After spending the last few years on several musical side quests, including orchestral performances and scoring a ballet, Floating Points is back to his dance music roots. Cascade, his new album, puts the UK producer squarely back on the dark, sweaty dancefloors where club music thrives.
Despite a track list of only 9 songs, this album clocks in at almost an hour. These longform song formats allow Floating Points to really stretch out and experiment concepts within each tune. “Ocotillo” is the perfect example of this. The first act is ethereal twinkling harpsicord, with the second act building momentum, as Floating Points introduces an escalating synth melody, upping the BPM over the course of three minutes. By the the time the third act hits around the six-minute mark, the song has completely morphed into glitchy, breaks heavy techno that bares almost no resemblance to its beginning. Yet somehow, the journey makes sense.
As a concept, Cascade perfectly encapsulates the marathon pace of a rave, finding quiet pockets to allow the listener/dancer to be present before plunging them into the blissed out euphoria found within heavy beats again.
You’re definitely going to want to give this album a listen. Make sure to check it out below. Enjoy!