Floating Points announces new album 'Crush,' shares "Last Bloom"

While UK electronic musician Floating Points (aka Sam Shepherd) took some recent forays into full-band jazz, he returned to a one-man operation and to his dance music roots with this year’s “LesAlpx” / “Coorabell” 12″ and now he’s continuing in that vein for his new album Crush, due October 18 via Ninja Tune (pre-order). Here’s some more background via press release:

Floating Points’ first album in four years, Crush, is a tempestuous blast of electronic experimentalism whose title alludes to the pressure-cooker of the current environment. As a result, Shepherd has made some of his heaviest, most propulsive work yet, nodding to the UK bass scene he emerged from in the late 2000s, such as the dystopian low-end bounce of lead single “LesAlpx.” But Crush also boasts some of his most expressive songs yet that explore a signature melancholia, and his use of the Buchla synthesizer, whose eerie modulation haunts the album.

Whereas Elaenia was a five-year process, Crush was made during an intense five-week period, inspired by the invigorating improvisation of his shows supporting The xx in 2017. He had just finished touring with his own live ensemble, culminating in a Coachella appearance, when he suddenly became a one-man band, just him and his Buchla opening for half an hour every night. He thought what he’d come out with would “be really melodic and slow-building” to suit the mood of the headliners, but what he ended up playing was “some of the most obtuse and aggressive music I’ve ever made, in front of 20,000 people every night,” he says. “It was liberating.”

The first single is “Last Bloom,” which is very firmly rooted in hard-hitting dance music but with an atmospheric, psychedelic twist. It comes with a video directed and produced by Hamill Industries, who also designed Crush‘s album artwork and who will also be working with Floating Points on the visuals for his upcoming live appearances. Check out the “Last Bloom” video, the Crush tracklist, and the current list of tour dates (all in Europe) below. More shows TBA.

Crush Tracklist
1. Falaise
2. Last Bloom
3. Anasickmodular
4. Requiem for CS70 and Strings
5. Karakul
6. LesAlpx
7. Bias
8. Environments
9. Birth
10. Sea-Watch
11. Apoptose Pt1
12. Apoptose Pt2

Floating Points — 2019 Tour Dates
13 Nov – Paris, FR @ Elysee Montmartre
16 Nov – Berlin, DE @ Funkhaus
21 Nov – London, UK @ Printworks