First Floor #284 – Abundance and Exhaustion
An interview with Debit, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh crop of new track recommendations.
Every day, the music industry spins out narratives that are almost overwhelmingly positive. With the discourse now primarily happening on Instagram, the music conversation moves from one post to the next, with seemingly every artist, label, club and festival strapping on a plastic smile and insisting that they’re “so excited,” “so grateful” or “so happy” to make their latest announcement. Even on the rare occasions when those announcements are sad, pained or angry, they’re frequently presented like a sales pitch, with an underlying message of “like me,” “relate to me,” “acknowledge me” and, of course, “engage with me.”
“Absolutely everything is an ad,” said Spanish artist JASSS in a new Mixmag interview that dropped this week, and it’s difficult to push back against that notion. “Everybody’s a product,” she elaborated. “Being fed this product, everybody’s projection of success, trying to profit on social media from sadness, depression, happiness, success.” Her response to that is varied, but reading her words, there’s an obvious sense of exhaustion at work, and on the limited occasions where other people in independent music—a space that actively promotes its supposed “realness”—drop their cheery facades and engage in real conversation, it quickly becomes clear just how pervasive that exhaustion has become.
In an era of seemingly infinite choice, many of even the most ardent music fans are experiencing sensory overload, a sensation that dulls our excitement and makes the constant tide of new releases—a tide that during the past week was further intensified by the inbox-flooding currents of Bandcamp Friday—feel less like abundance and more like a morass of largely disposable content. There may be good stuff in that morass, but who has the time to fish it out? Who has the energy? Music journalists used to fill that role, but with the number of published reviews steadily shrinking, and audiences increasingly uninterested in reading the ones that do get written, it’s no wonder that many writers and media outlets are choosing to focus their efforts elsewhere.
That’s unfortunate, because there are artists out there whose music has more to say than “promote me.” Later this month, for instance, xin will be releasing a new album called WASTED on the appendix.files label. Composed using “field recordings of waste,” it’s a commentary on dance music during a moment when the culture has passed its sell-by date, its “glamour gone, structures wrecked, a stubborn pulse still smouldering underneath.” Adding to that commentary are a pair of texts xin wrote, and while they haven’t yet been revealed to the public, one tellingly advocates for “hospicing dance music,” while the other zeroes in on the “unsustainability” of the whole enterprise.
xin is just one artist, but the cultural and structural rot they describe is easily detectable, at least for those willing to peek beneath the surface of contemporary music’s shiny veneer. Pointing out that rot, funnily enough, has become its own sort of cottage industry—as JASSS said, “everything is an ad” these days, including cultural critique—but even as the algorithm juices our collective sense of discontent, the music world largely continues to chug along, acting as though a fetid sinkhole isn’t forming right beneath its feet.
That sinkhole hasn’t yet swallowed First Floor, and until that day comes, this newsletter will continue to not only point out the creeping rot, but also highlight those corners of the electronic music ecosystem where something genuinely interesting is still going on. Earlier this week, I published an in-depth interview with Debit, a Mexican artist whose forthcoming album for Modern Love is rooted in explorations and abstractions of cumbia rebajada, a genre that in and of itself is a fascinating (and sorely underappreciated) bastion of avant-garde sound. You’ll find that interview below, and yes the paywall is temporarily down.
Otherwise, today’s First Floor digest does its best to wade through all of the electronic music muck that washed ashore during the past week, fishing out a satisfying array of news items, new release announcements, suggested reading links and track recommendations. And if you want a recommendation from someone who’s not me, make sure to check out this week’s special guest recommendation, which was delivered by none other than Dutch artist Dave Huismans, who you likely know from his past work as 2562 and A Made Up Sound.
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so 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 open to everyone, and it’s an interview with Debit, who speaks at length about the history of cumbia rebajada—a genre born in her hometown of Monterrey during the 1990s—and how it provided the basis for the textured abstractions of her upcoming new album. Along the way, the conversation also touches on the flattening of Latin identity within the broader music culture, Debit’s thoughts on Gen Z (working as an adjunct professor, she has first-hand experience with them) and how processed accordion fits into the new live show she’s developing.
FIRST FLOOR IS HEADED TO LISBON
On Friday, October 10 (i.e. tomorrow), I will be in Lisbon, taking part in the conference portion of this year’s MIL festival. They’ve actually invited me to participate in two different talks, and the first one, “The Ethical Labyrinth of Capital in the Music Industry,” will focus on the impact of investment capital and large corporations into the modern music economy. The second, “Main Character Music Journalism,” which I actually curated and will also be moderating, is inspired by a recent First Floor piece in which I highlighted writers’ growing tendency to take a starring role in whatever content they create.
That’s not all! Once my MIL talks are complete, I will be heading over to the Well Read bookshop for a long-overdue launch event for my book. This event will be hosted by local hero Van Der, who will direct a conversation about not just my writing, but also the past, present and future of electronic music culture. Entrance is free, but those wishing to attend should RSVP here.
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.
Electronic and experimental music have historically never been given much of a platform at the Venice Music Biennale, but with Caterina Barbieri now serving as the artistic director of the nearly 100-year-old event, the line-up for this year’s festivities has taken a much more adventurous turn. In a new feature published by The New York Times, writer Chiara Rimella traces back Barbieri’s career trajectory, and gets the Italian artist to open up about her curatorial approach and what it means to now be working in a realm that previously excluded the kinds of musicians she finds most interesting.
With Blawan’s SickElixir album dropping this week, Crack magazine has published a revealing new interview with the shapeshifting UK artist, who spoke to journalist Nathan Evans about his ever-evolving music practice, his past struggles with drug abuse and the new life he’s building in his current home of Lisbon.
Speaking of revealing interviews, Dania—whose Listless album dropped last week—dug deep into her past while talking to Stephan Kunze for an article in his zensounds newsletter. Aside from the new record, she spoke at length about her upbringing in a conservative Muslim household and how that shaped her relationship with music, along with the balance she’s struck between making art and her work as an emergency doctor in rural Australia. (Full disclosure: Dania and I are married, and I’m briefly mentioned in the interview.)
Plenty of labels release great music, but a big part of what makes Ghostly International stick out is its ongoing commitment to top-shelf design. That commitment is certainly apparent in the long-running outpost’s newly unveiled book, We’ll Never Stop Living This Way, which is said to “delve into the label’s archives and history” and feature “unseen photos, original interviews and oral histories with both musical and visual artists from across the roster,” along with some exclusive essays from writers like Philip Sherburne and Michaelangelo Matos. The book, which is being published by Hat & Beard Press, is scheduled to drop on November 21.
Spotify’s recent announcement that it was taking steps to combat fraud and AI slop has been greeted with a healthy amount of skepticism, and Kieran Press-Reynolds took that a step further in a recent edition of his Rabbit Holed column for Pitchfork. Referring to the streaming giant’s new AI spam filter as a “half-baked half-measure,” he pokes numerous—and very large—holes in the idea that the company is serious about keeping slop off its platform.
Hosted by DJ and broadcaster Emily Dust, Dances for Buildings is a weekly podcast that aims to celebrate “the cutting edge of global club culture,” and it returned for a second season earlier this week. A new episode with Nina Las Vegas is available now, and artists like L-Vis 1990, DJ Target, Coco Em and Suzi Analogue are all slated to appear in the weeks ahead.
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.
If anyone in dance music deserves a break, it’s Tim Reaper. The London junglist has been going full speed ahead for several years now, and apparently reached a point where he needed to take something off his plate. As he announced online, that something wound up being his Future Retro London imprint, which is now officially on pause following last week’s release of FR050, a double 12-inch that collects Reaper’s own VIP remixes of assorted tracks from the label’s back catalog.
With Ostgut Ton having officially restarted earlier this year, it’s only fitting that the revered Berlin imprint will soon be issuing a new full-length from Efdemin, whose 2019 LP New Atlantis was a real bright spot for the label before it went on hiatus during the pandemic. His upcoming album is called POLY, and its “multidimensional web of sonic references” are slated to land on October 17. Ahead of that, the track “Signal to Noise” has already been made available.
HTRK is one of those acts that’s so beloved, at least in certain corners of independent music, that the band’s peers aren’t content to just listen to the music; many of them want to cover it as well. The forthcoming String of Hearts collects many of those covers (along with a couple of remixes), and includes contributions from Liars, Loraine James, Kali Malone and Stephen O’Malley, Perila, Coby Sey and others. Ghostly International will be issuing the full release on December 5, but Sharon Etten’s version of “Poison” has already been shared.
Formalizing a team-up that surely prompted some people to say, “How have they not linked up before?,” it was announced this week that Jubilee and the Numbers label are finally going to be working together. Main Character is the title of the NYC-via-Miami artist’s new EP, and it’s said to channel “the fun, drama and chaos that comes hand in hand during challenging times.” The full release is coming out on November 7, but opening track “Trippin’,” a collaboration with UNIIQU3, is available now.
Continuing her seemingly stratospheric ascent, Carré—who spoke about that ascent in a First Floor interview earlier this year—has a new record on the way. Due to arrive on October 30 through her Fast at Work imprint, the record is a collaboration with LA talent Danny Goliger, and the song “Tricky One” has already been made available.
Though she previously dropped a few clues about her upcoming Changes in Air LP, Kara-Lis Coverdale this week shared more details about the album. A final installment of a trilogy of albums the Canadian artist has released on Smalltown Supersound this year, it’s billed as “a work for electric organ, modular synthesis and piano in five sections.” November 21 is the official release date, but closing number “Curve Traces of Held Space” has already been shared.
Lia Kohl has put the finishing touches on an unorthodox new album, one the Chicago-based composer describes as a response to “Ed Ruscha’s 1964 photographic artist book, Various Small Fires and Milk.” Containing 16 songs, all of them one minute in length, the album—which is called Various Small Whistles and a Song—will surface via the Dauw label on November 16. In the meantime, a few songs from the LP have already been available to stream here.
Having already weathered one major name change, Danilo Plessow—formerly known as Motor City Drum Ensemble—is about to adopt another moniker. The name Rude Futures is said to provide “a meta commentary on the realities of the modern digital age, the dawn of AI and its impact on art and society,” and the forthcoming Acid Reaction EP, which is being billed as the first in a series of new releases from Plessow, will see the light of day via Rush Hour on November 14. No audio has been shared yet, but all of the available details can be found here.
DAVE HUISMANS 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 Dave Huismans, a veteran Dutch producer who during the late 2000s and early 2010s played an instrumental role in pushing dubstep beyond the wobbly confines of the genre’s earliest iterations. Working under the names 2562 and A Made Up Sound, he compiled a catalog that was respected by bass eccentrics and techno mavericks alike, and then, he suddenly went quiet, all but dropping out of electronic music for the better part of a decade. What exactly he was up to during that extended hiatus isn’t yet clear, but when Huismans quietly re-emerged earlier this year with a new alias, ex_libris, and a fantastic pair of genre-defying EPs, he was eagerly welcomed back into the fold. The mystery around him, however, continues to linger, as later this month he’ll be debuting another new moniker, In Transit, with a self-titled album for FELT that consists of “arresting downtempo vignettes” that he apparently started writing back in 2013. Further explanations of that release may not be forthcoming—Huismans has always preferred to let his music do the talking—but here, he’s agreed to talk about someone else’s work, expounding on one of his favorite contemporary producers.
Meftah & Thomas Xu “Bells and Thunder” (Meeting Point)
Throughout this decade, one of the musicians whose work I’ve come to always look out for is A. Omar Meftah from Detroit. In these bleak times, I increasingly find myself drawing for music that offers some kind of warmth, light, soul, grit, meaning, sorrow... and highlights of his, like “6 Minutes” and “Music That Excites Me,” deliver those qualities in spades. Most special of all though is Meeting Point, a collab with Thomas Xu that, considering how good it is, flew way too far under the radar. (Maybe that’s because until recently it only existed as a small DIY vinyl run, and short preview clips can’t do its contents justice.) The record’s main piece, “Bells And Thunder.” is a 20-minute-long improvisational journey through scuffed arpeggios, spring-like effects and warped Fender Rhodes. You can hear Meftah and Xu feeling it out as they go along, crafting the music from nothing, introducing and tuning the elements one by one, warts and all, the imperfections only adding to the humanity and life of the recording. About halfway though, the main Rhodes theme finally starts getting established and expanded upon; that’s when the track really hits. I play it sparingly, when I have time to pull out the record, sit back, listen and do nothing else. It’s healing.
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.
T.NO “Cadence” (Club Djembe)
Fresh off his Yards EP for the re:lax label, Amsterdam-based producer T.NO has returned with something even better. Pulling liberally from the UK funky playbook, the Combat EP—which also dips into gqom and other invigoratingly off-kilter African rhythms—lives up to its title, casting aside nods to the velour couches of the VIP room and instead seeking to maximize the music’s speaker-rattling impact. Opening cut “Cadence” is a perfect example; its shuffling drum patterns and chant-like vocal refrain recall the slinky syncopation of Crazy Cousinz, but the song’s gritty, elastic bassline takes the proceedings right into the gutter, where T.NO—and, presumably, anyone listening to the track—can revel in their sleazy new surroundings.
Uneven “Almanac” (Defrostatica)
Tech-step gets a bad wrap, to the point where most contemporary junglists now actively shun the term, but when the style is done just right, a whole lot of enjoyment can be found amid its cartoonish mayhem. “Almanac” is the highlight of Bristol-based producer Uneven’s new Stimulation EP, and it’s a boisterous rumbler, one that adorns its lively breakbeats with apocalyptic synths, Middle Eastern strings and a sludgy growl that sounds like the ominous bellows of an ancient mythological beast. Is it a little silly? Maybe, but that’s also what makes it so fun.
Marco Passarani presents F.F.O.M. “Dominion” (SWOB)
More than three decades into his career, Marco Passarani still knows his way around a groove. The Italian producer—who’s probably best known as one half of Tiger & Woods—has operated under numerous monikers over the years, but F.F.O.M. (short for First Farmers on Mars) has a specifically sci-fi bent, conjuring up tales of the Red Planet as Passarani explores funky strains of Detroit-flavored techno and electro. A standout from the new Mirage on the Red Land LP, “Dominion” is equal parts Cybotron and Jam & Lewis, and though its high-stepping rhythms and space-age sound design are clearly piloting an adventure into the cosmos, the song’s bright colors and wiggly synths are obvious hints that there’s a dance party happening in the ship’s cockpit.
Call Super “Mothertime” (Dekmantel)
Doubling as a new album and a tribute to the golden era of mix CDs, Call Super’s new A Rhythm Protects One is also the most focused full-length the UK artist has released during the past decade. Perhaps that’s because mix CDs, at their core, are designed to be an at least somewhat functional listen, and the physical limitations (i.e. restricted runtimes) of the format also require artists to trim the proverbial fat. Still, it’s somewhat ironic that Call Super would speak in such a coherent voice while also exploring 10 different aliases, most of which were specifically invented for the purposes of this release. And it’s perhaps even more ironic that the album’s high point is not something from one of those playfully named monikers, but a bona fide Call Super track, “Mothertime,” which closes out A Rhythm Protects One with a lurching, not-quite-wobbly bassline, disembodied R&B vocal snippets and a little bit of garage-inflected razzle-dazzle.
Bendik Giske “Not Yet (Hanne Lippard Remix)” (Smalltown Supersound)
“I’m a digital nomad. I’m addicted, you know that.” Hanne Lippard repeats those lines dozens of times in this remix of “Not Yet,” but each additional go-round of the British artist’s striking prose only adds to the song’s hypnotic allure. Taken from Bendik Giske’s new Remixed EP, which also includes reworks from Carmen Villain, aya, Hieroglyphic Being, Beatrice Dillon and Waclaw Zimpel, this particular remix is the one that hews closest to the source material. Truth be told, the music might be identical to the original “Not Yet,” but the unusual juxtaposition between Giske’s looping saxophone squall and Lippard’s low-key delivery elevates the proceedings, her subtly pointed vocals tugging at the threads of our collective complacency.
HOLOVR “Momentary Momentum” (Indole)
Sitting somewhere Olof Dreijer’s output as Oni Ayhun and Nathan Micay’s scoring work on Industry, Dream Tides is the luminescent new album from UK artist HOLOVR. Full of crystalline melodies and soft-focus textures that stretch toward the horizon, the music is epic without being overbearing, its elegant compositions inviting contemplation as opposed to reverence. Even so, LP highlight “Momentary Momentum” is a rather breathtaking tune, one whose tiny bleeps, bloops and string flourishes have been woven into a quietly transcendent tapestry.
Gus Paterson “View from Space” (Solar Phenomena)
Stepping away from his usual blend of disco, boogie, house and Italo, Gus Paterson has cooked up something deeper on his new Echoes from a Silent Sphere EP. Taking cues from the ’80s-era productions of Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and maybe even Jan-Michel Jarre—or at least his less over-the-top material—the record verges on ambient, though its sparkling arpeggios provide both a filmic sensibility and a palpable sense of forward momentum. That’s especially true on opening track “View from Space,” a deceptively lush number that gradually blossoms into a spellbinding showcase of Paterson’s twirling synth melodies.
Dania “Personal Assistant” (Somewhere Press)
Given that Dania is quite literally married to me, I’m admittedly not an unbiased observer when it comes to her music. But with the Iraq-born, Tasmania-raised and Barcelona-based artist’s new Listless album drawing rave reviews elsewhere, and arriving via the impeccably curated Somewhere Press imprint, I do feel justified in singing the record’s praises here in the newsletter. While much of Dania’s previous output focused on formless ambient and textured abstractions, her new LP—which was recorded entirely after midnight, and draws inspiration from the largely unseen world that emerges after dark—takes a major step toward more structured songcraft, folding in elements of shoegaze, trip-hop and dream pop as she spins and stretches her (mostly) wordless explorations into compelling new shapes. The standout “Personal Assistant” is one of the album’s more upfront selections, and though its crunchy percussion keeps things steadily moving, it’s Dania’s voice that proves most captivating, crooning that she “always gets [her] way” in a manner that sounds both soulful and melancholy.
Marta Forsberg “Slowa (Not Saying a Word)” (Warm Winters Ltd.)
Vocals have long been a key component of Marta Forsberg’s music, but on the Swedish-Polish composer and sound artist’s latest full-length, Archaeology of Intimacy, her voice is the heart and soul of the record. Working alongside Ludwig Wandinger, who co-produced and mixed the album, Forsberg has ventured into a delicate strain of electronic pop, layering her breathy, borderline idyllic singing atop warbling melodies, oozing atmospheres and the occasional outburst of stuttering synths and skittering drums. Humble without sounding amateurish, the record’s general lack of flash adds to its intimate feel, and on LP highlight “Slow (Not Saying a Word),” that intimacy flows through a dreamy fog of fretless bass notes and wandering, organ-like tones. With Forsberg’s multi-part vocal acrobatics leading the way, the song settles into a cozy little corner of the avant-pop continuum.
Malibu “Contact” (YEAR0001)
Was there any doubt that the debut album from Malibu would be greeted with a rapturous response? The French artist has spent the past decade filling liminal spaces with her sublime ambient lullabies, in the process becoming the kind of cult favorite that techno geeks, hyperpop freaks and musical oddballs of seemingly every stripe will turn to when they’re looking to soothe their soul. The Vanities LP continues down that path, its haunted bliss aided by a handful of contributors (including cellist extraordinaire Oliver Coates). Yet Malibu herself is the sorceress here, and her spells are especially potent on the aching standout “Contact,” where her slow-burning Enya-isms gracefully float atop lapping waves of impossibly plush drones.
funcionário “o caminho da estrela” (Holuzam)
Technically speaking, the word “funcionário” translates to “office worker” or “civil servant,” but in everyday language, it’s not exactly a term of endearment. More often than not, funcionários are viewed as overly rigid clock-watchers, and certainly wouldn’t be celebrated as a reliable source of imagination. Given that, the word makes for an unusual artist moniker, but that didn’t stop Pedro Tavares from adopting it anyways. His new album horizonte is a decidedly low-key affair, yet there’s nothing cold or bureaucratic about it. Primarily dealing in homespun ambient and wavering soundscapes that sound like they’ve been set adrift hundreds of kilometers from the nearest shoreline, the LP peaks with the glimmering tones of “o caminho da estrela,” a song that calmly glides into Fourth World territory and invites everyone in earshot to take a soak in its gentle waters.
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.