FALTYDL Vinyl & CDs

Review: Drew Lustman's longstanding FaltyDL moniker makes a welcome return with a debut full length record for the eminent Central Processing Unit label. In The Wake Of Wolves deconstructs Lustman's usual rough dance sound for a less predictable album-length breakdown, retaining his usual arid textures while playing up the more sound-designed and maximalist ends of his craft. In the pithy words of CPU: "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." Whether you totally agree, you'd have to agree FaltyDL has at least taken on something of their contemporary future-pop/digisonic aesthetic and incorporated it into his own; this is most evident on the glassy pirouettes and gladiate complexities of 'Minds Protection', or the tenebrous post-punk descensions of 'New Friends', or many maximized IDM trap-doors and toolroom hard-clips of 'Workout'.

Review: Making a welcome return to Swamp 81 after the Mean Streets pair of releases, Falty DL is on superlative form as ever with a pair of direct cuts that play on different sides of his production personality. "Huff & Puff Bruk" takes the fundamentals of 2-step and infuses it with lazy jazz and ethereal tones for a crisply funking, whimsical cut that should get all soulful spinners in a lather. On the flip things get edgier as "Mo" takes sharply looped vocal samples and works them around clattering slices of breaks to whip up the kind of frenzy that Tessela and co. inspire with their own rum choppery.

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.