Based on the volume of internet lefties who’ve followed First Floor on Instagram during the past few days, I’m guessing that a good chunk of readers are anxious to read the essay I published earlier this week. Yes, it talked about Boiler Room. Yes, it talked about boycotts. Yes, it used the word “scabs,” which probably makes some folks uncomfortable. Yes, you can find a link to the piece below—and yes, the paywall is currently down.
Talking about the controversies around things like KKR, Boiler Room and Sónar inevitably tends to stir up strong opinions and impassioned reactions. That’s fine, and to be expected, but what I often find most interesting—and, sometimes, most depressing—about the conversations these topics provoke is how much they reveal that most people, even within the electronic music ecosystem, have only a vague idea of what’s going on. Earlier this week, I googled “Boiler Room boycott,” and one of the top results was a thread on the EDM Reddit, which was not only full of misinformation and staggering levels of whataboutism, but also a surprising number of people asking for an explanation of what the boycott was all about.
For anyone plugged into “serious” electronic music discourse, that might seem surprising, but this week I was also speaking with a DJ who was approached to play the recent Boiler Room Detroit event. For the record, they turned it down—twice—and while the rejections happened so quickly that they never received an official offer, the fee amount they were initially floated was quadruple(!) what they’d previously been paid to appear on Boiler Room. Kudos to them for turning down that sort of money on principle, but what truly shocked me was that the artist’s own agent—a longtime industry professional who works with lots of high-profile acts—was apparently unaware of the entire Boiler Room / KKR / boycott situation.
It’s wild to think about a DJ having to explain the particulars of that to their own booking agent, but it also shows the degree to which all of us are basically trapped in our own media and information bubbles. Personally, my Instagram feed has been “all boycott, all the time” for months now, and while I’m assuming that’s probably the case for many First Floor readers as well, there are probably some of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, or maybe have seen a few headlines, but haven’t really looked too deeply into the issue. The music media (and the regular media) can certainly be blamed for some of that—they’re too busy chasing engagement by any means necessary these days—but even when publications do cover these stories, they too are stuck battling the algorithm, which doesn’t really care about people being well informed, or even having a shared set of facts.
Good times!
On a brighter note, there are thankfully some other things going on in electronic music that have nothing to do with context collapse or corporate boycotts, and today’s First Floor digest is specifically designed to point you toward the good stuff. Read on and you’ll find news items, new release announcements, suggested reading links and a whole lot of track recommendations. And as an added bonus, there’s also a special guest recommendation from Lebanese artist Mayssa Jallad, so make sure to give that a look.
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 about the growing number of electronic music artists who are not only refusing to honor boycott movements, but are actively choosing to accept bookings as replacements for other acts who have dropped out of line-ups on moral grounds. So far, these artists don’t seem to be suffering any consequences for their actions, and with much of the industry seemingly content to stay quiet, is there any hope for real accountability?
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.
Launched as a music industry-focused newsletter in 2019, Water & Music has come a very long way since then—and also in the four years since founder Cherie Hu was interviewed by First Floor. Her newsletter still exists, but these days Water & Music is perhaps best known as a research and information hub, having tracked the development of AI, new streaming models, gaming, the parameters of fandom and much, much more. Up until this week, many of the organization’s findings resided behind a subscriber paywall, but yesterday Hu announced that the entire research archive had been made available for free to the public. The decision was apparently made with an eye toward “maximizing impact,” and though both the newsletter and the research will continue, Water & Music is also focused on growing its consulting practice, which has been up and running for the past two years.
Avalon Emerson doesn’t do cookie-cutter interviews, and her recent conversation with Philip Sherburne for his Futurism Restated newsletter is full of insights into her working process, along with some very sharp observations about the current state of electronic music and the culture at large. (Full disclosure: Emerson and I work together on the Buy Music Club platform, and my name is briefly mentioned in the interview.)
As much as the anti-Spotify discourse is nothing new, the most recent flare-up—inspired by founder Daniel Ek’s latest multimillion-dollar investment into AI warfare—does seem to have significantly, and perhaps permanently, damaged the company’s reputation. Given that First Dog on the Moon—an Australian political cartoon published by The Guardian—put the streaming giant in its crosshairs just a few days ago, it’s safe to say that the conversation has moved beyond industry insiders, disaffected musicians and anti-corporate crusaders.
Although it’s generally agreed that jungle and drum & bass were at their peak during the 1990s, the handful of labels from that era that are still active have an, let’s say, inconsistent track record when it comes to the quality of their new releases. 31 Recordings, however, continues to be a highly reliable outpost, which is likely why DJ Mag chose to make it the focus of the publication’s latest The Sound of feature. Written by Ben Hindle, the article traces the UK label’s history, tapping into the memory banks of founder Doc Scott, who also delivers an exclusive DJ mix that consists entirely of music from the 31 Recordings catalog.
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.
Continuing a series that began in 2022, Skee Mask has once again cleared out his hard drive, offering up an album-length collection of previously unreleased tunes. Entitled E and consisting of 11 unmastered songs the German artist created between 2016 and 2021, it’s available now as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp.
Burial dropped a surprise new release. Available now via Hyperdub, it’s called Comafields / Imaginary Festival.
Though his A Tropical Entropy LP is barely more than a month old, Nick León has already resurfaced with new music. To be more exact, the Miami producer this week delivered a trio of remixes. The first two are part of Ela Minus’ new QQQQ (REMIXES) EP, which is out now on Domino, and he quickly followed that up with a dub of “caes,” a song from Lucrecia Dalt’s forthcoming A Danger to Ourselves full-length. The complete album will be issued on September 5 via RVNG Intl., but León’s rework has already been shared.
Carrier—who was interviewed by First Floor earlier this year—has teamed up with Equiknoxx founder Gavsborg on a new record. Entitled The Fan Dance, it’s the latest installment of the Modern Love label’s 45 series, and while the full record is slated to drop later today, a stream of the title track has already been shared.
Returning to the Unsound label—which also issued his 2023 album Smartwoods—Polish composer Piotr Kurek will soon be releasing a new full-length. Billed as a foray into “hypnagogic post-rock” and inspired by bands like Gastr del Sol, Bark Psychosis, Labradford and The Sea and Cake, the record is called Songs and Bodies, and it’s due to surface in full on September 26. In the meantime though, LP cut “Try to Be True” has already been made available.
MAYSSA JALLAD 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 Mayssa Jallad, a Lebanese artist who’s also an architect and urban researcher. Though she’s been active in music for more than a decade, getting her start with indie-pop outfit Safar, it’s her solo work that’s proven most provocative. In 2023, she released Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels, an ethereal, avant-pop effort literally inspired by a ’70s-era conflict between dueling high rises in Beirut. Earlier this year, Civilistjävel! took Jallad’s music into even hazier territory on Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels (Versions), nestling her captivating Arab-language vocals among a sea of reverb-laden nooks and crannies. As informed by the 4AD catalog as she is by Lebanese folk, not to mention the urban history of her hometown, Jallad is a truly singular figure, and here she chooses to shine a light on something from her local music scene.
Sary Moussa “Everything Inside a Circle” (Other People)
It’s a bit unfair to highlight only one release from Lebanon—let me know if I can do another one!—but since these are the rules, I think Wind, Again, the latest release by Sary Moussa, is a good introduction to the kind of bold experimental work coming out of Beirut right now. Sary charms us with his warm, surprising electro-acoustic explorations, working in collaboration with a bunch of excellent musicians from Beirut: Fadi Tabbal, Julia Sabra, Pascal Semerdjian, Paed Conca and Abed Kobeissi. The album pieces together and manipulates tracks produced by these musicians, sometimes to an unrecognisable state. “Everything Inside a Circle” is nostalgic, but also provocative, its mysterious, processed voice undulating between acoustic instruments. I am fascinated by how Sary constructs songs; he has a beautiful instinct.
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.
Loula Yorke “Beautiful Things in Humble Places” (Truxalis)
In an interview with the zensounds newsletter that went live earlier this week, Loula Yorke mentioned her affinity for both Laurie Spiegel and Caterina Barbieri, and the influence of both artists colors “Beautiful Things in Humble Places.” A standout from the new Time Is a Succession of Such Shapes album, this gracefully plinking number finds the UK composer steering her modular rig into a peacefully pastoral zone, its gleaming melodies conjuring images of dewdrops glinting in the morning sun. Uncluttered without being sparse, the song is accented by tiny crinkles, half-heard fragments of conversation, subtle psychedelic curlicues and, perhaps more importantly, a dusting of reverb that makes the whole thing feel downright idyllic.
oliver “Ribbon” (North View)
The debut full-length from Bristol-based producer oliver, Quiet Thud—which also happens to be the inaugural offering from his own North View imprint—is said to be inspired by “expansive and untamed coastline.” One can hear a bit of that in the wistful, Balearic-tinged beat of LP highlight “Ribbon,” but the song also bares traces of trip-hop, ’90s chillout rooms and bleary-eyed R&B. With its gossamer guitar licks, it evens crib a few notes from the dream-pop playbook, but what makes the track truly stick is its intimacy and inherent warmth. oliver might be picturing epic seaside views, but if “Ribbon” is any indication, he’s taking them in with his arm around the shoulders of someone he holds dear.
Stone “Steady” (3XL)
What was the most influential album of the ’90s? Nevermind? The Chronic? OK Computer? There are many candidates, but given the rash of dreamy, new age-adjacent trip-hop that’s flooded the electronic music spectrum in recent years, it’s hard to discount the towering legacy of the Pure Moods compilation series, which seems to have permanently imprinted the likes of Enya, Deep Forest and Enigma on the culture. Their fingerprints are all over Dream Curtain Eternally Gentle, the latest release from 3XL affiliate Stone, who elevates ’90s “mom music” into a blissfully sublime space, mostly notably on “Steady,” where his chilled boom-bap takes flight among a womb-like array of gauzy textures and hypnotically shimmering synths.
Coatshek “Eternal Lovers” (Dark Entries)
Originally composed for SoundBaths, a mix series in which participants were tasked with creating a soundtrack for an imaginary queer bath house, Coatshek’s Sound Bath is an immersive listen—and a sensual one. Steeped in the same sort of slow-motion psychedelia that acts like The Orb pioneered more than three decades ago, the album traffics in billowing melodies and hazy atmospheres, its come-hither sensibility climaxing—emotionally, that is—with the rolling grooves and cloudy expanse of LP closer “Eternal Lovers.” Stretching out across more than 10 minutes, the decidedly soft-focus song luxuriates in the pleasures of the moment—and revels in the opportunity to make that moment last as long as possible.
zakè & Tyresta “Aire” (zakè drone)
Last week it was announced that William Basinski has a new deluxe reissue of The Disintegration Loops on the way, but those with an immediate craving for some moody, loop-centric introspection will be well served by diving into Aire, the latest collaborative release from Midwestern ambient explorers zakè and Tyresta. The record consists of four songs, all of which were created improvisationally, but the duo hit their stride on the title track, a gorgeous, reverb-drenched composition that’s anchored by the slowly undulating groans of what sounds like a string instrument of some sort. Deeply meditative and borderline despondent, it’s a reminder that in the right circumstance, even despair can be beautiful.
Florian T M Zeisig “Eternal Shore” (STROOM)
Based on the blurb that accompanies Florian T M Zeisig’s A New Life—apparently it’s not an album, not aesthetic, not ironic, not intellectual, not meant for consumption and not part of a genre—it’s quite possible that the German ambient / experimental artist is not interested in analysis from someone like me, or from anyone whatsoever. That’s his prerogative, but as an avid supporter of his work—not just under his own name, but also as Angel R and Spool, not to mention his contributions to projects like NUG, Oca and Unt—I’m nonetheless compelled to say that A New Life is a mesmerizing and wonderfully radiant effort.
Foregoing the cosmic drift that defined last year’s Planet Inc—Zeisig’s last full-length under his own name—A New Life employs a more earthbound sound palette, enlisting Róisín and Cathal Berkeley to flesh out his warbling, light-filled drones with their harp and saxophone improvisations. Clocking in at more than 11 minutes, “Eternal Shore” is the longest track on the record, and the one that most clearly emits a palpable sense of calm, its elegant composition populated with majestic tones, whimsical brass flutterings and the persistent sound of softly crashing ocean waves.
Madeleine Cocolas “Bells of Athena” (Room40)
Though she was born in Australia and recently relocated to Tokyo, ambient composer Madeleine Cocolas traces her ancestry back to Greece, and her new album Syndesis is rooted in sounds she collected while retracing the steps she’d taken during his first visit to the country 20 years prior. Billed as an exploration of “the nexus between music, place and memory,” it’s a contemplative effort, and is tinged with a kind of melancholy nostalgia, as though Cocolas is both imbibing the magic of her surroundings and longing to connect with ancestors whose lives have been swept away by the sands of time. There’s an obvious weight to that, but Syndesis isn’t a tortured listen. It is, however, a patient one, and proves most rewarding on the standout “Bells of Athena,” which layers a brooding piano line atop rustling static and the distant chimes of some gloriously ringing church bells.
Kuntari “Miamich” (99CHANTS)
What would it sound like if Fugazi’s rhythm section decamped to Indonesia and tried to make a gamelan record? Admittedly, that’s a ridiculous premise, but it’s one of the few succinct ways I can come up with to describe the whirlwind that is Mutu Beton, the new album from Bandung-based duo Kuntari. (For what it’s worth, the group have dubbed their sound “primal-core,” but until that term catches on, journalists—especially the ones who aren’t well versed in the music of Southeast Asia—are going to have to get creative with their descriptions.) There’s some free jazz in the mix as well, and if the LP has one defining feature, it’s Kuntari’s penchant for thunderous percussive outbursts, but “Miamich” makes clear that the duo is capable of much more than cracking skulls. A gamelan hybrid, it finds serenity in an ever-shifting procession of metallic chimes, lulling listeners into a trance-like state as it peacefully drifts toward some unseen horizon.
René Najera “The Seasons (feat. Leech)” (100% Silk)
LA-based artist Jarred Carrigan has operated under approximately 10 different aliases over the years, but René Najera is probably his most reliable moniker—and the one he used to inaugurate the Jungle Gym label, which he’s been running alongside Dravier since 2015. The project’s latest LP, however, comes via 100% Silk, and Painted Life is a classy collection of tastefully chilled, not-quite-house tunes. Too percussive to be ambient and too subdued to be IDM, the music defies easy categorization, but that takes nothing away from the bubbly joy brought on by opening cut “The Seasons.” A collaboration with Leech (a.k.a. Peak Oil / false aralia founder and longtime kranky affiliate Brian Foote), the song blends its stuttering drum patterns with glistening pads that might make Enya jealous—an unexpected combination that nevertheless goes down smooth.
Beppu “Erase & Bias + Signal / Tape Noise” (Organic Analogue)
Combining a trio of 2009 EPs that were initially released as limited-run CDs, IPOP salvages a very specific piece of Manchester electronic music history, and its subtle, static-laced grooves are sure to be catnip for dub techno lovers of all shapes and sizes. (The fact that the release has been not only mastered by Miles Whittaker, but also features two reimaginings of the source material by Demdike Stare, will further boost its appeal.) The static is turned up particularly loud on the standout “Erase & Bias”—it appears that the “Signal / Tape Noise” mentioned in the song’s title is a literal description—but the persistent crackle feeds into the song’s slow-boiling tension, bolstering Beppu’s wonky wanderings and subterranean pulse with a bit of spiky crunch.
Dean Grenier “Belong to You” (Handworks)
Roza Terenzi, Priori , Patrick Holland, Sleep D, Jennifer Loveless, D. Tiffany, Maara… when it comes to modern-day prog, it often seems like all of today’s heavy hitters either come from Down Under or hail from the Great White North. There are prog practitioners elsewhere, of course, but California rarely seems to enter the conversation—which is rather odd, especially given the West Coast’s decades-long history of nature raves. Maybe Dean Grenier will change that. In recent months, the Bay Area native, current LA resident and lifelong bass fiend has pivoted hard, offering up a stellar string of celestial, dancefloor-focused releases via his own Handworks imprint. The latest, Belong to You, continues down that path, and its title track opens the proceedings on a particularly angelic note. Eschewing big theatrics in favor of big emotion, the song aims straight for the heart, its plush melodies and Christmas-in-July chimes as likely to make listeners squeeze out a few tears as it is to put a smile on their face.
not even noticed “Eteus” (Fast at Work)
It’s been a long time since an LA label was anywhere near the top of the bass music heap, and considering that three-fourths of the Fast at Work crew—including Carré, who was interviewed by First Floor a few months back—now reside in the UK, it’s possible that the fast-rising imprint may have to relinquish its claims to Southern California. Nevertheless, even if such geographical concerns are set aside, there’s no denying that the young label has been on a hot streak, and its latest release, not even noticed’s Eteus EP, capably builds on that momentum. As much as dubstep has become Fast at Work’s primarily calling card, the record—which includes remixes from both K-LONE and Maara—is a decidedly breaky affair. On the acid-licked “Creamavity,” the German duo channels the tweaky, big-room boom of The Crystal Method—probably unintentionally, but it works—but it’s the EP’s title track that shines brightest, its zooming bass tones taking cues from Joy Orbison’s “flight fm” as the song’s crooked drum patterns cooly percolate their way across the dancefloor.
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.