If you can judge an artist’s quality by the company they keep, then FaltyDL is up there with the best of them. The label history of the producer known to his friends as Drew Lustman reads like a “who’s who” of 21st century electronic music imprints - Ninja Tune, Unknown to the Unknown, Planet Mu, Studio Barnhus, the list goes on.

With In the Wake of Wolves, we can now add Central Processing Unit to this illustrious roster. The Sheffield label joins the party at a notable juncture - while FaltyDL has kept up an impressive clip of releases throughout his career, In the Wake of Wolves is both the NYC-based producer’s first LP for two years and his first full-length release away from his own Blueberry Records for almost a decade. 

In the Wake of Wolves proves to be both a great match for CPU and also further evidence of the label’s burgeoning sonic palette. While CPU has built its reputation on top quality electro joints, recent releases have delivered adventurous electronica experiments (Proswell’s People Are Giving And Receiving Thanks At Incredible Speeds), hard-wired breakbeat techno (Baby T’s I Against I) and golden-age synth explorations (twenty-fifth anniversary reissues of Bochum Welt’s Desktop Robotics and Feelings on a Screen, both of which first emerged via the legendary Rephlex Records). In the Wake of Wolves takes things further still - this is a brilliantly genre-voracious record, one which marries the rhythmic cut-and-thrust that we have long known FaltyDL for with all manner of adventurous stylistic choices.

Those familiar with the FaltyDL experience will recognise the trademark blend of synthetic grit and harmonious softness in album opener ‘I Need You’. This could pass for Four Tet or even Hannah Diamond at points, the steady build of pulsing synths and looped vocals recalling a more mysterious version of the PC Music sound. ‘I Need You’ stands shoulder-to-shoulder with any of FaltyDL’s other great atmospheric album openers - no small feat given the competition. ‘Further’, the following number, is yin to ‘I Need You’s yang. This is a pulsating track which gleefully skitters between machine-funk, tubing darkside bass and breakcore-adjacent drum programming, all of which is peppered with some genuinely beautiful work in the higher synths.

‘Further’ sets the scene for several of the more club-facing cuts here. ‘Minds Protection’ similarly features all manner of strange percussive sounds to surprise the ear, and it also boasts a thrilling mid-section in which the bottom falls out the track to incorporate a short snippet of blown-out junglism. With its tunnelling low-end and clattering drums, ‘Full Spectrum’ kicks off a delightful run of grime-influenced joints which take cues from Mr. Mitch, Logos and many of those other producers who took the Eski sound to exciting new places in the 2010s. ‘Forget Me Not’, the album’s longest track which is placed three spots from the end, feels like the record’s climactic point - a pitter-patter post-house joint that has a hint of Caribou in its DNA, it’ll take the clubs by storm.

But as much as FaltyDL may consistently bring the heat in terms of the beat programming, the thing which has long marked Lustman out as a special talent is the musicality of his compositions. No matter how much drums clatter or bass bangs, FaltyDL always hooks the ear back in with a sonorous synth or pleasing nugget of melody. Nowhere is this more apparent than on In the Wake of Wolves’ more weightless numbers, each startling in their prettiness. ‘Half Spectrum’ is a new-era beat track packed full of ear candy; the keening keys of ‘GasGas’ are potent with feeling; and on the album’s closer, the evocatively-titled ‘Mila Stans In A Meadow For The First Time Eating Strawberries’, we get a gorgeous synth vignette that joins the dots between the modern mastery of Yung Sherman and the most emotionally affecting moments of Aphex’s Twin’s catalogue.

In The Wake Of Wolves

FaltyDL - In The Wake Of Wolves

Matching his signature melodic futurism with enduring club music structures, Pev brings the Pulse series to a natural conclusion with the Pulse Phase EP. On this third release he underlines the broader approach to tempos and styles he’s taken across this latest period of his output, soon to be coalesced into a new live set. 

If there’s been a nostalgic streak detectable amongst the crisp modernism of the Pulse series, it comes through clearer than ever in the looped-up house jack and starry-eyed techno synth hooks of ‘Pulse IX’. ‘Pulse TEN’ pares back for a lean soundsystem workout driven by a strafing arp and fractured drums while ‘Pulse XI’ revisits 90s bleep techno with a deep, dubby intention. ‘Pulse XII’ completes the picture capturing the skeletal pressure of 2-step at its most slender and deadly.

There’s never a sense of over-familiarity — the exacting angles of the drums and alien hue of the synths maintain Pev’s distinctive sound first and foremost. But this series has also been an opportunity to hear some of his musical DNA more explicitly than before, cast in universal rave motifs propelled by the unrelenting pursuit of new forms for the dance.

Pulse Phase E.P.

Pulse IX

Peverelist - Pulse IX

READ > inverted-audio.com/premiere-o-m-theorem-lemma1-dj-sotofett-remix-feat-lns-ekowmania

Four years since the release of the bass-heavy 'Lemma1' EP, Norwegian born producer Tobias Sørensen Urhaug aka O.M. Theorem and label head Aarti Kriplani line up the first of two remix packages, delivering two VIP reworks and a pair of weighty remixes from Bristol-based producer Ossia and Sex Tags Mania kingpin DJ Sotofett.

@omtheorem

Corollary1

Lemma1 (DJ Sotofett Remix feat. LNS & Ekowmania)

O.M.Theorem - Lemma1 (DJ Sotofett Remix feat. LNS & Ekowmania) [O.M.Theorem]

READ > inverted-audio.com/premiere-dreamrdreamr-antique-blue

After notable releases from Tom VR, Small Steps affiliate Boaksi and label head honcho Seb Wildblood, London-based record label All My Thoughts gear up to drop ‘Through The Elements‘ EP from producer and visual artist Dreamrdreamr...Clocking in at 160 BPM, opening track 'Antique Blue' is our pick thanks to slumbering chord progressions evoking a sense of melancholia then following up with a high dose of deconstructed jungle breaks and metaphysical R&B vocals, Dreamrdreamr immerses listeners in a state of endless reverie.

@allmythoughts
@dreamrdreamr

Through The Elements EP

Antique Blue

Dreamrdreamr - Antique Blue [all my thoughts]

out now

NMCS001 | No Moon - Cute Series 001

Taken from 'So is the sun' - out 5 July 2024

facta.bandcamp.com/album/so-is-the-sun

Facta - 'A X I S' (WSDM027)

Skee Mask - Resort

A1. Hedwig Transformation Group
A2. Nostaglitch
A3. Reminiscrmx
B1. Element
B2. Waldmeister
B3. Daytime Gamer
C1. Schneiders Paradox
C2. BB Care
C3. Terminal Z
D1. Hölzl Was A Dancer
D2. 7AM At The Rodeo
D3. Vitamin 313

Written, produced & mixed by Skee Mask 
Mastered by Tangible Air 
Artwork photos by Lara Köcke

p&c Ilian Tape 2024 
Ilian Tape Publishing

ITLP19 SKEE MASK - RESORT

Meeting Again And Again

132 track with vocal sample from Megan the Stallion "Thot Shit"

Aint Spinnin

Pearson Sound returns to his Hessle Audio label with 'Hornet', an 808-laced club workout which combines metallic drones and precision engineering for maximum dancefloor impact. Road tested at clubs and festivals across the world during the first half of 2024, it gives a taste of new material to come from the London based DJ, producer and mix engineer.

Pearson Sound - Hornet

uu010

pre-order u010 vinyl

uu010 - a2

Label run by @facta and @k-lone93

Bookings: tal@fmly.agency & peter@fmly.agency
Enquiries: contact@wisdomteethuk.com
Sync & licensing: gavin@syncsmith.com

Facta - 'A X I S' (WSDM027)

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