Back catalogue: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz/Nu Soul

Review: Man like Drew Lustman returns to Ninja Tune for an excellent slab of forward thinking beat science under his universally acclaimed FaltyDL guise. It's nice to see FaltyDL back on the label after a stint overseeing the rise of his own Blueberry Records operation - expect much more from them in 2014 - and once again Ninja house Lustman's work in the classy throwback original Ninja Tune yellow and black housebag. The A Side title track to Danger expertly rolls in the crawlspace between contemporary juke and early millennial broken beat with subtle hints of classic 60s spy cinema. It's complemented well by "King Brute," a collaboration with the superbly named Shanghai Den which spills with creeping atmospherics.

Review: Although it has pretty much always been the case, it has to be said that Falty DL is absolutely on fire at the moment, and the New Yorker has been releasing bangers left, right and centre since the start of the year. This time, he takes a break from his own imprint and lands back on London's mighty Ninja Tune with a couple of bangers, all nice and deep, like. "Visceral" is a gentle garage hybrid running at a fast pace and blending all sorts of melodies into its shell, while "The Ah Track" verges onto housier territories. There is, of course, plenty of the man's own flair and manipulation at its core. As per usual, it's rocking gear for the floor.

Review: After his In The Wild LP dropped on Ninja Tune last year, Drew Lustman continues on an exploratory path for this new EP, revisiting tracks from the album, inviting remixers in to play with the parts, and offering up some fresh excursions into the unknown via tape processes and other such studio experiments. "Greater Antilles VIP" is certainly a patient creation, moving through orchestral swells loaded with melodrama and quietly tense moments of earthen percussion. u-Ziq delivers a remix of "Rolling" that harks back to the good old days of British electronica with its overdriven alien beats and melancholic synth swells, while Brrd goes positively ambient with his grainy version of "Frontin". Lustman's own broken beat revision of "Do Me" dazzles with autumnal grace, and the additional experimental pieces shed light on further experimental alternatives to the typical FaltyDL sound.

Review: On the basis of the material FaltyDL has released with Ninja Tune thus far, his forthcoming third album Hardcourage should rank as one of the more interesting albums to surface in the first quarter of next year. Following the excellent throwback styles of "Hardcourage", the New Yorker showcases his seemingly endless palette of styles with "Straight & Narrow", a wonderfully colourful and vivid sounding production. Dominated by some deft vocal chopping, it's the way these cooing elements intertwine with the beguiling synth noodling and crisp almost handclap style beats that resonates deeply. Ballroom duo Mike Q and Divoli S'vere naturally latch onto the most obvious elements in the vocals and clapped beats, laying them atop a breathlessly frenetic rhythmic mainframe, while Four Tet hogs the flip with a dewy eyed, slowly percolating seven minute remix that will tug at the heart strings of his legion of fans.

Review: On the basis of the material FaltyDL has released with Ninja Tune thus far, his forthcoming third album Hardcourage should rank as one of the more interesting albums to surface in the first quarter of next year. Following the excellent throwback styles of "Hardcourage", the New Yorker showcases his seemingly endless palette of styles with "Straight & Narrow", a wonderfully colourful and vivid sounding production. Dominated by some deft vocal chopping, it's the way these cooing elements intertwine with the beguiling synth noodling and crisp almost handclap style beats that resonates deeply. On the flip, Gold Panda delivers a typically prismatic reworking with thickly detuned vocals that outdoes even the likes of Four Tet in the melody stakes.

Review: Pick up a dictionary, look up 'curveball' and you'll find "Rich Prick Poor Dick". You won't... But you should. After his experimental soundscapery on his In The Wild album, FaltyDL has decided to go all-out on our tooshes with two rather disparate club cuts. The unforgettably titled lead track is a rampant, near-150BPM, techno slapper with heavy elements of psy trance thrown into the mix for good measure and strong flavour. "Bookaloo" plays the cheeky, trippy antidote. A much slower (but still beat-heavy) beat jam, it's bedazzled in an array of both melodic and rhythmic leads and counter leads. Now look up the word 'essential'.

Review: Fink's "Little Blue Mailbox" is one of those epic, sweeping, magisterial pieces of music that quietly takes you by the hand, leads you into the middle of a beautiful storm and finally drops you back to a home where everything feels like it's been changed forever. Ninja Tune hit the spot with this release.

Review: Sam Shepherd may have spent the last few years offering up off-kilter, jazz-fired grooves and heady ambient soundscapes, but he still knows how to rock a dancefloor. That much is proved by his first Floating Points single for almost two years. "LesAlpx (Extended)" is his most forthright, club-focused cut in ages - a thrusting chunk of rumbling, peak-time techno built around heavy bass, sweaty drums, twinkling electro piano motifs and raging, foreboding electronics. Shepherd teases in the most melodic, rush-inducing elements, introducing spacey synthesizers and dreamy chords midway through. It's breathtakingly good. Flipside "Coorabell" is similarly potent, with acid style electronics, warm chords and sun-kissed electronics wrapped around swinging, two-step influenced house beats and a weighty, sub-heavy bassline. In a word: essential.

Review: Sam Shepherd, better known as Floating Points, has been turning the heads of music aficionados since he burst onto the scene in 2009. Beyond the electronic, Shepherd proves that he can also impress on a more organic tip with his Floating Points Ensemble featuring a cast of live musicians. This debut single by the Ensemble is absolutely stunning. It is with Floating Points Ensemble that Shepherd's classical composition and jazz piano training really shines through. Jazzy, spiritual and soulful, the two featured tracks were recorded and mixed at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, initially for the Ninja Tune XX box set which marked the imprint's 20th anniversary. Both tracks feature the soothing, soulful vocals of Fatima which soar beautifully in and out of a sumptuous arrangement of lush instrumentation made up of a full string section, flute, trumpet, saxophone, percussion, guitar and keys. "Almost In Profile" starts off quietly with a low drone, later joined by Shepherd coaxing a quiet melody out of his Fender Rhodes alongside his string section, slowly building to the eventual layering of a whirlwind of vocals, strings and percussion. "Post Suite" borrows influences from somewhere much further east of Shepherd's London home, and he blends these elements seamlessly alongside western music elements. A full Floating Points Ensemble album to follow one day? We hope so.

Review: In the period since the release of his late 2012 album Hardcourage, Drew Lustman has founded his own label as well as dropping singles on Swamp81 and Ninja Tune, slipped out the odd remix and kept up a busy touring schedule. Where he managed to fit in the studio time for a fourth album In The Wild is not clear but a new FaltyDL long player will always be welcome. At 17 tracks long, In The Wild is Lustman's most comprehensive display of his production palette by some distance with the Brooklyn based artist using the afforded space to really go deep into his various creative impulses. It's a lot to take in immediately, but tracks such as "Frontin'" and "Ahead The Ship Sleeps" feel like FaltyDL on top form.

Review: For all the impressive vivaciousness of his previous albums, Drew Lustman has occasionally been guilty of throwing together far too many ideas. Of course, when he hit the spot - and his track record in that regard is impressive - few could match his ability to fuse a myriad of dancefloor-centric styles with vivid melodies and kkleidoscopic sounds. On Into The Wild, his fourth album, he consciously takes a different approach, fixing his colourful sound palette to more downtempo rhythms - think hip-hop, jazz, dub and pitched-down post-dubstyep -and ambient soundscapes. The results are, by and large, stunning, with Lustman delivering evocative and at times spellbinding compositions that are almost cinematic in feel. It's a surprise turn, for sure, but one that offers further proof of Lustman's impeccable credentials.

Review: There's always been something a little loved-up about the scattergun, genre-bending productions of New York's Drew Lustman, AKA Falty DL. Yet previously, his desire to fuse cutting-edge rhythms with vintage rave references sometimes got in the way. Hardcourage, his first full-length for independent behemoths Ninja Tune, takes a more 'softly-softly' approach. Whereas his last full-length, 2011's You Stand Uncertain, was a kaleidoscopic invitation to start the dance, Hardcourage gently beckons you towards a loving embrace. While there are still plenty of skittish rhythms present, they're wrapped up in a warm orange glow - all serotonin-soaked chords, cascading melodies, bluesy vocal samples and near-Balearic compositions. In many ways it's a startling about-turn, but one that comes heartily recommended.

Review: There's always been something a little loved-up about the scattergun, genre-bending productions of New York's Drew Lustman, AKA Falty DL. Yet previously, his desire to fuse cutting-edge rhythms with vintage rave references sometimes got in the way. Hardcourage, his first full-length for independent behemoths Ninja Tune, takes a more 'softly-softly' approach. Whereas his last full-length, 2011's You Stand Uncertain, was a kaleidoscopic invitation to start the dance, Hardcourage gently beckons you towards a loving embrace. While there are still plenty of skittish rhythms present, they're wrapped up in a warm orange glow - all serotonin-soaked chords, cascading melodies, bluesy vocal samples and near-Balearic compositions. In many ways it's a startling about-turn, but one that comes heartily recommended.

Review: A new album from Sam Shepherd AKA Floating Points is always cause for celebration, but even by his standards "Crush" is rather special. Largely eschewing the ambient jazz soundscape shuffle of 2017's "Reflections - Mojave Desert", it sees the Shepherd showcase his musical dexterity in stunning fashion via cuts that wrap shimmering neo-classical strings around what sound like modular electronics and rhythms that variously touch on broken beat, off-kilter experimental D&B and Autechre-style IDM. Of course there are ambient and experimental soundscapes showcased, but it's the fact that the album contains a swathe of formidably dancefloor-focused cuts in the style that first made him standout that pleases us most. Highlights include recent single "LesAlpx", the dreamy "Anasickmodular" and the "People's Potential" style deep house intricacy of "Last Bloom".

Review: A new album from Sam Shepherd AKA Floating Points is always cause for celebration, but even by his standards "Crush" is rather special. Largely eschewing the ambient jazz soundscape shuffle of 2017's "Reflections - Mojave Desert", it sees the Shepherd showcase his musical dexterity in stunning fashion via cuts that wrap shimmering neo-classical strings around what sound like modular electronics and rhythms that variously touch on broken beat, off-kilter experimental D&B and Autechre-style IDM. Of course there are ambient and experimental soundscapes showcased, but it's the fact that the album contains a swathe of formidably dancefloor-focused cuts in the style that first made him standout that pleases us most. Highlights include recent single "LesAlpx", the dreamy "Anasickmodular" and the "People's Potential" style deep house intricacy of "Last Bloom".

Review: A new album from Sam Shepherd AKA Floating Points is always cause for celebration, but even by his standards "Crush" is rather special. Largely eschewing the ambient jazz soundscape shuffle of 2017's "Reflections - Mojave Desert", it sees the Shepherd showcase his musical dexterity in stunning fashion via cuts that wrap shimmering neo-classical strings around what sound like modular electronics and rhythms that variously touch on broken beat, off-kilter experimental D&B and Autechre-style IDM. Of course there are ambient and experimental soundscapes showcased, but it's the fact that the album contains a swathe of formidably dancefloor-focused cuts in the style that first made him standout that pleases us most. Highlights include recent single "LesAlpx", the dreamy "Anasickmodular" and the "People's Potential" style deep house intricacy of "Last Bloom".

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


A new album from Sam Shepherd AKA Floating Points is always cause for celebration, but even by his standards "Crush" is rather special. Largely eschewing the ambient jazz soundscape shuffle of 2017's "Reflections - Mojave Desert", it sees the Shepherd showcase his musical dexterity in stunning fashion via cuts that wrap shimmering neo-classical strings around what sound like modular electronics and rhythms that variously touch on broken beat, off-kilter experimental D&B and Autechre-style IDM. Of course there are ambient and experimental soundscapes showcased, but it's the fact that the album contains a swathe of formidably dancefloor-focused cuts in the style that first made him standout that pleases us most. Highlights include recent single "LesAlpx", the dreamy "Anasickmodular" and the "People's Potential" style deep house intricacy of "Last Bloom".