On My first listen to Floating Point’s latest album “Crush” I was slightly disappointed. On a mono bluetooth speaker “Crush” seemed like a mix of tracks that were either too experimental or traditional to work together but I decided to give it another listen due to my love of his previous work Elaenia.

I’m so glad I did. All my concerns with the record disappeared once I listened to the record on headphones. The use of Stereo separation on this album is a key part of the mixing. It adds exiting flourishes to the more traditional work, and manages to ground parts of the more abstract pieces and also provide continuity for the album as a whole.

The album also flows in a bold direction with his blend of strings and buchla synths shift genre between a spectrum of club music to neo-classical compositions.

At its halfway mark Is the track LesAlphx, which is probably the most driving track on the album, with a singular evolving bass rhythm driving the track. A refined aggression is created, and slowly gets more out of control over time.

On first listen LesAlphx is probably the most stand out track on the record. Its forward, rhythm driven production makes you sit up and notice it instantly. But I wouldn’t say it represents  “Crush” as a whole. The album has a lot more subtle and melodically diverse moments that make the whole record worth your time.

Floating Points continues to mix styles in a fresh and interesting way. He blends synthesis known for use in more experimental music with classical instrumentation and whittles down some of its edges to create identifiable dance music that i highly recommend:

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