First Floor #322 – No One Asked for All These Remixes

An extensive survey of unlicensed Grouper remixes, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh crop of recommended new releases.

July and August are supposed to be a slow time for electronic music, at least on the news front. Yet the longer I do this, the more I realize that “slow times” have largely been eliminated from the music calendar. Someone, somewhere is always releasing or announcing something, and while that’s perfectly fine, it does make it borderline impossible for editorial outlets—or at least the ones that make an effort to present even a curated selection of news items—to take any sort of break.

I knew that even before I announced that First Floor would be on hiatus last week, but once I got home and plugged back into the newswire, it was frankly dizzying to see just how much had happened during my little sabbatical. Given that, I’m going to jump right into today’s digest—there’s simply too much for me to catch up on.

As such, today’s mailout is absolutely bursting with information. News stories, album announcements, suggested reading links… it’s basically an attempt to condense all of electronic music’s most important happenings from the past two weeks into something semi-digestible. There’s a whole lot of new music as well, including a big batch of recommended new releases and a special guest recommendation from Lena Willikens, who’s one of the very few artists I can refer to as a “selector” without feeling like a total cornball.

And there’s one more thing: Do you like Grouper?

Of course you do. Although Liz Harris has gone out of her way to maintain an exceedingly low profile over the past two decades, she’s arguably one of the most influential artists in the entire ambient / experimental / avant-folk / whatever-you-want-to-call-it sphere. Her music is singular, and often hauntingly beautiful, and it’s honestly no wonder that dozens of other musicians have decided to either remix or sample her work over the years, usually without her permission. Most of those efforts have flown way below the radar, but after hearing Harris’ voice unexpectedly pop up on a new trance record this week, I decided to take a closer look at what other Grouper bootlegs are out there and publish my findings in a proper First Floor feature. A link to that feature is below—and yes, the paywall is (temporarily) down—along with the rest of today’s digest.

Let’s get started.

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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 article examining the vast array of unlicensed Grouper remixes that have sprouted up over the years. (It also includes some Grouper covers and several tracks that extensively sampled her work.) Although the artist herself has never commissioned this stuff, her influence is so great that artists of all shapes and sizes have decided to do it anyways.

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FIRST FLOOR x SONIC ACTS

As a working journalist, I’m usually the one doing the interviewing, but last month I was contacted by writer Hannah Pezzack, who’s currently heading up the newsletter for Sonic Acts, an interdisciplinary arts organization based in Amsterdam. She actually wanted to interview me, and our conversation has now been published online. It was a meaty exchange, and as you might expect, I spoke a bit about First Floor. Yet the bulk of our talk was devoted to big-picture issues and my thoughts on the current state of electronic music, from its stubborn obsession with futurism to the shortcomings of both its curatorial class and the journalists tasked with covering the culture.

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WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

A round-up of the most interesting electronic music news from the past two weeks, plus links to interviews, articles and other things I think are worth sharing.

• John “Jammin” Collins has passed away. The news was first announced via a post by Detroit Techno Militia, though it soon triggered a flood of tributes, including one from Underground Resistance, who described him as a “true, relentless soldier of the underground” and “an ambassador for Detroit in every way.” Collins was a longtime UR affiliate, and could often be found at Submerge’s Exhibit 3000 techno museum, where he served as a guide. He was also a DJ and producer in his own right, and logged decades in the Motor City scene, both in the clubs—during the 1980s, for instance, he was a resident DJ at Cheeks alongside Jeff Mills—and on the radio. (It was via the latter medium that I personally first encountered John, as he held down a monthly radio show on Red Bull Radio while I was part of the team running the station.) His body of work is honestly too extensive to properly summarize in the context of a newsletter blurb; these articles from Resident Advisor and DJ Mag offer a more comprehensive picture of the man, but anyone who’s spent serious time in Detroit knows just how essential he was to the city’s dance music community. He’ll be missed.

• French artist Kavinsky has also died. An electro-house veteran best known for “Nightcall,” a song which became an international hit after being featured in the 2011 film Drive, he was discovered in his Paris apartment after a concerned neighbor contacted the authorities. His passing has prompted countless tributes—even French president Emmanuel Macron publicly sung the artist’s praises—and more elaborate remembrances have surfaced in multiple publications, including a piece by Ben Cardew for Crack and another by Gemma Ross for Mixmag.

• Topdown Dialectic spent years shrouded in mystery, but after revealing his true identity earlier this year—for those who missed it, he’s San Francisco-based photographer and musician Izaak Schlossman—he’s now decided to start talking to the press as well. The recent release of his new False LP A album—which was recommended by First Floor—likely factored into that decision, but after delivering a mix and briefly answering a few questions for the RA Podcast last week, he then took part in a proper long-form interview, talking to Philip Sherburne in the latest edition of the latter’s Futurism Restated newsletter. (According to this tweet from writer Joshua Minsoo Kim, another Topdown Dialectic interview will also surface at some point on Tone Glow.)

• Michael McKinney continues to be one of contemporary dance music’s most thoughtful writers and interviewers, and last week his byline appeared on two excellent conversations. The first surfaced in DJ Mag, who commissioned him to speak with RHR for the publication’s Recognise mix / interview series. Their wide-ranging exchange touched on a myriad of topics, including the Brazilian producer’s working-class upbringing in São Paulo, his more recent collaborations with Skrillex and why his aesthetic is more rooted in a vibe than a particular sound palette. Just one day later, McKinney’s conversation with DJ Plead dropped via Passion of the Weiss, and found the Australian-Lebanese producer wrestling with questions of identity and self-tokenization while also reflecting on the “sexy and sad” nature of his latest LP, Please. (Just FYI: that album also landed in First Floor’s Recommended Releases.)

• Curated by Shannen SP, the Mzansi Bass compilation—which was issued via TraTraTrax in June—was meant to provide a snapshot of the bass-centric club sounds coming out of South Africa right now. And though the contents of that compilation do speak pretty loudly on their own, those craving a bit more context should be advised to read this Crack magazine piece that Shannen put together. Aside from pointing out some key artists and labels, she also also makes clear that gqom is not the be-all and end-all of what’s happening in this scene, and notes that even in South Africa, “trancey rave synths” are very much a thing.

• The massive fires that ravaged parts of Los Angeles in early 2025 long ago fell out of the news cycle, but many of the city’s residents—and artists—are still dealing with the fallout. Celia Hollander, who lost her Altadena home in the blaze, is one such artist, and in a new interview with Andrew Ryce for his Futureproofing newsletter, she speaks frankly about her experience, both in the immediate aftermath of the fire (a lot of displacement and moving around was involved) and in the months that followed, describing how she’s managed to rebuild her creative practice and return to something resembling a “normal” life.

• Given his propensity to switch up his sound from one release to the next, Piezo can be hard to pin down, but the Italian producer addresses that slipperiness directly in a new interview with Andrew Moore for Clash. Along the way, he talks about the current state of the Milan scene and his own propensity for collaboration, having already done one record with DJ Python and DJ Plead and having another on the way with upsammy.

• Speaking of collaborations, the recent Exhale album from Donato Dozzy and Batu has received widespread acclaim, and the project also prompted writer Christian Eede to sit down with both artists for a new Mixmag interview. They recount how they met in the first place and discuss how they’ve connected across different countries, workflows and generations to make something they’re both happy with.

• Prior to releasing Halo in June, Answer Code Request had gone eight years without releasing an album. What prompted that extended pause? The German producer provides an answer in a new interview that accompanies his entry in Inverted Audio’s long-running mix series. Speaking to Will Patterson, he talks about what has (and hasn’t changed) in terms of his music-making approach, along with what it’s been like to do something outside the umbrella of Ostgut Ton, which was previously his longtime label home.

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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.

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JUST ANNOUNCED

A round-up of noteworthy new and upcoming releases announced during the past two weeks.

• Given that First Floor clearly has Grouper on the brain this week, it’s a funny coincidence that Liz Harris announced that Helen—her band with Scott Simmons and Jed Bindeman—would soon be releasing its first new album in more than a decade. Promising an “intimate and potent vision of bedroom dream pop,” the LP is called Linda’s Head, and it’s due to arrive on October 2 via the kranky label. In the meantime, two songs from the record—the title track and “Dead shark II”—can be heard here.

• After teasing fans for several months with a breadcrumb trail of singles, Montreal mainstay Jacques Greene has confirmed suspicions and unveiled plans to drop a new full-length. Entitled jg, it’s designed to be a “club album,” and includes guest appearances by CFCF, umru, Ouri & Jonah Yano, DJ BORING and SEES00000. LuckyMe will be issuing the record on October 16, but several songs from the LP, including new single “Presence,” are already available here.

• Al Wootton spent a good chunk of time talking about Holy Tongue—his collaboration with Valentina Magaletti and Zongamin—when he was interviewed by First Floor last year, and the psychedelic dub trio have now completed a new album. Rooted in a series of improvisations they recorded in the Swiss Alps and London, the record is called Basilikum, and it also features experimental vocalist Dali de Saint Paul on two tracks. One of those tracks, “Coca,” has already been shared, and the rest of the LP will be released via AD 93 on October 9. And just one week later, Magaletti will be debuting a different project, CZN, which is a collaboration with percussionist and sculptor João Pais Filipe and producer Leon Marks. Entitled Parallel Commutator, it’s going to be issued by Turkish label Oath, and it consists of two long-form compositions. The first of those compositions, “There’s a Clown in My History,” is available now.

• Eight years have passed since composer Jóhann Jóhannsson’s unexpected death, but before his passing, he had a long-running friendship and creative collaboration with Adam Wiltzie, co-founder of Stars of the Lid. The loss of Jóhannsson understandably prompted Wiltzie to set aside the recordings they’d made together, but after several years away, he returned to the compositions and completed an album, Friendship Survival Guide, in an effort to honor his late friend’s legacy. That LP—which also includes contributions from Tim Hecker and the late Steve Albini—is now slated to arrive on September 18 via Deutsche Grammophon. In the meantime though, a video for the song “White Gloves & Turtlenecks” has been published.

• A little more than a year has passed since Carré was interviewed by First Floor, and in that time, she’s rapidly ascended the dubstep ranks. That climb will likely continue following the forthcoming release of Citrine, her third EP for the legendary Tempa label. Lead track “Spend It,” which features the sultry raps of Mercury, has already been shared, but the full release will drop on September 4.

• Slikback might have made the leap to Planet Mu for last year’s Attrition album, but that hasn’t deterred the Kenyan bass alchemist from continuing to regularly drop new releases as “name your price” downloads on Bandcamp. His latest offering, ONE, went live last week, and is available in full now.

• Speaking of bass alchemy, Beatrice M. and Tim Reaper have joined forces on a new record, BMTR001, which the duo self-released without warning just yesterday. Aside from the fact that it’s available on 10-inch vinyl and digital formats, no other information has been shared, but the two-track effort is out now.

• The unveiling of a remix EP is rarely a newsworthy event, particularly when only one of the tracks on the record is actually revealed to the public. Timedance, however, knew that it would be able to grab people’s attention when it announced yesterday that the upcoming Remixes - 3, which is due to land on September 11, includes a rework of Ploy’s “Ramos”—arguably the biggest tune in the label’s entire catalog—by none other than TraTraTrax cofounder Verraco. That remix has already been shared, and info about the EP’s other two offerings is said to be coming soon.

• Born out of a collaboration at last year’s Intonal festival in Sweden, Palm of Hand is a new collaborative release from ambient / experimental producer Felisha Ledesma and Lebanese ambient / dream-pop duo Snakeskin. Out now via Paralaxe Editions, the music it contains was largely made in the moment—the artists only had a couple of days together—but it’s infused with emotional heft, as Snakeskin’s Julia Sabra provided lyrics commenting on both the port explosion that devastated Beirut in 2020 and the Palestinians in Gaza who’ve been killed by Israeli bombardments. (Full disclosure: Paralaxe Editions is my wife’s record label, though I had nothing to do with commissioning the release and I’ve previously covered all of the artists involved here in the newsletter.)

• After debuting a few months back with the AMDUB01 EP, IVM Trio—a collaboration between Sébastien Forrester, Mika Oki and Apulati Bien—has now put the finishing touches on their debut album. IVM stands for Inner Voice Movement, and the group is said to be bound together by “a shared love of free improvisation, sparse atmospherics and rapturous club mutations.” Their new LP, which they describe as a “genuinely exploratory record,” is called Explain Yourselves, and it includes guest vocals from bela, Grove and Sara Persico. One track, “Furnace,” has already been shared, and the remainder of the album will surface on October 2 via Accidental Meetings.

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LENA WILLIKENS HAS BETTER TASTE THAN I DO

First Floor is in many ways a one-person operation, but each week, the newsletter cedes the spotlight to an artist, writer or other figure from the music world, inviting them to recommend a piece of music.

This week’s recommendation comes from Lena Willikens, a Düsseldorf-based artist who in many ways embodies the idea of the selector. Coming up via the city’s famed Salon des Amateurs—a venue that was also a launching pad for the likes of Vladimir Ivkovic, Tolouse Low Trax and Jan Schulte (a.k.a. Bufiman a.k.a. Wolf Muller)—she developed a uniquely free-flowing approach to DJing, one in which the machine grooves of the American Midwest sit comfortably alongside post-punk oddities, proto-industrial romps, offbeat dub excursions, avant-garde electronic pop, billowing synth psychedelia and whatever else might fit the vibe she’s chosen to explore on any given day. When Willikens gets behind the decks, it’s fair to say that no two sets are identical, or even all that similar, save for the doggedly exploratory spirit at their core… [READ MORE ABOUT LENA WILLIKENS + CHECK OUT HER GUEST RECOMMENDATION]

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RECOMMENDED RELEASES

The following is a summary of First Floor’s favorite new releases that came out during the past two weeks or so. The blurbs below are only brief excerpts of the full write-ups; to read the complete recommendation (and hear the actual music) for an individual release, click the “Listen to the Music + Read the Full Write-Up” link, or you can also just head over to this convenient Buy Music Club list if you prefer to listen to all of the selections in one place.

Poppy H – Wilderness Channel (Jollies)

… Creating entire worlds while using nothing but a smartphone and GarageBand, he rejects the ever-forward push of consumerism—and the music sphere’s obsession with fancy equipment—reminding us that everything we need is likely already at our (literal) fingertips. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

Kirk Barley – Arc (Marionette)

… Who says you can’t find warmth in negative space? There’s a stark minimalism that guides Kirk Barley’s new album Arc, but it stops short of the austere solemnity that so often comes as a byproduct of reductionist approaches. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

How Du – Metal Will Reign (Pressure Dome)

… The energy is patient and mindful of what some might deem the “proper” approach to dubstep, and there’s a pervasive warmth emanating from the synth work that makes the whole album a dream to sink into. In music there’s a very fine line between homage and hackneyed throwback, but How Du has clearly absorbed his inspirations with sincerity—and done them justice while filtering them back out into this headphone-ready release. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

Eden Aurelius – Entre Nous (Short Span)

… Entre Nous does circle the typically hazy and amorphous territories of ambient-dub, but the album itself is a surprisingly dense listening experience, its incorporeal weightlessness countered by a sense of true substance—it’s like floating through a lucid dream while still feeling the physical reassurance of bedsheets wrapped around your body. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

Mudpool Opal – Kept Running (Kino Disk)

… Though it slots in somewhere below the dub techno umbrella, it’s only “techno” in the loosest sense of the term. Mudpool Opal’s productions are far too amorphous for that, and the scattered bits of percussion that do appear are more like textural accoutrements than anything resembling a danceable rhythm. Weightlessness is arguably the record’s defining characteristic, and there’s something unmistakably compelling about the undulations of its flickering digital synths. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

Kassian – Overtone III (Unknown to the Unknown)

… Bass—both in the sense of actual basslines and the nebulous genre of “bass music”—has always been a major part of Kassian’s DNA, but it’s fair to say that Overtone III just might be their most low-end-heavy release to date. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

Leo – Cicada Burnt (Peak Oil)

… Aside from some occasional detours into static-laced haze and moody meditation, there’s practically always something clicking, clanking, popping, fizzing, tapping, banging or booming away. Restlessness runs throughout the record, but what’s interesting is the way that Leo puts that restlessness in conversation with a sort of post-modern exhaustion, swaddling even his most sprightly drum patterns in rust-colored fog and a nagging feeling that some unseen doom is waiting just beyond the horizon. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

Grandma Love – Grandma Love (Constellation Tatsu)

… Love comes in all shapes and sizes, but grandma love just might be the purest, most unconditional love of all. Tavis Hitchcock certainly seems to think so; after years of plumbing the darkest depths of Bristolian bass as Karkossyn, he’s adopted the Grandma Love moniker as an outlet to explore not just a warmer, more bucolic sound palette, but a nostalgic vibe inspired by his own childhood memories. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

DB1 – Fluktuationen (Nullpunkt)

… Moody, minimal and deliberate, these stripped-down constructions unfold as ghostly phantoms of drum & bass and dubstep. It’s not that the percussion doesn’t hit hard—it absolutely does—but DB1’s drum strikes often feel less like an all-out assault and more like the opening salvo of some sort of ritual incantation. [LISTEN TO THE MUSIC + READ THE FULL WRITE-UP]

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That brings us to the end of today’s First Floor digest. Thank you so much for reading the newsletter, and remember, you can find all of this week’s recommended releases on this handy Buy Music Club list. (If you like them, please buy them.)

Until next time,

Shawn

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First Floor is published and overseen by Shawn Reynaldo, 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 other potential opportunities.