Floating Points - Vacuum EP Review

A few weeks ago I did a post about House in which I wrote briefly about 'Vacuum Boogie' by Floating Points. Since then I've joined the team at Inverted Audio and I was asked to review the aforementioned EP, so here it is:

It wouldn't be an understatement to place Floating Points', AKA 23 year old Sam Shepherds new EP as one of the highlights of 2009 after a string of releases this year beginning with the skip-hop of Eglo 7" 'For You', through the electro-soul of 'Love Me Like This' and most recently 'J & W Beat', which has been hammered by every decent selector from Mary-Anne Hobbs to Eglo co-head Alexander Nut. This string of releases, although great in their own right, seem to have been building up to 'Vacuum EP'. The first thing that's striking about the title track is the groove, established by a deep, booming kick, which falls irregularly but is anchored by disco hats, before a shaker completes the shuffling effect. However, as much of a heady groove as this creates, what really makes this track is the melody. It's difficult to pick out one controlling melody or hook, but listening to the track there must be at least five elements, all grappling for the limelight and simultaneously complimenting each other. The effect is both dizzying and blissful, and it is easy to see Shepherds classical background here: any followers of his on Twitter are regularly treated to performances of Debussy compositions and the like. And that's what 'Vacuum Boogie' is - a composition, the synths working like an orchestra rather than just electronic sound. From here there is a slow build whilst the tune finds its feet, but when the bass drops? Game over.

On the flip, 'Truly' is structured quite similarly, with a keys line fitting between drum hits until the bass drops in a similiar way to 'Vacuum' and one of the most blissful chord hooks in existence enters the mix. This is one of the EPs main strengths: the progressive, loose intro which seems to fuse seamlessly into a full-on woozy epic in a second.

The final track on the EP, 'Argonaute II', is the most understated. It gently ripples with dreamy energy, underpinned with a sporadic lead line which stretches the length of the track until the fade out, though in all honestly 'Vacuum Boogie' and 'Truly' are the two which grab most attention. This EP finds Floating Points' at his most coherent, taking elements from previous exploits and combining them into a House format, the relatively slow tempo of which allows him to be at his most melodic, which is where he really excels. Though there is still time for releases in the tail months of 2009, 'Vacuum' will no doubt be a definite highlight for many, and deservedly so.

Dubstep is one word you fucking morons

It is now a widely accepted fact that what has become 'Dubstep' now rests in commercial venues blasting out mid-range, 150bpm ear-fodder for grinning space-wasters waiting for the next drop (they never have to wait long, there's a drop at least every 30 seconds) so they can shout 'FILTHY!!!' like it's a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of ridiculousness as much as the next guy, but there is nothing good about this stuff.

For example the following tune would probably get a rewind in your average night billed as 'Dub Step' (notice the gap between the words; no names mentioned, though a hint would be that I think the guy is a moron, but I was recently invited to a night billed as this. I don't think it's too elitist to state that if someone doesn't care enough to bother to learn that Dubstep is one word then they shouldn't promote the aforementioned music).

It sounds like a pig squealing.

So yeah, another quite generic rant, but actually I think this is a very positive thing for the music. In recent months we have seen those originally attracted to Dubstep for it's space, progression and bassweight jump ship after playing Dubstep meant exactly what I've stated above. From this we have the rise of Funky, the Dillaism of Wonky and further progression into Future Garage and House, not forgetting the pioneer Djs such as Oneman,, Blackdown, Ben UFO, Bok Bok and Ben UFO amongst others blending all the aforementioned styles together and being perfectly selective about the Dubstep they play, limiting it to the cream of releases and cutting out anything dull, using maybe releases from Hyperdub, Keysound or Hessle Audio along with emerging sub-genres. Therefore rather than the too often heard torrent of 'Dubstep is dead' or it becoming something so awful that it resembles nothing of the original groundbreaking force it once was, we see it becoming an umbrella term for innovative, amazing Bass music. Kode 9 was once quoted as saying Dubstep is a huge Sub and anything over the top, and this is a sentiment very relevant to 2009, with genre boundaries blurring in a way which makes 2009 a very exciting time to be in music, despite the hoards of Filth dullards.

Haus!

BLEURGH. Finally completely settled and ready to blog the shit out of this internet game.

Firstly big up to Fuck The Whiteboard for Friday night. My DJ debut as Mickey Rawkus (geddit) playing back to back with Pariah, who, if i'm honest, completely blew me out of the water. Had a great time, really want to play out as much as possible so if you're reading this and you put on a night get in touch and book me. I will play (almost) anything. But I won't play almost anything (yeah, that is a diss to that bitch who kept shouting PLAY RUSKO at us. No, i'm not playing Rusko. Nothing against the fella but REALLY?). Kept it rollin' with some garage classics and uk funky mainly, with some wonky and house thrown in for good measure. I dropped Anaconda by Untold and it went off. Got a rewind. I am very happy about this. Highlight was Pariah dropping Shystie. Or maybe when he dropped 'Detroit Falls' at the end. Anyway, enough wankery for now but please do get in touch. I want to get this dj ting well and truly up and running.

In other news I've really got into this kinda house stuff. Not really proper deep house, and I've been on UK funky for a while, but the stuff by a few guys related to the Dubstep thing, though Dubstep now seems to work as a term for good bass music, as well as loads of midrange wobble wank flannel music.

First up FaltyDL. I've ignored this dude for far too long, just heard a few tracks and neglected to actually good deep into it. It's a fusion of Garage and House with a transatlantic feel and a really strong sense of melody, but with the standard chest-breaking Bass synonymous with nearly everything I love right now. Track 'To London' is my personal favourite, though more can be found on full lengths for Planet Mu and his mix for the intimidatingly brilliant FACT Magazine.

FaltyDL has more of a garage slant than the next guy, who I've been into ever since I was turned onto him by a track on Alexander Nut's FACT mix (there they go again...). I was gutted to miss Floating Points at FWD>> yesterday. I don't know how I find it so hard to get to Plastic People on a Sunday for some reason. This is my favourite by him. The track starts well enough, establishing a luscious groove, but it's all about the bass drop later on in the track, which really does take my breath away.

Lastly, I really am not pretending to know the slightest about House (but believe me, I am doing my best to educate myself) and I am aware that the tracks I've posted so far on here are far from what many might perceive to contain the traditional notions of house, so here's a tune that is undeniably Housey. What I'm beginning to recognise in house is the ripples of energy and melody that build like a tide over the music, and this is what I look for a lot of the time in House tracks. This is a perfect demonstration of this effect by on of the masters, Omar S, who I was lucky enough to catch at Fabric months and months back.

I'll be doing my best to post on here as much as I can from this point on, I really have no excuse. Also working on my production and saving up for as many records as I can possibly grab. PLEASE SOMEONE BOOK ME :)

Peace out x

Carnival ting

Went to FWD>> Sunday, Alexander Nut absolutely rocked it, started with some wonky kinda hip hop bits and then played some Zomby and the Loefah mix of Jah War, which i was pretty happy about as I've been revisiting it for the past few weeks. It was amazing on the Plastic People soundsystem.

Next up was Pangea Vs. Untold. They opened with a remix of Islands by The XX, a favourite band of mine recently, their self titled debut is set to be one of the highlights of the year. I'm not sure who's mix it was, it sounded like Untold with his trademark huge bass hits but I might be wrong. Rest of the set was made up of a lot of unreleased Untold and some Pangea bits here and there.

From here I caught Dekheads at Catch, not my kinda thing, mostly just fidget house bits, but my man Doop dropped a mix of Nirvana and we all had it out for a bit. I was a bit drunk by about 1 and decided to go back to a mates flat to stay fresh for carnival business the next day.

I have no idea why I haven't been to Notting hill carnival before. It is pretty much the best thing in existence: Loads of huge homemade soundsystems playing Reggae, Dancehall, Dubstep, Grime and whatever else; jerk chicken and Red Stripe. We tried to get in to the Mad Decent party but failed in epic fashion, so eventually found a grime system where POW! got (surely) a record 6 rewinds. Was a bit worse for wear again so struggled home, as every tube station for miles around was closed.

Playing B2B with Doop warming up for Tomb Crew at El Mono tonight...should be interesting. Waiting some records in the post, really hope they get here so I can play them out later.

OOOOOOOOOOOPS!

Not really new from Hud Mo. I don't know why I'm so late posting this shit. Picked this up first on a mix by a guy called Kper who I don't really know anything about. That mix is well worth picking up, it's all ridiculous Dilla-esque wonk seamlessly mixed. Get it here

The tune is a reworking of r&b/masturbation classic Ooops! by Tweet, giving it some silly big synths and wonking about with the drums. The result is spectacular. He dropped it at Glastonbury but the sound was far too quiet. The bassweight definitely requires serious volume.

COOLY G

Cheers to everyone who came down to Gold Soundz, will start work on another one, possibly in London, when I move back up early September.

Bit late on posting this but it's something I've been feeling for a few months now. I saw a trailer for a documentary about her on YouTube, don't know too much about it but it looks cool. The trailer is just Cooly playing at Plastic People and dropping Narst at the end, which I'm obviously all about right now. Here's Narst:

There used to be a full version up but it's been taken down.

Strongly suggest getting this, out now on Hyperdub. B/W Love Dub.

Also check out Cooly's mix for Fact or her Rinse FM podcast.

GOLD SOUNDZ PROMO MIX

Put a mix together for my upcoming local night, Gold Soundz.

Get it here:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/638205250d8950c0/

Tracklisting:

Skream - Filth (Tempa)

Gemmy - BT Tower (Planet Mu)

Mark Pritchard & Om'Mas Keith - Wind It Up (Hyperdub)

Zomby - The Lie (Ramp)

Joker - Re-Up (Kapsize)

James Blake - Sparing The Horses (Hemlock)

Youngstar - Volcano (White)

Zomby - Strange Fruit (Ramp)

Brackles - Lizards (Apple Pips)

Youngstar - Bongcat Riddem (White)

Brackles - Get A Job (Apple Pips)

James Blake - Air and Lack Thereof (Hemlock)