5 new releases we love: Polished punk, star-studded breakup bangers, and more
Floating Points, “LesAlpx”
[Ninja Tune, June 18]
Jesus, is it already possible to be nostalgic not just for the aughts, but for the decade’s latter half? We wouldn’t have thought so until we put on the new single by English electronic producer Floating Points. “LesAlpx” harks back to the twilight supernova of French house—when Ed Banger Records, Justice, and Vitalic’s riffy electro reigned—as well as the rubbery German tech house of Booka Shade and the starry Scandinavian minimalism of Lindstrøm. Then again, that’s when Sam Shepherd started making house music as Floating Points, so after spending some years paddling in more atmospheric ethers, it makes sense that he would return there. Head-clearing and floor-filling, “LesAlpx” is the textbook definition of back-to-basics, though there’s nothing academic about the bold, threshing groove that Shepherd throttles and filters, drains and saturates, so it growls and zaps around an irresistible giddy-up drum. The first time we hear a DJ abut this with “Like A G6,” we’re going to lose our shit. [Brian Howe]
Black Midi, Schlagenheim
[Rough Trade, June 21]
Black Midi’s volatile 2018 Brixton live shows got so many people talking that, with just one recorded song to its name, the band inked a record deal with Rough Trade. Debut album Schlagenheim encapsulates the London foursome’s live mania: Frequent dynamic and tempo shifts, unconventional song structures, and sounds danceable, anxious, or aggressive (or sometimes all three) return unpredictability to rock music. On “Reggae,” whispers and jittery guitar lines build to sneering and six-string slashing, before collapsing into a shrieking, mosh-worthy breakdown. “Western” is innocuous enough until its arid placidity explodes into twanging tremolo and impossibly rapid drumming, which itself gradually transitions into an abrasive instrumental free-for-all. On “953,” an extended false start leads to a ferocious groove that’s later reprised in double-time. Schlagenheim proves that, both live and on record, there’s no telling what Black Midi will do next. [Max Freedman]