinating is the strange, overlooked music on the periphery of older scenes or moments. This bit of ’90s Argentinian shoegaze is the perfect example: a lavish, 12-minute jam with dreamy, ethereal vocals, spacey guitar and stoned drums, lagging a fraction behind time. It's all a little unpolished in the most endearing way, nonchalant and blissed out.
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.
P6 “Heat Wave Riddim” (Soundway)
DJ Demafidem “On Di Road” (Soundway)
Bad Sound & DJ Marfox “Both Twanche Riddim” (Soundway)
Ransum “Walk It Riddim” (Soundway)
The most exciting dance music release of 2025 dropped last week, and it has basically nothing to do with what’s happening in cities like Berlin, London and New York—and the litany of other scenes around the world that seem hellbent on mimicking those places. As the title implies, Road Fever: New Generation Carnival Riddims from St. Lucia and Dominica is focused on the party sounds and soundsystem lineage of three specific islands in the Caribbean, but what those words can’t quite convey is the degree to which the compilation’s contents blast out of speakers from the record’s very first moments. Painstakingly assembled by Amsterdam-based, Curaçao-raised artist Rozaly, Road Fever showcases high-energy, high-velocity (i.e. 150+ bpm) genres like dennery segment and bouyon, and while those terms are likely unfamiliar to most people outside the Caribbean, they fold in elements of dancehall, soca, kuduro, batida, konpa, trap and drill.
Originally made for vocalists over the course of more than a decade—the oldest selection on the compilation dates back to 2012—these riddims are relatively economical affairs, yet their fleet-footed drum patterns and sample-pack sound palettes feel not just vibrant, but profoundly alive. P6’s standout “Heat Wave Riddim” could soundtrack an anime set in the Caribbean, while DJ Demafidem’s hyperactive, horn-filled “On Di Road” recalls the percussive mayhem of South African shangaan electro. Portuguese producer and longtime Príncipe affiliate DJ Marfox teams up with St. Lucia’s Bad Sound on the muscular strut of “Both Twanche Riddim,” and Ransum’s “Walk It Riddim” takes a breezier approach, pairing its high-stepping shuffle with dancing string flourishes and sparkling, almost crystalline synths. Those are just a few of the high points; with 14 tracks (and 11 more on the digital version), Road Fever is a genuine thrill, and any one of its songs will instantly make a dance party not just more interesting, but a whole lot more fun.
Xylitol “Nevada” (Planet Mu)
One might assume that a compilation celebrating Planet Mu’s three decades of existence would be highlighted by songs from some of the label’s many stalwart artists. And while it’s true that folks like Jlin, RP Boo, Luke Vibert, FaltyDL, Venetian Snares and µ-Ziq (a.k.a. founder Mike Paradinas) all make quality contributions to Planet Mu 30, it’s a relatively new addition to the imprint, Xylitol, who steals the show. The UK artist’s 2024 LP, Anemones, established her as a sort of outsider jungle savant, and the kinetic “Nevada” continues down that path, cribbing a few notes from the IDM playbook as its twitchy Amen breaks intermingle with a dazzling array of melodic arpeggios. Not many artists can bring a proper low-end ruckus while also serving up a psychedelic head trip, but Xylitol increasingly appears to be a very special talent.
Slam “Beat on the Drum” (Soma)
With nearly 35 years of releases under their belt, Slam could easily phone it in at this point, cruising along on their reputation and the fond memories of aging ravers whose formative party experiences were soundtracked by the vaunted Scottish duo. “Beat on the Drum,” however, is not the sound of two guys ready to settle into rave retirement. A highlight of their new Dark Channel full-length, it’s a thundering, percussion-driven cut, and though its rolling drum patterns instantly trigger thoughts of Plastikman’s “Spastik”—one of the most celebrated techno anthems of all time—its shifty, stop-and-start composition also recalls some of Jeff Mills’ best work. In other words, this tune is big with a capital B, and while nobody’s really been asking whether or not Slam have still got it, “Beat on the Drum” has provided a definitive answer before anyone even thought to raise the question.
Sciahri “Two Letters” (Sublunar)
Right around this time last year, First Floor sung the praises of “One Letter,” a track from Sciahri’s Pareidolia II EP, and it seems that the Italian producer has slipped a sequel of sorts onto his newly issued Pareidolia III. Is the hardgroove craze over? Let’s hope not, because much like its predecessor, “Two Letters” is a potent bruiser. Loopy without being overly repetitive and brawny without being aggressive, the track is essentially a taut exercise in funk-infused techno, and its hazy vocal snippets lend the proceedings an alluring tinge of mystery.
Baron Von Trax “If I Only Knew” (Running Back)
At this point, even the most ardent Running Back fans must occasionally wonder if the label will someday tire of Italo-house hybrids with a distinctly ’80s flair. It hasn’t happened yet, but in all honesty, as long as the German outpost continues to offer up gems like Baron Von Trax’s “If I Only Knew”—a highlight of the new One Swallow Doesn't Make A Summer Part 8 compilation EP—there’s no real need to change course. (And to be fair, Running Back’s extensive catalog includes all sorts of house tunes, many of which would never be mistaken for castoffs from the Miami Vice soundtrack.) With its jaunty strings and gleaming synths, “If I Only Knew” has a palpable sense of drama, and also seems like a pretty good answer to the question, “What if Giorgio Moroder had produced a track for Duran Duran?”
Andrea “Testify” (Ilian Tape)
What is Andrea’s new Living Room LP all about? The Italian producer hasn’t yet offered many clues, and neither have his longtime associates at the Ilian Tape label, which last week dropped the record into the world without prior warning. The album’s title seems to indicate that the music is more suited to cozy home listening than sweaty nights at the club, and that hypothesis holds up across its 12 tracks, which dip into cosmic ambient, jazzy boom-bap, playfully spasming IDM and garage-adjacent constructions. “Testify” falls into the latter category, and though its prevailing mood is calm, Andrea’s drum programming is actually quite nimble, his percussive hits darting to and fro amidst the song’s wonky bassline and woozily soulful chords.
J. Albert “Warped Mirror” (Self-released)
If Actress had done a record for Perlon back in the day, it very well could have sounded like “Warped Mirror,” the scratchily pulsing high point of J. Albert’s new Return to Sender album. It’s tempting to lump the record in with the current hubbub around the supposed return of minimal and microhouse sounds, but the NYC-based artist has been stripping things back for years now, embracing the possibilities of “less is more” long before his peers began to grow weary of garish, post-pandemic excess. Bathed in digital static and built atop late-night grooves, his music has an almost tactile quality, especially on “Warped Mirror,” where the song’s cragged textures flutter alongside a quietly thumping bassline that sounds like it’s been submerged in the deep end of a nearby pool.
Wrecked Lightship “Reeling Mist” (Peak Oil)
Like many low-end-centric projects these days, UK duo Wrecked Lightship defy easy genre categorization, extracting elements of their heavy-lidded sound from up and down the hardcore continuum. Bits of drone, techno and breakbeat are also tossed into the pot on their new Drained Strands release, which deals heavily in scuttling rhythms and reverb-smeared textures. The standout “Reeling Mist” is dotted with the same sort of hazy murk, but at its core, it’s a slow-brewing dubstep cut, albeit one whose bassy groans are characterized by a sort of stoned regality.
Vanta “A Place Between Life and Death” (IO)
A techno-ish artist with a penchant for haunted sound design and skittering rhythms, Vanta sounds as though he’s taking cues from Sandwell District and Ilian Tape alike, his moves through the darkness unburdened by strict adherence to any particular tempo or genre formula. His latest release, Between Life and Death, contains both jagged drone excursions (“This Is Where I Lay to Rest”) and hard-charging dancefloor cuts that sound like they’re tunneling into the Earth’s inner crust (“Void”), but what holds the LP’s contents together is the record’s ever-present sense of dread and melancholy. Things gets especially moody on “A Place Between Life and Death,” and while the song’s scampering, almost insectoid drum patterns do prevent full-blown despair from setting in, even hard-hearted listeners are sure to be drawn in by the forlorn tinkling of the song’s piano melodies.
Adam Badí Donoval “a mirror where the image and the mirror wholly coincided” (mappa)
Behind the scenes, Adam Badí Donoval—a mixing and mastering engineer who also heads up the excellent, Bratislava-based Warm Winters Ltd. imprint—has long been one of experimental electronic music’s most consistent champions of artists and labels from Central and Eastern Europe. And while much of his time is spent helping others get their foot in the door, he’s also quietly established his own music as a must-listen proposition. His debut album, Sometimes Life Is Hard And So We Should Help Each Other, dropped via The Trilogy Tapes back in 2022, and now Donoval has followed it up with a mirror where the image and the mirror wholly coincided, an effort in which his waterlogged loops and persistent tape hiss coalesce into what might be described as a series of glorious dirges. The highlights are numerous, but the LP’s title track is the most immediately affecting selection, its warbling fragments hypnotically repeating over and over again as they slowly disintegrate into a puddle of aural sludge.
Kara-Lis Coverdale “The Placid Illusion” (Smalltown Supersound)
A full eight years removed from her last solo full-length, Kara-Lis Coverdale has returned with From Where You Came, an album the Canadian artist bills as “a series of nocturnal transmissions, altered-state refinements and vivid stories.” More importantly, it’s an LP on which the Canadian composer elegantly—and seamlessly—weaves together the organic and the electronic, her synthesis chops intermingling with the often spotlessly clean sounds of classical string, brass and woodwind instrumentation. Orchestral but never stuffy, Coverdale’s compositions are weightless and uncluttered, and while the standout “The Placid Illusion” may have been conceived in a bout of nighttime rumination, the song itself is full of light, its Steve Reich-ian tones phasing in and out with the grace of a swan gliding across an idyllic pond.
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.