First Floor #269 – Following the Conversation
Instagram takes over the discourse, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh batch of new track recommendations.
Before we get started, a quick scheduling reminder. First Floor usually publishes long-form pieces on Tuesdays and the weekly digest (i.e. the round-up of news, recommendations, etc.) on Thursdays, but due to some travel plans, things shifted slightly last week. Long story short, the digest below is going to be this week’s only newsletter mailout, but First Floor’s normal publishing schedule will resume next Tuesday, July 1. Apologies for the disruption!
Tomorrow I’ll be traveling for more than 24 hours straight, so at the moment I’m admittedly a little more focused on packing my suitcase than the current state of electronic music. (The looming specter of another war in the Middle East isn’t helping my concentration either.) And considering that much of the active conversation about electronic music now seems to be unfolding on Instagram—a phenomenon I examined in a First Floor essay last week—the idea of taking a little break from the discourse does sound awfully appealing, even if it’s just a temporary thing while I’m shuffling between airports.
All that said, of course there’s still a ton of stuff happening in the electronic music realm. That Instagram-related essay I mentioned before? You’ll find that below—and yes, the paywall has been (temporarily) taken down. Elsewhere, the usual firehose of news items and upcoming release announcements continues to blast across the culture at a borderline frightening pace, and while today’s First Floor digest can’t list them all, it does round up many of the most interesting developments, and sprinkles in some suggested reading links and new track recommendations for good measure. And just to make sure that today’s newsletter is absolutely busting with content, I’ve also recruited Bay Area bass diehard Only Now to stop by with a special guest recommendation.
Let’s get started.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Every week, 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 highlighting the degree to which contemporary music conversation has moved to Instagram. That conversation includes much of the content being published by the traditional music media, and while the press has for years used social media as a promotional tool, publications are now increasingly taking cues from online influencers and creating stuff that’s specifically designed to live (and, more importantly, stoke engagement) on Instagram. This article looks at why this is happening, and considers what effect this shift is having on not just the content being made, but those tasked with making it.
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.
In a fresh installment of “news stories that reaffirm just how much the music industry is full of ethically dubious people,” it was announced last week that Prima Materia—an investment firm founded by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in 2020—was leading a new, €600 million funding round for German drone maker and AI defense company Helsing. This follows Prima Materia’s initial €100 million investment into Helsing back in 2021, and Ek stated that his firm is now “doubling down” with an eye toward developing “advanced technologies that ensure [Europe’s] strategic autonomy and security readiness.” Having cashed out more than €800 million of Spotify stock since 2023, he now appears to be focused on much more than streaming, telling the Financial Times that “it’s really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield.” Furthermore, while Ek expects draw criticism for this latest financial maneuver, he stated that he’s ultimately “not concerned” about a potential boycott of Spotify because he’s “100% convinced that this is the right thing for Europe.”
Elsewhere in the streaming world, Deezer is grappling with the growing impact of AI-generated music. Back in April, the French company said that it was “receiving over 20,000 fully AI-generated tracks on a daily basis,” which constituted about 18% of all content uploaded to the platform. And according to a follow-up announcement last week, it seems that “around 70%” of the streams generated by those AI-generated tracks are fake, which is why the company has now decided to roll out what it’s calling “the world’s first AI music tagging system.” It also claims that these tracks “won’t show up in editorial playlists or algorithm-based recommendations,” and that “fraudulent streams are being filtered out of royalty payments.”
It’s kind of amazing that Mixmag’s Patrick Hinton maintained some level of editorial neutrality while putting together his recent long-form feature on the newly launched Medaina festival in Jordan. Held at the ancient city of Petra—a literal wonder of the world—the Instagram-ready, jetsetter-filled event is ripe for critique, and very much seems to embody what Hinton describes as the “the Cercle-fication of the scene.” Reading about how the government of Jordan rented out one of its most treasured cultural sites, and looking at the accompanying photos of overprivileged Westerners playing dress-up and doing yoga in the desert, it’s easy to be enraged by the gross excesses of the international festival ecosystem. Hinton commendably doesn’t shy away from those angles, but he nonetheless attempts to present a balanced narrative, speaking to promoters and artists alike about how Medaina came to be, what the event is trying to achieve and what the potential drawbacks may be.
In the latest edition of Resident Advisor’s Rewind series, writer Kiana Mickles unpacks the story behind Junior Vasquez and his 1996 house anthem “If Madonna Calls.” Inspired by an actual message the pop icon left on Vasquez’s answering machine, the track—which ultimately featured the voice of house singer Kelly Bienvenue doing a Madonna impression—not only became an enduring classic in the ballroom circuit, but also forever strained the once-friendly relationship between the NYC DJ / producer and the Material Girl.
Nitzer Ebb was easily one of the most influential EBM groups of all time, and earlier this month the UK band announced that founder and frontman Douglas McCarthy had passed away at the age of 58. Tributes and obituaries subsequently flooded the internet and social media—here is one that Ben Beaumont-Thomas did for The Guardian—and while the group’s remaining members are still in mourning, they this week shared the news that Nitzer Ebb’s “remaining shows booked through the end of this year and into 2026 will go on as advertised.”
When a video game that’s in development suddenly gets shelved, what happens to the soundtrack? That’s a question that Vancouver-based composer (and Local Action affiliate) Lena Raine has some experience dealing with, which she discusses at length with journalist Lewis Gordon in a new Bandcamp Daily feature. Along the way, they speak about her long history of making music for games, and how she managed to get her soundtrack for the unexpectedly cancelled Earthblade out into the world.
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.
naemi dropped a new album last week. As with several of the Berlin-based Kansan’s previous full-lengths, it arrived with no advance warning and little in the way of supplemental context, but the breathless, shorn LP—which leans heavily into shoegaze and fuzzy, guitar-driven songcraft—is available now via Ulla’s 28912 imprint.
JASSS has completed a new full-length. Billed as a “sultry, smoky, cinematic” effort and an exercise in what the Spanish artist calls “anti-nostalgia,” Eager Buyers will be released via her newly minted AWOS imprint, and is slated to land on September 19. Ahead of that, the record’s title track has already been made available.
Following something of a production hiatus—her last release was in 2023—Mor Elian resurfaced last week with a brand-new single. Issued via Fever AM, the Berlin-based label she heads up alongside fellow bass-techno alchemist Rhyw, the song is called “Jelly Tip,” and it’s out now.
A new collaborative endeavor from Baalti and Anish Kumar, Stunt Doubles is playfully being presented as a long-lost Indian group that was recently rediscovered via an old VHS tape. Inspired by “Indian wedding brass bands, Sgt. Pepper’s psychedelia, disco-era uncles and surrealist comedy,” the project debuted last week with a two-track EP called Stunt Doubles (Pt.1), which is available now through the Method 808 label.
More than a decade removed from their last album, múm—an Icelandic outfit who were once darlings of the so-called “indietronica” circuit—have a new LP on the way. Entitled History of Silence, it’s due to be released on September 19 via the group’s longtime label home, Morr Music. In the meantime though, the song “Mild at Heart” has already been shared, along with its accompanying music video.
A surprise new EP from the always inventive Nikki Nair was released by the Future Classic imprint last week. With appearances from Uffie, Yunè Pinku, Blaketheman1000 and Harmony Tividad, Violence Is the Answer might be the Atlanta-based producer’s most collaborative effort to date, and it’s out now.
Marking the 10-year anniversary of Ibiza venue Hostal La Torre, Balearic maestro and International Feel founder Mark Barrott has once again teamed up with fellow resident DJ Pete Gooding to assemble a new compilation. La Torre Ibiza Volumen Cinco is scheduled for a June 27 release, and includes songs from Boards of Canada, Mazzy Star, µ-Ziq, Talk Talk and others. More information, including the complete tracklist, has been made available on Bandcamp, where both CD and vinyl editions of the compilation will be available.
ONLY NOW 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 Only Now (a.k.a. Kush Arora), a Berkeley-based artist who has long been one of the Bay Area’s most dedicated champions of soundsystem culture and all things bass. Though his initial forays into electronic music were heavily colored by the influence of dancehall, dub and the UK hardcore continuum, his work as Only Now has in recent years taken him in a compelling new direction, folding in elements of noise, drone and industrial while also digging into a myriad of Indian rhythms—and stretching them well beyond their traditional limits. While 2021’s Indian Unclassical Vol. 1 for Bokeh Versions perhaps remains the project’s defining mission statement, Only Now has kept on pushing, collaborating with musicians and producers from around the globe and dropping releases like the speaker-busting Timeslave III, which surfaced just last month. The record is a testament to the power of hybridity, as is the track he’s highlighted below.
DJ Hank “Sound Testing” (Self-released)
With this year’s Heat Check EP, DJ Hank sprung forth with just crushing renditions of Bengali soundclash music through a Chicago / footwork lens. I love it, not just because it feels so natural, but because it’s what I’ve honestly been hoping somebody INSIDE of India would do. On the first listen, it’s not immediately apparent what direction “Sound Testing” is headed, but 45 seconds in, an infectious footwork line mashes with speaker checks and some Bengali laser / humming bass action that’s fit for the biggest rigs in India. It’s beguiling that a random white dude in Chicago has changed the game and leveled up the entire genre, seamlessly fusing top-notch footwork action with chops and edits of Bengali riddims in such a fun, rowdy and boss-level-operator way. This record is a rare spark, an example of the outside influencing the inside through true admiration and the study of a sound far from home. Hank has done this flawlessly, and I cannot wait to see what comes next.
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.
Simo Cell “Paris Funk Express” (TEMƎT)
Having spent the bulk of his career gleefully hopping up and down the hardcore continuum, Simo Cell has always seemed far more interested in concocting wildly inventive, bass-heavy hybrids than celebrating the towering legacy of French electronic music. On his stimulating new FL Louis EP, however, the Paris-based producer tackles that legacy head on, diving straight into the robotic funk and overmodulated bravado of French Touch and the Ed Banger-led bloghouse era. Helping him in the effort is a new animated character he’s dreamed up (also named FL Louis), who not only feels like a nod to the goofy charm of Mr. Oizo’s Flat Eric, but whose croaking “voice” is all over EP highlight “Paris Funk Express.” Offering something akin to a hyperactive take on Chicago filter house—a sound which, not coincidentally, was also a major influence on Daft Punk’s early output—the track bops along with a confident strut, its bent basslines and herky-jerky rhythms exuding the frenzied energy of a mischievous grade-schooler who’s eaten nothing but a tub of frosting for lunch.
pol desmond “desde dentro” (ecco)
Rightly or wrongly, the UK perpetually seems to be the center of the bass music universe, but the recent string of releases from the Valencia-based ecco label have done a lot to wedge Spain into the contemporary conversation. baua is the imprint’s latest release, and aside from being the debut EP from Barcelona EP pol desmond, it’s a compelling collection of hybrid tunes, one that nimbly mashes together elements of dubstep, drum & bass, techno and more. With its percolating drums and rude stabs, opening cut “desde dentro” sets the tone early, and though the song’s stuttering breakbeats do harken back to the spirit of ’90s icons like the Chemical Brothers, its commitment to chunky, stank-faced basslines should satisfy even the most po-faced of party people.
Francesco Leali “Drop, pt. I” (99CHANTS)
Connecting the dots between the Mo’ Wax catalog and the buzzing grandeur of someone like Throwing Snow, “Drop, pt. 1”—a standout from Francesco Leali’s new ULTRABODY album—might be described as “trip-hop with attitude.” Rather than relying on the genre’s usual regimen of dusty grooves and dimly lit soul, the Milan-based producer here opts for digital sheen and high-impact sound design, littering the song with commanding synth outbursts and serrated blasts of distortion. What results is still dark and moody, but it’s also got more than enough weight to anchor the high-stress climax of a Hollywood heist flick.
Nic Krog “Not Your Night” (Foul-Up)
Making a sharp turn from Perfect Pattern—an avant-garde audio play that dropped only a few months ago—Nic Krog has embraced the power of chaos on the new Better Failing EP. Described by the Berlin-based Danish artist as an exercise in “mutant bass music with a post-punk twist,” the record explodes out of the gate with “Not Your Night,” a hard-charging, industrial-tinged techno cut that initially sounds like something from the Mannequin Records catalog. Somewhere around the halfway mark, however, Krog begins to abandon the order and comfort of the grid. Beats crash, smash and plow into each other. Unhinged whirs and whops enter the fray, and the song gradually tilts toward mayhem, its underlying churn sprinting blindly ahead as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening. The fact that Krog manages to keep the whole thing upright is impressive in and of itself, but what makes “Not Your Night” a genuine thrill is the way it embodies the idea of a beautiful mess.
Psyk “Summer Drone” (Non Series)
Based in Madrid and headed up by Psyk, the Non Series label is one of techno’s most reliable workhorses, a no-frills operation that quietly drops a fresh batch of tunes every month or so. On the new Scope Drift EP, Psyk himself takes the reins, funneling his talents into a sturdy, albeit relatively unassuming, strain of functional, dancefloor-ready music. The lightly fizzing—and decidedly unhurried—“Summer Drone” is the best track of the bunch, particularly once its slow-brewing psychedelic crunch blossoms into a sludgy, psychedelic head trip. Patient but never dull, it’s a welcome reminder that sometimes the most potent songs are the ones made by artists confident enough to take their time.
Nídia & Valentina “Estradas (Yu Su Version)” (Latency)
A companion to last year’s collaborative Estradas album, the new Estradas (Versions) enlists artists like SHERELLE, DJ Plead, FAUZIA, DJ Anderson Do Paraiso, Kelman Duran and Fergus Jones to put their own spin on Nídia and Valentina Magaletti’s off-kilter rhythms. As one might expect, most of the resulting remixes are focused on speaker-thumping sonics and low-end dynamics, but Yu Su—a London-based Chinese artist whose light touch is a big part of what makes her music so compelling—smartly leans off the throttle. Though her take on “Estradas” is by no means delicate, it is a relatively mellow chugger, one whose pitter-pat rhythms and spritely vibraphone melodies gradually give way to a calmly triumphant psych guitar riff.
Taction “Caesious” (Alt/Dub)
Tharn “End” (Crossfade)
Say what you will about the current hype around dub techno, but in a time when it quite honestly feels like the whole world has gone mad, perhaps it’s fitting that the understated genre has become—at least within the electronic music realm—the closest thing to this year’s “sound of the summer.” Artist Series, a new compilation EP from San Francisco label Alt/Dub, is headlined by a track from cv313 (one of dub techno’s most storied outfits), but Australian producer Taction steals the spotlight with “Caesious,” Bathed is soft static and the burbling sounds of running water, the track charts a refreshingly smooth course, its subterranean pulse and subtle funk taking as many cues from Ron Trent as they do from Rhythm & Sound. Tharn’s “End”—a standout from his new Seek EP—is similarly alluring, though the Portland-based Brit employs a foggier aesthetic, lacing the tune with softly rustling field recordings and disembodied vocal moans. What results is very much evocative of the grey skies of the Pacific Northwest, but it also bears traces of the haunted beauty that defined some of Holy Other’s work during the witch house craze of the early 2010s.
Adam Feingold “spiral kiss, labyrinth mist” (Temple)
A laid-back groove merchant who first emerged during the mid 2010s alongside like-minded fellow Canadians such as Patrick Holland, Priori, Khotin and the extended Mood Hut crew, Adam Feingold (who’s also made music as Ex-Terrestrial) has kept a relatively low profile during the past decade, even as he’s released a slew of records and co-founded both the naff and Temple labels. True to form, his latest effort, Nothing Is a Field, is relatively subdued, but its contents reward those willing to sit back and revel in the details. Delving into what’s essentially a slow-mo strain of house music—Feingold himself describes the EP as something that “subtly drifts between reductionist house and minimal tech geometry”—the Montreal-based producer really hits his stride on closing number “spiral kiss, labyrinth mist,” on which his cooly sashaying beat is merely the foundation for an enchanting, Oni Ayhun-esque procession of what sound like Spanish guitar melodies. (They might actually just be coming from a synth of some sort.)
Car Culture “Coping Mechanism” (naff)
Montreal has long been a hotbed for electronic music, but the city does appear to be especially fertile at the moment, with much of the activity related in some way to Patrick Holland and Francis Latreille (a.k.a. Priori). Both artists contribute to Nothingburger, the new EP from Car Culture (a.k.a. NYC artist Physical Therapy’s ambient-ish side project, which was previously responsible for the excellent 2021 album Dead Rock), and the record also features covers from hotly tipped acts Purelink and Hotline TNT. Still, it’s the Car Culture originals that shine brightest. especially “Coping Mechanism,” which taps into the same sort of high-polish haze and smoothed-out funk that powered a whole lot of “adult,” major-label radio rock during the 1980s. Sitting somewhere between Peter Gabriel and an old-school Ibiza classic, it’s a luxuriously hypnotic tune, and one that perhaps indicates that both Physical Therapy and Holland (who co-wrote the song) should be encouraged to spend more time away from the dancefloor.
Externalism “Externalism 01” (False Aralia)
Electronic music has many different quadrants, but within the confines of what might be described as the Boomkat Extended Universe (alternate name: The Wire Continuum), few new labels were greeted more enthusiastically last year than LA outpost False Aralia. A joint effort between Peak Oil co-founder and longtime kranky affiliate Brian Foote and musician Izaak Schlossman, the imprint was set up to showcase the latter’s many different endeavors, and kicked off last October with a pair of seemingly weightless and deliciously dubby EPs. Seven months later, two more records—and two new aliases, Externalism and Iri.gram—have arrived. The former is actually a collaboration with Anya Prisk, Schlossman’s bandmate in groups like Loveshadow and S Transporter, but it occupies a more explicitly soulful space, with the mesmerizing standout “Externalism 01” sounding something like a cross between Sade, Burial and Deep Forest.
Matmos “Norway Doorway” (Thrill Jockey)
More than three decades into their career, the playful sound manipulators of Matmos have fully embraced the idea of the concept album, having devoting entire LPs to plastic surgery, actual plastic, psychological experiments, the non-musical sound catalog of Smithsonian Folkways and even their home washing machine. In lesser hands, this approach almost surely would have grown stale or devolved into mere kitsch, but the Baltimore-based duo has cultivated a genuine talent for shaping even the most banal sounds into something that’s not just interesting, but often quite spectacular. As the title implies, their latest full-length, Metallic Life Review, is rooted in audio recordings of metal objects, and first track “Norway Doorway” opens the proceedings on something of a spooky note. Nodding to ’70s horror film scores with its antique chimes—hello, Tubular Bells—it also features a resonant array of squeaks, creaks and drones, which, yes, sound like they came from a rusty old gate. What’s most impressive, however, is the way that Matmos transform one of those metallic creaks into something resembling a jazz trumpet, allowing its bellowing timbre to hold court atop the song’s meditative, almost gamelan-like pulse.
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.