First Floor #268 – Someone Has to Ask the Hard Questions
The impotence of the traditional music press, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh crop of new track recommendations.
I’ll be honest. I don’t really have the energy to talk much more about Sónar. The festival officially kicks off today, literally within walking distance of my home here in Barcelona, but I won’t be attending. I’m not going to rehash all the reasons why—if you have no idea what I’m talking about, feel free to get caught up here and here—but the previously announced BDS boycott is still in place, and while several more artists have dropped out in recent days, it says a lot that Sama’ Abdulhadi, who was the only Palestinian on the line-up, officially cancelled earlier this week.
Watching all of this unfold has been disappointing, to say the least, especially because so much of the “discourse” has taken place via social media. As I wrote in an essay published earlier this week, the actual media has largely sat on the sidelines, repackaging manicured PR statements and Instagram posts as “news” while providing almost zero reporting and analysis. Providing real accountability, it seems, has disappeared from most publications’ priority lists, and in an era where tech platforms, international corporations and investment capital are aggressively moving into and reshaping the music realm, the traditional media’s refusal to dig deeper doesn’t bode well for the future of culture.
You’ll find a link to that aforementioned essay below (and yes, the paywall is currently down), but there’s also a lot more inside today’s First Floor digest. News items, new release announcements, suggested reading links, track recommendations … all the usual goodies are below, and I’ve also recruited experimental sound artist doris dana to deliver a special guest recommendation.
As always, there’s a lot going on in the world of electronic music, 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 which examines the behavior of the modern-day music press. Faced with a music landscape that’s increasingly dominated by corporate actors and unethical business practices, traditional outlets are some of the only places with the resources to dig deeper into what’s going on and uncover some dirt. So why are they seemingly unwilling or unable to ask the questions that need asking?
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.
Despite the fact that more music is being released now than ever before, the number of music reviews being published has shrunk dramatically in recent years. First Floor published an entire essay about this last year, and while reviews have nonetheless continued to dwindle at many outlets, DJ Mag shared a bit of positive news this week. After several years of only publishing reviews in the print magazine, the site’s editorial team announced that it would once again be publishing those reviews online, along with additional web-exclusive reviews of albums, compilations, singles and EPs. The newly expanded online reviews section can be viewed here.
Journalist Philip Sherburne had a busy week on the interview front. In his Futurism Restated newsletter, he published a long-form talk with FaltyDL about the “sugar rush” at the heart of the Brooklyn-based producer’s forthcoming album for Planet Mu. And then for Pitchfork, he chatted with ambient / dub techno outfit Purelink, getting the skinny on the group’s humble Midwestern beginnings and exploratory approach.
Avalon Emerson has been named Beatportal’s Artist of the Month, and in the accompanying feature, she talks to writer Ben Jolley about her Perpetual Emotion Machine single series and what it’s been like to move between writing songs with her band and touring the world as a celebrated club DJ. (Full disclosure: Emerson and I work together on the Buy Music Club platform.)
Steffi and Virginia—who recently dropped a new album via Dekmantel—relocated from Berlin to rural Portugal a few years back. The life they’ve constructed there has always sounded pretty amazing, at least in interviews, but a new DJ Mag profile by April Clare Welsh, which steps directly into the duo’s home and studio, paints a picture of an existence that seems downright idyllic.
In a new Black Sky Thinking essay for The Quietus, writer Dan McCarthy takes a look at an intriguing proposal in the UK, where it’s been suggested that a £1 levy be placed on all tickets to major stadium and arena concerts. That money would then be funneled back to small venues around the country. As McCarthy points out, the idea seems to have widespread support, particularly within the independent music sector, yet he also talks to people who caution that the proposed levy shouldn’t be viewed as a cure-all solution.
Written by music tech and research executive Rufy Ghazi, a new article in Attack takes a data-driven (albeit somewhat scattershot) look at modern-day DJ economics, pointing out that the explosion in the number of DJs hasn’t led to a similar level of growth in the quantity of available DJ gigs. As a result, the DJ circuit has become more competitive than ever before, and Ghazi examines how succeeding in that system now often comes down to who can best navigate changing market dynamics.
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.
Fresh off her acclaimed Body Shell EP for Tempa, not to mention her recent First Floor interview, Carré has unveiled plans for another new release. Linking up with Irish dubstep label Woozy, the London-based former Angeleno will soon be bringing Meltdown into the world. The record features remixes from dBridge and NVST, and though the EP is slated to arrive on June 27, its low-slung title track has already been shared.
Returning to his Daphni alias for the first time since 2022, Dan Snaith (a.k.a. Caribou) this week dropped a new standalone single, “Sad Piano House,” via his own Jiaolong imprint. Both the original version and an “Extended Mix” are available now, as is the song’s accompanying music video.
Félicia Atkinson has a new release on the way. Billed as a “sound meditation recorded with a Nord keyboard during winter while thinking of spring,” it’s entitled Promenades, and the French ambient / experimental artist will be issuing it on June 20 through her own Shelter Press label. Ahead of that, the song “Green” has already been made available.
Celebrating its 10th birthday in style, the Timedance label—which is headed up by Bristol bass mainstay Batu—has assembled a 23-track compilation called TD10. Featuring contributions from Skee Mask, JASSS, Verraco, Marco Shuttle, Ayesha, Bambounou, Minor Science and many, many more, its contents are said to be held together by a “shared affinity for bassweight presence and vibrant, three-dimensional production.” October 10 is the official release date, but one track, Pearson Sound’s “Zoomies,” is out now.
DORIS DANA 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 doris dana, a Colombian-born experimental sound artist who’s logged time in Los Angeles, spent many years in Miami and is currently based in Durham, North Carolina. Though much of her work—both solo and as one half of the group bad lsd trips, alongside domingo castillo flores—might technically fall into the ambient category, her penchant for humid textures, crackling sonic detritus and slippery vocal refrains means that her songs aren’t likely to quietly loom in the background. doris dana records—including last year’s excellent reveries on Somewhere Press and bad lsd trips’ more recent ultrafest on enmossed—aren’t without beauty, but they do tend to be tactile, even visceral, routinely challenging the norms of genre as they boldly venture into the haziest of territory. A similarly adventurous spirit flows through the track she’s highlighted below, which also happens to be the first single from a new album by a seductive duo out of Bilbao, Spain.
Intensidades Ortega “Isabelle Adjani” (Eclectic Reactions)
I recently came across “Isabelle Adjani” and it completely pulled me in. The track is a haunting nod to Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 film Possession, and listening to it felt like accidentally stepping into a secret ritual—eerie, intimate and impossible to look away from. Savina and Ander’s processed vocals have this seductive, otherworldly quality, floating over synths thick with tension, while the steady, hypnotic percussion keeps you locked in. It all comes together like a fever dream—mystical, beautifully strange and emotionally raw.
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.
D. Tiffany “Heaven Tomorrow” (Weaponise Your Sound / Optimo)
One of those artists who’s always been tough to pin down, D. Tiffany has hopped between trance, prog, house, electro, breakbeat and more over the course of her decade-long career. On her new Each Morning EP, the Canadian producer once again creeps into new sonic territory, offering up a six-track collection that’s more indebted to swirly goth-pop and the trippy sounds of ’90s chillout rooms than anything you’d expect to hear on a pumping dancefloor. To her credit, D. Tiffany appears rather comfortable in her dreamy new digs, most notably on EP closer “Heaven Tomorrow,” where she layers rich strings and operatic vocal clips atop a moody post-punk bassline, ultimately landing in a zone that’s reminiscent of The Cure’s first few albums.
Civilistjävel! x Mayssa Jallad “Holiday Inn (January to March) (Version)” (Six of Swords)
Breaking down the narrative of Mayssa Jallad’s acclaimed Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels album was complicated to begin with—pulling from her work in urban research and architectural history, the 2023 LP referenced both the Lebanese civil war and a conflict between dueling high-rises in Beirut—and now another chapter has been added to the story. Born out of an online correspondence that gradually blossomed into a more robust collaboration, the new Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels (Versions) provides an entirely new take on the source material, with Jallad’s emotive, Arab-language vocals now nestled among the dubby crevices and austere gloom of Civilistjävel!’s slow-burning sonics. Funnily enough, “Holiday Inn (January to March) (Version)” is one of the LP’s more propulsive tracks, but it’s still a satisfyingly meditative number, the power of its foreboding bass drones and static-kissed percussive pulses enhanced by the beauty and emotional vulnerability of Jallad’s voice.
Lucy Gooch “Keep Pulling Me In” (Fire)
Who likes Kate Bush? It’s a safe bet that Lucy Gooch does, as she’s filled her debut album, Desert Window, with the same sort of avant-pop songcraft and eccentric vocal oddities that made a record like Hounds of Love such an unforgettable classic. All that said, Gooch shouldn’t be mistaken for some sort of lazy soundalike, as she’s carved out a warm space of her own by leaning into acoustic folk instrumentation, ethereal sonics and multi-layered, choir-like vocal arrangements. That space is especially inviting on LP highlight “Keep Pulling Me In,” where her tender wordplay, lilting melodies and patient piano notes coalesce into what sounds like both an R&B-flavored lullaby and a long-lost track from Homogenic-era Björk.
Jolanda Moletta and Karen Vogt “Body in the shadows, face in the light” (quiet details)
Having already impressed with their debut collaboration for (the now sadly defunct) Longform Editions, Suspended Between Worlds, Jolanda Moletta and Karen Vogt have now linked up with the quiet details label to deliver a more expansive suite of celestial textures and majestically disembodied vocals. Sea-swallowed Wands is the name of the album, and while the whole thing makes for a spellbinding listen, the cathedral-ready “Body in shadows, face in the light” is an excellent entry point. In it, the free-floating vocals of Moletta and Vogt engage in a delicate dance, their wordless tones drenched in glittering reverb and dripping with emotion.
Jake Muir “Changes” (enmossed)
Not many artists could shift their focus from gay bathhouses to church bells without completely losing the plot, but Berlin-based sound artist Jake Muir has done just that, following up the illbient sleaze of 2023’s celebrated Bathhouse Blues with the devotional grandeur of his new Campana Sonans LP. While the former relied upon samples and soundtracks from gay porn as source material, Muir’s latest work was built using field recordings that he collected in both England and Germany. Those recordings were then sliced, diced, stretched, manipulated and sewn back together (along with a healthy amount of reverb), resulting in two long-form pieces that both clock in around 20 minutes in length.
Considering that church bells have been captivating believers and non-believers alike for more than a millennium, it’s no surprise that Campana Sonans is an arresting listen. But on a deeper level, it’s also a document of cultural disintegration and the waning role of religion in daily life. One might expect a gay man like Muir to celebrate such a development, but “Changes”—the album’s second piece, which pulls from sounds recorded in the UK and also incorporates the voices of actual bell ringers—feels almost wistful, its glittering tones and complex melodic patterns offering a reminder that even the most historically heinous institutions can sometimes produce moments of remarkable beauty.
Purelink “Kite Scene” (Peak Oil)
Yes, all of your friends who don’t really like electronic music that much—the same ones who were probably very excited about Two Shell a couple of years ago—have now decided that Purelink is the next big thing. Yes, all of the dance music publications that were gleefully championing the post-pandemic explosion of gabber and Vengaboys edits have now pivoted to creativite sincerity and smudgy ambient, casually dropping references to the Click & Cuts series as if they’d been into this stuff all along. Yes, all of that is profoundly annoying, but it’s not Purelink’s fault.
The NYC trio—who by all accounts are three chill music nerds that first connected in Chicago—have unwittingly been caught up in a hype wave they had no direct hand in instigating, and while that sort of attention often goes straight to artists’ heads, Purelink have not only stayed grounded, but furthered their craft. Faith is the trio’s second full-length, and its underlying rhythms are positively subterranean, maneuvering through gauzy clouds of reverb, soft static and gravity-defying melody. They’ve also added some vocals to the mix (Loraine James guests on “Rookie,” while poet Angelina Nonaj contributes to “First Iota”), but they’re at their best on the instrumental “Kite Scene,” a patient, pillow-soft cruiser that’s perfect for gliding off to another plane of consciousness—or simply zoning out on the couch at 4 o’clock in the morning.
Space Dimension Controller “Island Eye” (Test Pressing)
Given that many of his earliest works involved imaginary tales of electro-funk space pirates, it’s fair to say that the music of Space Dimension Controller has never really been tethered to solid ground. On his latest EP, Six Beginnings, the Belfast native—who’s currently based in Amsterdam—still has his head in the clouds, but they’re the sort of fluffy cumulus formations you see floating by on a summer afternoon by the pool. With its slo-mo acid jams and quasi-Balearic groovers, the record is one of the most chilled things he’s ever done, and the standout “Island Eye” puts an exquisitely funky spin on trip-hop, the song’s wonky warbles transporting the genre from the grey streets of Bristol to the sunny shores of Mallorca.
Vivian Koch & Dean Grenier “Embrace” (Handworks)
Less than three months have passed since Dean Grenier kicked off his Handworks label with the unabashedly proggy Stars Apart, but with last week’s release of Embrace—a collaboration with Vivian Koch, and only the third official offering from the young imprint—it seems that the LA-based producer is channeling the spirit of all those who spent the ’90s going to moonlit raves and listening to Sasha & Digweed’s Northern Exposure series. The original “Embrace”—the record also features a beatless “Sky Version”—is borderline luxurious, its 1000-thread count melodies practically glowing as they elegantly glide across the stereo field. Add in a chugging rhythm that’s steady but unobtrusive, and this one is primed to keep even the most spaced-out ravers engaged until the sun comes up.
So Oishi “Artemis” (Something Happening Somewhere)
Much of So Oishi’s new Herbology EP deals in broken beats and psychedelic atmospheres, its tripped-out undulations seemingly inspired by both shamanic rituals and the more adventurous corners of new age. Yet the Japanese producer does occasionally wander into the club, and does so rather effectively on the bewitching highlight “Artemis.” With its glistening chimes, the song definitely has some progressive house in its DNA, but So Oishi has also given it a distinctly sci-fi feel, adorning its underlying pulse with vintage synth wiggles and some whistling textures that sound like freshly lit bottle rockets.
Impérieux “Saat” (Hessle Audio)
Considering that Hessle Audio is responsible for bringing Objekt’s brain-breaking “Cactus” into the world, it’s no small thing to say that the label’s latest offering, Impérieux’s Fena EP, is one of the delightfully weirdest things the revered UK outpost has ever released. What’s even more impressive is that the Berlin-based producer has managed to put his own freaky spin on genres like house, techno and 2-step without reducing their dancefloor potency. The clap-happy standout “Saat” marches around the room like a perked-up army cadet, but its upright stomp is soon joined by twinkling synths, the sound of barking dogs and a bizarre, pitch-shifted vocal exchange that sounds like two people who inhaled a bunch of helium and decided to improvise an alien language on the spot. On paper, maybe all of that sounds a bit insane, and it is, but in the context of a dance music landscape where it often feels like every single genre permutation has already been tried and codified, it’s refreshing to hear something that sounds—and feels—genuinely original.
Will Hofbauer “Rolling in the Ooze” (Aus)
London producer Will Hofbauer has always had a playful streak. (Need proof? The whirm label he runs alongside Sangre Voss spent much of 2024 leading listeners on a goofy sort of scavenger hunt.) On his new Do Not Eat EP, however, some of his usual hijinks take a back seat. The music is still fun—his heavy reliance on bulbous, rubbery basslines has a lot to do with that—but this time it’s been delivered in the form of relatively straightforward house grooves. That’s not a bad thing; the record might be the most functional thing in Hofbauer’s catalog, and EP highlight “Rolling in the Ooze” is a confident strutter, its bashy beats flanked by space-age synths and a beefy, waffling bassline that practically says, “I’m here for a good time, but don’t mess with me.”
Death in Vegas “Hazel” (Drone)
Having spent the past three decades connecting the dots between Detroit techno, UK industrial, tweaky acid, snarling rock & roll and hazy psychedelia, Richard Fearless has returned to his Death in Vegas moniker for the first time in seven years, funneling his love of gloriously unpolished machine music into a new album, Death Mask. Though it moves through a variety of sounds and tempos, it’s held together by the London artist’s passion for static and squall, and truly hits its stride on the hard-charging “Hazel.” A relentless bit of soulfully haunted techno, the track pays homage to Terrence Dixon and Cabaret Voltaire alike, its furious drum strikes trailed by hypnotic tendrils of analog crunch.
Anja Schneider “Hauss” (Sous)
Another figure who’s spent decades moving through the various nooks and crannies of dance music, Anja Schneider has gone back to basics on her new Streets of Berlin EP. Though she’s described it as a tribute to the city she calls home, its contents actually sound a lot more like the classic house and techno sounds of Chicago and Detroit, borrowing heavily from the aesthetics of the late ’80s and early ‘90s. That doesn’t mean Schneider was mistaken; in many ways, Berlin has historically supported these genres far more passionately than the US ever has, but EP standout “Hauss” nonetheless sounds like a souped-up take on a formula that Lil Louis perfected with “French Kiss” all the way back in 1989. Those similarities aside, it’s a potent tune, and one whose pulsing synths and cooing vocal refrains are sure to put a smile on the face of everyone in earshot.
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.