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FaltyDL
Hardcourage
[Ninja Tune]
Hardcourage, Drew Lustman’s third album as FaltyDL, is a demonstration of both the music that made the man and how far he has come as an artist. Born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut he didn’t make the grade of city’s famed Yale University, instead dabbling with drugs and playing in jazz and rock groups, before at the age of 19 going solo under the moniker he has kept until today.
After a few years of rave experimentation his music finally found a home with Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu label, and after relocating to New York his career really started to take shape. Increasingly influenced by 2-step and garage, Lustman’s first album Love Is A Liability established him as a promising producer, remoulding the British genres with an American twist. Several EPs and another LP followed, along with standout remixes for the likes of Mount Kimbie, The XX, Scuba, Photek and Radiohead. Despite setting up his own imprint Blueberry Records, he signed to Ninja Tune last year and made concerted steps to move beyond his garage typecast. “I’ve moved completely away from that sound,” Lustman revealed. “Production-wise it’s the best thing I’ve ever done; it’s about getting sounds I hear out of my head onto the software/synths I’m writing on.”
This new approach shines through on album opener Stay I’m Changed, which gradually grows into a solid house track, full of depth but not over cluttered with ideas. In a recent interview Lustman said that he purposefully stripped down the production process, as tracks on previous albums built up too many channels of audio and distortion. This is again evident on the next song She Sleeps, which has a hint of Four Tet in the sparse style of its skittery drums overlaid with a soaring falsetto of The Friendly Fires’ Ed Macfarlane. Debut single Straight & Arrow is the first hint at how the new label has influenced his music, with a Wagon Christ/Mr Scruff era squidgy synth line mellowing into a more contemporary post dub-step feel, adorned with Joy Orbison-esque vocal samples.
Apparently the most prevalent power behind the record was Lustman’s love of a (presumably) beautiful woman, which blossomed during the writing process. This is particularly evident in the girlfriend-aimed For Karme; a stunning mix of insistent 90s house piano riff and dubby trap beats. Unfortunately it’s not all quite that inspired, in fact directly after the love song come a couple of disappointingly inspiration-less mid-album fillers. Thankfully the Fifth Element-referencing Korben Dallas brings things back into line with a bang, all rumbling bass and futuristic synthesiser work, recalling last year’s collaboration with Machinedrum. The best is arguably saved for last, as the beautifully building Bells pulls at the heart strings with intermingling saxophone, harmonica and glockenspiel snippets.
If 2011’s You Stand Uncertain lived up to its name in terms of musical style, Harcourage works similarly as a courageous step forward for Lustman, leaving the freeform jazz method of old and moving boldly towards a more focused means of production. After several years flitting round the fringes, this album should confirm FaltyDL as equal amongst peers like Bonobo, Gold Panda and Floating Points.
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