Floating Points

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.