Floating Points

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!