FaltyDL – Bravery [Planet Mu]

The debut album and assorted 12”s from NYC’s Drew Lustman AKA FaltyDL have been some of the highlights of the year, but he’s not done yet there is another trick up his sleeve in the shape of the mini album Bravery. It’s made up of material produced since his album so you only get the freshest beats here, the guy is prolific not many artists manage two albums in a year, mini or not… Plus not only does he manage to keep the quality high but the vibe is totally different, you still get the stuttering lob sided garage meets hip-hop electronica but this time its darker and more organic. The dance floor energy is still there in fact the tempos are even more varied than before.

There is a deep dusk-like feel at work on the opening track ‘Made Me Feel So Right’ with a sweet passionate R&B hook sampled and twisted over dense bass drenched grooves, if Burial was brought up with Flying Lotus in New York you might get something like this, but then you don’t really need that when you have FaltyDL he easily stands out on his own. You get that NY feeling from a lot of FaltyDL’s music, I’ve not been or anything but everyone has some kind of image in their heads of NY and ‘Mother Beam’ defiantly gives me that vibe with its jazzy chords, hip-hop tempo and the fact a chopped up and screwed vocal says ‘Drew Lustman, Live In New York’ a few times.

The title track takes this vibe into the club in a spaced out disco meets hip-hop sort of way it really gets its bounce on. The filtered R&B vocals, which are all over this album, sound so familiar but they’ve been tweaked out of context so brilliantly that they take on a new life of their own. ‘Play Child’ has a similar feel again, an echo-chamber space disco sort of thing. All the time on Bravery you get the feeling things are progressing, the flow works so well.

Things up in tempo even more with ‘Tronman’ which has an almost dubstep speed going on, with rolling broken garage beats and beds of reverb drenched tones that build a lot of tension. Vocals fly at you from all direction and sound like a love letter to the music that influences him somehow. ‘Must Sustain’ gets a little more soulful with a slower groove, this stuff is so hypnotising and dense there is a real dub feel at work, samples and percussive hits get dragged out into mesmerising soundscapes.

Then when you think you’ve been dragged into the underbelly of NY ‘Pressure’ jumps out and makes you want to dance, with its deeply moving sub bass tones, super broken skitting garage breaks, p-funk synth bass and shimmering guitar funk licks that all switch up into some serious full body work out rhythms. Then to end things the acid tinged ‘Discant’, which comes on like a funk variation on old Trax records like Phuture or Mr Fingers via present day NY and Detroit techno and ends Bravery in a stylish flourish.

Love Is A Liability has been up there as one of the albums of the year for me and I really didn’t expect FaltyDL himself to come out and top that before the year was even out, he could of at the very least given someone else a go. But with Bravery that’s what he’s done. This is the sound of someone enjoying and exploring sound, while creating a record that will jump off in DJ sets and sound brilliant at home.

Clips:
http://www.planet-mu.com/discography/ZIQ244



Sonic Router Interview & Mix:
http://sonicrouter.blogspot.com/2009/07/interview-faltydl-planet-muramp.html

Tracklist:
1. Luke Vibert - Swet (Planet-Mu)
2. Floating Points KG Beat (Planet-Mu)
3. FaltyDL - Human Meadow [Boxcutter remix] (Planet-Mu)
4. FaltyDL - Pressure (dub)
5. Horsepower Productions - Pimp Flavors (Tempa)
6. FaltyDL - Bravery (dub)
7. FaltyDL - Lifer (dub)
8. FaltyDL - Safe (dub)
9. Boxcutter - Foxy (Planet-Mu)
9.5 Krome and Time teaser...
10. Clark - Farewell Mining Town (Warp)
11. Wagon Christ - Spot Light (Rising High Records)
12. Nautilis - Nautilus (Planet-Mu)
13. El-P - Toj (Definitive Jux)
14. Jonny Greenwood - HW/Hope of New Fields (Nonesuch)

Links:


www.myspace.com/faltydl

http://www.planet-mu.com/