Floating Points

I think it's time for Mr. Samuel T. Shepherd to have his own thread. Nothing he has released has been a dud (the Floating Points Ensemble was the closest thing) and most of his releases have been phenomenal. Plus he's an incredible dj. Let us celebrate!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8uHoBA-E7I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d38xbAFnCSQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANXeY7Ob5W0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsbgbVKDOHk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIo2vs0kmU4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNN7vFrkIjw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-xNxzmNtjs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL73y7jG21c

So that's half the discography covered then..."Red Light" off the Fatima EP is also essential imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I5RkApQW1s

something about this guys stuff always feels a little corny to me. i like the jazzy keyboard stuff, but for me the beat needs to have some kind of edge (sonically or rhythmically) to keep things from getting hotel lobby-ish, and i don't usually hear that here.

did not like what i heard of the ensemble music either (just on that ninja tune xx comp), it made me want to listen to early 00's Cinematic Orchestra.

these are nice to listen to at work though.

Only heard the Shawdows and Fatima EPs, but he seems very accomplished and kinda boring. Jordan otm.

New album is gorgeous.

Love "Silhouettes (I, II & III)", which was made available in advance: https://soundcloud.com/floatingpoints/silhouettes-i-ii-iii

Guardian interview just published, appetite further whetted: http://d.gu.com/CbJLD5

Yeah, this album is certainly going to end up in my top 5, if not 3. Streaming here: http://www.npr.org/2015/10/28/450599927/first-listen-floating-points-elaenia

Only heard one track (the closer) and it was fucking amazing.

Of the tracks I've heard over the years, I only really love Vacuum Boogie, but people have been saying incredibly good things about this record.

it hasn't actually grabbed me as some of his epic singles over the past couple of years but obv only one listen in

Somehow I've managed to not hear of him until yesterday. Which seems bizarre.

Presumably that means you haven't heard the Four Tet fabriclive? Which isn't my thing at all but he pops up quite early on that.

i would recommend vacuum boogie/people's potential/wires/nuits sonorés/nectarines/king bromeliad/montparnasse, all of those are amazing

I shall acquire all I can download this evening.

Enjoying this quite a bit.

Is the last track supposed to just stop like that?

I was listening to this earlier this week and i thought it was interesting but a bit weird, definitely different though.

then i realised i had left soundcloud playing so i was listening to a dj mix simultaneously

Quite a lot of it is so ambient that you could do that without realising for a long time.

This definitely worked for me as a Sunday afternoon kinda record - Silhouettes is definitely the best thing here (that orchestral swell!) but in general a move away from the dancefloor is quite a wise step for him.

Haven't heard this album yet, but Floating Points is great, one of the most consistently interesting producers out there. It's weird, because I wouldn't say I am typically drawn to jazzy house, but he does it in a way that really brings out groove in a tasteful way, and somehow is never cheesy or too smooth.

i haven't heard this but then i realised i had left soundcloud playing so i was listening to a dj mix simultaneously happens to me all the time. i get frequent "wow! this producer is really pushing the boundaries of dance music" moments only to realise, no, it's just yet another dull as ditchwater tech house track. i will check out the new floating points album simultaneously playing along the next time i'm wading through dance promos for a potentially more interesting experience.

Quite a lot of it is so ambient that you could do that without realising for a long time.

this is my issue with it really. floating points' last few singles haven't been dancefloor-oriented either but there was just so much going on in them, 11-minute tracks that really made full use of the running time. this is def a lot more subdued, maybe more subtle but also less engaging

This is lush.

omg this is so fusiony

last three tracks on this are incredible

or four rather. great album

^^^^^^^

have you guys heard the singles he's released over the past year or so?

any time you have a lex/Tim f/scick mouthy/murgatroid/ Ronan/ Matt dc/ Dominique/ stirmonster/ brad nelson consensus you know it's gonna be wonderful

first weekend of November is such a perfect time for this to emerge too

have you guys heard the singles he's released over the past year or so?

yeah! i like "nuits sonores" and "montparnasse," but i've never really loved this guy as much as kinda just respected what he did. i love that for the full length he totally luxuriated into fusion and space, which is really weird bc 1) i usually am not into that lp approach in dance music 2) i especially wasn't expecting to love it here but it's so... gorgeous?

Yeah i sort of see the big singles and the album as fulfilling different functions - like while it's fun and awesome when one of his earlier tracks like "sais" temporarily launches off into intergalactic jazz travel, it's differently awesome how the album just sits in that zone.

nuits sonores is very good & brad otm

The collab album with Mahmoud Guinia is excellent

Not heard anything else yet but looking forward to - at the moment the instant-gratification part of my brane is telling me I'd like more tracks like Peroration Six, or for the ambient-y ones in the midsection to have a house beat dropped over them, and hopefully the earlier singles will satiate this desire. (I have a strong hunch that in the fullness of time I'll be glad of the juxtaposition of the ambient-y, Tangerine-Dream stuff with the jazziness.)

Main other thoughts at the moment = he plays with dynamics really nicely; there's a really beautiful swell of sound in the opening track, and this seems triangulated to hit all my sweet-spots at once; Tom Skinner drums on it, he's mates with Four Tet etc, and he keeps talking about Laughing Stock. What's not to like?

i haven't heard this but then i realised i had left soundcloud playing so i was listening to a dj mix simultaneously happens to me all the time. i get frequent "wow! this producer is really pushing the boundaries of dance music" moments only to realise, no, it's just yet another dull as ditchwater tech house track. i will check out the new floating points album simultaneously playing along the next time i'm wading through dance promos for a potentially more interesting experience.

hahaha - two wildly different tracks playing at once, it's the undiscovered country!

gonna give this record a proper listen today - i have some cleaning to do. #life

This album is absolutely incredible on headphones, there's so much detail lurking in there even among the minimal arpeggiated Snooze For Love one.

What this reminds me of more than anything is a Hatchback album, that sense of something beautiful unfolding very slowly and just luxuriating in it throughout. I like it a lot more than his more dancefloor oriented singles because his slightly wonky approach to rhythm works much better in this context.

Also "mates with Four Tet" is completely meaningless at this point because he is mates with pretty much everyone including Terror Danjah and Skrillex.

Like I think initially approaching this as Balearic is probably the single best way to listen to it, as far as managing expectations goes.

Think I must be alone in liking his earlier, housier stuff! I much prefer the Shadows e.p. to this new one (although the last track *is* incredible)

album really reminds me of this (song and album)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwmT8b39aQY

hell yeah

it's making me think of this a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFM3WFt0LVQ

hell yeah x2

hmm i was not going to check this out but if it sounds like "north beach" ... wonder if kirk degiorgio is into it ...

i do like this album but it's still not blowing me away in comparison to "nuits sonores", "wires" etc

"Silhouettes" is the big keeper here; the rest makes a very good Sunday morning soundtrack, and sometimes that's all I need.

Listened to King Bromeliad/Montparnasse and Nuits Sonores this morning. Very nice indeed.

only heard bits of this but just made me think of old 4hero

"Nuits Sonores" is gorgeous and lush. Very happy to have finally heard this guy. The album's obviously very different to the singles, but I'm very glad that both aspects of what he's doing exist.

I'd like to like this album but it's pretty dull really.

ARP3 is his real classic.

only heard bits of this but just made me think of old 4hero

still haven't heard this but maybe i need to!!!

he's doing the essential mix this weekend

tlg plz listen to it

really digging elaenia -- parts of it definitely drop out of my consciousness/fade into the background if I'm not paying deliberate attention, but not in a bad way. Love the way so much of the album just gradually and smoothly evolves along.

I think the fusion guy it actually reminds me of most is jan hammer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU7b1l6zGKY

so this is the shit, huh?

definitive soundtrack to my long late evening dog walks for the last 4 weeks.

Holy shit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWukZiutO6Q

This is so incredible

just discovering this stuff -- elaenia is pretty amazing!

that's a very impressive live performance too!

new EP Kuiper
https://soundcloud.com/floatingpoints/kuiper

starts out like it might be a variation on the last album's sound, but this one is more krautrock/post-rock. (Or radiohead rock.)

FUCKING LUSH

This is exactly what I was hoping there'd be more of on the album last year, after Peroration 6 was the first thing I heard. Super pleased.

Last five minutes goes a bit Dave Gilmour but I can totally forgive that for the 13 minutes of jazz techno kraut that precedes it.

Getting quite a Where You Go I Go Too vibe from Kuiper.

anyone know if he plays w live band on current tour?

yeah, played with a band at the festival I saw him at last weekend

nice, hope to see him live this week

New EP's quite nice, think I like it more than the album.

Agree w/Ned, and it feels more like a mini-album than an EP to me. B-side is great too, would absolutely not mind more in this vein

http://pitchfork.com/tv/35-pitchfork-music-festival-paris/1909-watch-floating-points-full-set-from-pitchfork-music-festival-paris-2016/

So his new thing is out today - Reflections Mojave Desert. 5 tracks over 27 minutes recorded in the mojave desert as a 5-piece band. Two long (7 and 10 minutes) psychedelic prog jazz grooves, and three ambient-y explorations of what happens if you fiddle with an organ in the desert and approach it as a post-doc field recording project.

Ordered it weeks ago from his site and it arrived yesterday. Silurian Blue the 7-minute track, got a bit of play on 6music a while ago, and is pretty indicative (of course; there are only four other tracks!).

Headphones, though, wow. This sounds like nothing else I've ever heard. Not like a live album, not like a studio record. It's pretty slight in many ways (and he really is just doing instrumental prog now), but I also wouldn't want it to be any longer.

Comes with a DVD of s short film of the band playing and Sam wandering around with a field recording mic in the desert, which I've not watched yet.

The 10-minute track, Kelso Dunes, reaches somewhere he's not quite been before, whilst also being a logical kin to Kuiper etc.

Headphones, though, wow. This sounds like nothing else I've ever heard. Not like a live album, not like a studio record. It's pretty slight in many ways (and he really is just doing instrumental prog now), but I also wouldn't want it to be any longer.

I'm having difficulty reconciling the two halves of this paragraph and tbh your description doesn't riveting tbh, he doesn't need to go any further in that direction.

I had this all queued up for my Friday morning commute but that's prime listening real estate so I'll give it a go on Sunday morning instead.

new album is the best thing he has done IMO. less brainy but all the better for it. one of my favourite things ive heard this year. lots of daft punk style synth work (i dont know the exact synth but they used it a lot on RAM), and some gorgeous guitar. not seen the film but its very replayable. also perfect for summer.

OK this meddle/dark side shit on "reflections" is AWESOME. what a champion.

New track out today, download and (weird) 12". Ratio. 19 minutes. Which is why it's weird on vinyl, cos it's split somehow? Anyway, it's long, it's proggy, but it's NOT krauty / jazzy like the Reflections or Kuiper; it's much more house-y again, like a fusion of the early singles with Elaenia. Very nice indeed off a couple of listens. He's very tasteful, isn't he?

And why not? Said song:

https://soundcloud.com/floatingpoints/ratio-full-mix

Might be the best thing he’s done.

His new Late Night Tales is good fun. Very much in the, well, 'late night' section of late night in that it's practically beatless.

Tracklist: https://latenighttales.co.uk/products/floating-points

that looks great. plus Lauren Laverne reading Emily Bronte!

New stuff!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8fFo4REHOE

Quite a lot of it is so ambient that you could do that without realising for a long time.

this is my issue with it really. floating points' last few singles haven't been dancefloor-oriented either but there was just so much going on in them, 11-minute tracks that really made full use of the running time. this is def a lot more subdued, maybe more subtle but also less engaging

― lex pretend, Sunday, November 1, 2015 1:36 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wonder if lex is pleased with this new one!

New album 'Crush' arrives mid-October.

Crush:

01 Falaise
02 Last Bloom
03 Anasickmodular
04 Requiem for CS70 and Strings
05 Karakul
06 LesAlpx
07 Bias
08 Environments
09 Birth
10 Sea-Watch
11 Apoptose Pt1
12 Apoptose Pt2

I loved Ratio and LesAlpx so I am psyched for this. Not a band release, just him making more dancefloor stuff, I understand.

The new stuff I've heard seems pretty next-level to me.

I was hoping he would go further into rhodesy space-fusion territory after Elaenia--like something with Mwandishi-esque sidelong jams--but the new tracks are pretty cool. Getting strong Aphex vibes from Last Bloom.

This new album is quite good.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/arts/music/floating-points-crush.html?

yeah on a couple spins it's one of my favorites of the year so far. The singles are nestled perfectly about the album, surrounded by some really incredible orchestral and synth driven songs that step through many different transitions and progressions over some relatively brief track times!

His new Late Night Tales is good fun. Very much in the, well, 'late night' section of late night in that it's practically beatless.

Tracklist: https://latenighttales.co.uk/products/floating-points🕸

quite like this but a lot of it sounds like a worse, less ambitious drukqs

I really love the Late Night Tales but this new album is rubbish. Dance music that's never broken a sweat. You can reaĺly feel how it stretches towards big emotive feelings and comes up so short, corny but without any sense of glee or euphoria

File beside Jamie XX and Bicep as dance music that wishes it was mid-noughties Kompakt but comes nowhere close

I'm not sure he's aiming to make people dance with most of this.

The album as a whole isn't as strong as the pre-release tracks and moving towards shorter tracks doesn't seem to have necessarily benefited his sound any, but I also don't think there's anything wrong with being detached and cerebral. Not all electronic music needs to be body music.

Yeah, I'm enjoying this - I think the singles sound much better in the context of the rest of the album

Eleania wasnt really trying to make people dance either but it was good and not gloopy. I think that's why I found this such a disappointment - he's been involved in so many better things than this before

See I found Elaenia a little underwhelming overall - after the singles and Peroration Six I felt that the mid-section loss of momentum as he explored pseudo-ambience was just way too close to torpor and emptiness. I much preferred Kuiper and Ratio. So far - and I've only listened properly a couple of times so it's early days - I feel like this has got a bit more dynamism and urgency to it. He's still not delivered exactly what I want him to, though, I don't think. Which would probably just be 45 minutes of Ratio and Peroration Six.

I have no point of comparison as I've yet to check out his previous material but this flows quite nicely despite its disparate gestures (there's even a Bach-esque adagio in there). I'm very curious to hear what he'll come up with next.

'Sea-Watch' vaguely brings to mind Vangelis's L'Apocalypse des animaux.

Coincidentally, in the context of the album LesAlpx has been making me think of Blade Runner, which I'd never thought before despite listening to the shit out of the extended version.

This album smokes Elaenia. That record never resonated with me and I couldn't even remember most of how it sounded. This one sounds iconic from start to finish. The songs fit together really well despite sounding so different. The equipment listing in the liner notes suggest a focused and minimal equipment setup (outside of vocals and acoustic instrument recordings) used consistently across most of the tracks. Love the creative and subtle use of compression all over the record too. Lots of nice attention to detail.

If I have any critique it's in the abruptness of how both Bias and the album itself end.

Yes, I also found the closer needlessly jarring, like he'd just thrown his arms up and decided it was time to move on, much to the listener's dismay.

The trope of making intentionally messy decisions for the sake of winning avant-garde points is kind of annoying among all artists? But it's impossible to argue whether it works or not in any given case, really.

I like this, not sure how much I'll go back to it, but moreso I'm jealous/impressed by the fluidity of his setup (and musicianship)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75iX1rnW9WQ

Actually this is growing on me as an ambient-ish album, LesAlpx is really the outlier

It's quite lovely!

I put this on recently driving around at night and found that it just kind of merged with my thoughts to the point that I was enjoying it and not really conscious of it being on at the same time.

I've only skimmed this, but it strikes me that a few of the songs would fit on a playlist with Rival Consoles and other Erased Tapes stuff in a similar vein.

Yes very much.

I think the fusion guy it actually reminds me of most is jan hammer

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, December 11, 2015 11:20 PM (three years ago)

i've never heard this guy before but i def get the same vibe as that one J.H.G. track andy kellman used to great effect on more than one of his doubt beat mixes

jan hammer is a good point of comparison i think! i was toying with tangerine dream.

the abruptness

a handful of tracks i'd say - seems to be a thing

ok this guy is the shit

This grows on me with each listen. There's an unstructured audio collage feel to it that I like. Works well as a whole album. I was also thinking about it the other day and wondering how Vacuum Boogie didn't show up on the 2000-2010 singles poll. Still probably my favorite Floating Points song.

i think it's dumb how so many reviews cite his neuroscience degree/job when the obvious fact of note is that he studied music, he's got an amazing tact for mixing modes

On paper, this music touches on many things I love dearly--RJD, Kompakt, ECM, electric Miles, Krautrock--and yet the cumulative effect invariably has me shrugging, and I can't say why. It always sounds great when it's playing but I almost never want to return to any of it. I plan to keep trying though because it really does feel like something that will click at some point. It may just require the right weather / occasion / drugs and / or mood

i'm impressed without being particularly moved by it.

next time through i'm gonna try and imagine i'm listening to an ecm record

enjoyable but not exciting seems about right but it needs a few more spins

Just popped up on my t/l

We are proud to announce Promises, a new album by @floatingpoints and #PharoahSanders, featuring @londonsymphony and artwork by #JulieMehretu. Find out more at https://t.co/vmGn7WkIuR.

Available worldwide March 26, 2021 @luakabop#ListenToPromises pic.twitter.com/QuE5dtNmc0

— Luaka Bop (@LuakaBop) February 16, 2021

!!

Wow!

Why do they always have to get a symphony orchestra involved

omg I love Julie Mehretu (and Pharoah Sanders of course)

I've never heard of this guy before, but this album is pretty great. I'm reviewing it for The Wire. I guess I'll have to wade through his back catalog to get a sense of exactly what he's bringing to the table.

I thought Elaenia and its neighboring singles (especially "For Marmish Pt. 2") were a really interesting blend of proggy fusion and electronica, but I haven't been into most of his stuff since then

I've enjoyed pretty much the lot so news of this this morning was damn intriguing.

Totally loved Elaenia but kept forgetting to give Crush a proper chance. I think I kept figuring I would pick it up at an NYC shop but 2020 got in the way.

dang

love floating points, love sanders, curious to hear this for sure

it's gorgeous on first listen

absolutely incredible. wow. i thought there was no way this could live up to expectations.

instant classic and i'm going to listen to it for YEARS

WAY, WAY better than i had anticipated.

It's really good. When I first got the promo, there was exactly one second of digital silence between each track, which was super fucking annoying. But hearing it properly now, it's really something. I'm gonna buy a physical CD copy to really let it fill the room.

so that we don't bounce between artist specific threads:
Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders and London Symphony Orchestra - Promises (2021)

I'm not sure how long it's been there or how long it will last but his take over of the Spotify Deep Listening playlist is pretty great: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX5y2yPmGqrG8?si=f39HicePRpeQzjO17DblFg&utm_source=copy-link

Anyone still listening to this? It feels like it came out one million years ago.

It does.

Too much new stuff flowing in every day that I absolutely have to listen to to revisit it often, but it's still very likely to make my year-end list.

Funny I just pulled this out the other day and still enjoy it. Feel like it’ll be a good spin as the weather turns and the days get shorter over the coming months.

the languorous romantic quality of it reminds me of being a kid and first hearing Prelude To the Afternoon of a Faun

i went back to it the other day and it's still as sublime as ever

so it turned out he produced half of the new hikaru utada album???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUmnh3omeE4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uctD_1SKqtM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FL7ahAmdp8

here's the tracks he co-produced they all rule

i'm wondering what the connection is. the first two tracks sound nothing like floating points, though they do seem a bit like "modern" takes on old soul/funk stuff he plays in his sets, especially with the horns in them. the last track has a tiny hint of FP in it

sonically it all very much sounds like his production, the latter two really aren't too far removed from his work on elaenia at all. the first is a little further away but still seems like a fairly natural expansion on that sound.

I hate it :(

hardly any tracks on elaenia have a steady beat. the sounds also have a lot more movement that makes most of the album sound a bit more organic and "wavy." i forget if sam was already using modular synths on that album, but i want to say it at least sounds like he is

the outro on the last two hikaru utada tracks get modular and have a bit more movement, but it's much tamer

also, what's with the 12-minute song? i assume a radio version of that would cut sam's "noodling"

Weird, I was just idly wondering if he would make a return to dance music after the Pharoah Sanders album

https://floatingpoints.bandcamp.com/album/vocoder

This is a tune

i miss that Vacuum Boogie sound.

yes, this is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05uM6sP7Kdk

Nice

i like this one way more than the first single.

another banger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWLpR6Fsc6Q

FYI, he has a collaboration on the new Shabaka album that was a standout for me.