Buy/stream: kompakt.fm/releases/the_floor_is_lava_2xlp_dl

Michael Mayer albums don’t come round too often, which is one of many reasons why his fourth collection, The Floor Is Lava, is a genuine event. It’s been eight years since his last one, the collaborative & released on !K7; its predecessors, Mantasy (2012) and Touch (2004), took their sweet time, too. It’s no real surprise, given the many hats Mayer wears – globetrotting DJ, revered remixer, inveterate collaborator, and boss of both Kompakt and Imara – that his solo productions are relatively sparing. But this also speaks to their quality: Mayer’s name on a record sleeve is a sign of quality, of music that’s both looking to the future and calling back to the past, that balances the imperatives of the dancefloor and the loungeroom, that’s as exploratory as it is functional.

On The Floor Is Lava, Mayer seems to be taking the temperature of both the music that surrounds him (past and present), and the ideas of the industry he works within. There’s that iconic album title, for a start. “The album’s mindset,” he says, reflecting on those four words together. For Mayer, it’s partly a critique of the way the industry boxes in both producer and listener, focuses them on genre, on market, on the next new thing: “Being a free minded spirit that transcends genres has become an uphill battle.” A battle worth fighting, though, and with The Floor Is Lava, the result is an album that’s varied, quixotic, idiosyncratic, charming, and deeply, addictively listenable.

Throughout, Mayer finds thrills in exploration and juxtaposition, allowing unexpected things to blossom and giving them their life, their platform, throwing the listener exciting curveballs: “It’s a DJ album by a DJ that’s easily bored.” Either easily bored, or endlessly curious, The Floor Is Lava is rich with ideas. It opens with “The Problem”, which looks back to look forward, embracing the rickety way early house productions threw samples together with gleeful abandon. Mayer mentions Pal Joey, and the scene around Rockers Hi-Fi and their Different Drummer imprint, as reference points, and you can hear that freewheeling spirit throughout.

That’s The Floor Is Lava: then and now, brainwaves and nerve structures, problems and solutions, genres on fire; the real, the unreal, and the surreal. An album for the easily bored and the endlessly curious. Mayer has the last word, telling us all you need to know about the album’s spirit: “Burning for the cause, being zealous, being addicted to the heat of the night, the exuberant powers of music.”

The Floor Is Lava

The Problem

Michael Mayer - The Problem

Today in the share-zone:
An abandoned, unfinished dub of Client Liaison, back from when we were going to release them on Multi Culti. Fun fact: Duke Dumont also did a remix that never saw the light of day (or night). I gave up on this one because it was too 'white' and I couldn't imagine ever wanting to be seen playing it. Now's the time when you tell me I was wrong and crazy and it's actually making you groove away from your computer terminal and into the outback of your mind.
If this reaches 1 million plays I'll upload the vocal version.

Client Liaison - End of the Earth (Von Party's Balearic Dub demo)

A Side - Two Different Ways (original)
B Side - Two Different Ways (second way) 

Release date: 14/11/11

12'' Single 
DFA Records 
DFA 2318

Factory Floor

TWO DIFFERENT WAYS

A Rushing Into Water

Cable Dazed

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - "I Will Make Room For You (Four Tet Remix)"

Taken from 'The Night Land Remixed'
18/05/18 - http://smarturl.it/thenightand-remixed

Dins El Llit  - Superpitcher Remix
The Ghosts Hood - Samo DJ Remix
Brutal Chugga Chugga - L.B. Dub Corp Remix
Loser’s Hymn - Powder Remix


John Talabot and Axel Boman teamed up in 2017 for their R&S debut ’The Night Land’ where they got to flex their creative muscles over eight tracks of rich synth jams.  

The two electronic artists have been independently successful in their respective careers, but as Pitchfork expressed in their glowing review “Their collective output doesn’t sound much like either’s work; it doesn’t even necessarily reflect the thin, convex sliver where their interests overlap. Instead, they’ve hit upon something new.”

This new sound also proved to be a hit with the likes of Mojo, Phonica, XLR8R, Self Titled and DJ Mag all including it their annual best of lists.

The artists have now handpicked four artists to create their own vision of the Talaboman sound.  
Superpitcher, Samo DJ, Luke Slater under his L.B. Dub Corp alias and Powder have all seriously delivered the goods.

Talaboman - Dins El Llit - Superpitcher Remix

music for xxx

The Absence Of Blight

Fifteen Minutes With You

Vocalcity

The Right Wing

Raster presents »Il Quadro di Troisi«, a project by Andrea Noce (Eva Geist) and Donato Scaramuzzi (Donato Dozzy). The record is a colorful ode of an Italian scented vision, overflowing of details and profound intensity. The contemporary world condition, the pandemic in Italy and around the world define »Il Quadro di Troisi« as a unique and right-on-time release. 

This record is a enigmatic collaboration between the two Italian natives Andrea Noce and Donato Scaramuzzi. Andrea Noce takes lead on the vocals, with Donato Scaramuzzi carving the dreamlike soundscapes of the record. The record was born with a correspondence between the two artists about the late actor and director Massimo Troisi, and this exchange soon became an inspirational source of identification. Andrea Noce’s lyrics are sensitive and multi-faceted, they perfectly cling to the musical phrases and flow like a filmic monologue from the oeuvre of that very Troisi. 

In a highly creative and confident manner, entire decades of national music history are comprehended and transformed into the here and now. The record takes its cue from the italo-disco, synth pop tradition corroborated by the contribution of artists such as the legendary Twilight Music co-founder, Paolo Micioni. With »Il Quadro di Troisi«, Noce and Scaramuzzi prove their eclecticism, and passion for their home country. 

»Il Quadro di Troisi« is a collaboration between Raster and the Milan-based festival Terraforma. With this release, the first with a purely Italian focus on the label, Raster celebrates its long standing relation with Italy and the Italian audience, encapsulated in the label's project ›Electric Campfire‹ held in Rome for ten years. Terraforma is an international experimental and sustainable music festival taking place since 2014 in the park of Villa Arconati, where Dozzy has been invited at every edition in different forms, DJing, live performing both in solo and with Voices from the Lake (together with Neel). 

»Il Quadro di Troisi« will be released on the 31st of August as an exclusive pre-order, followed by the single release of »Raggio verde«. The physical and digital release of the album is planned for autumn 2020.

Il Quadro di Troisi

Il Quadro di Troisi »Raggio verde« taken from »Il Quadro di Troisi«

Label, booking agency & online record shop

Demo submission: 
We receive a lot of demos every day. Please understand that we are unable to listen to everything. Send your private soundcloud link to: label@kompakt.fm.