Welcome if you will, to the coming of age of FaltyDL, AKA Drew Lustman. A producer who's already carved out a name as one of the most exciting talents to emerge in electronic music of late, he's released albums on Planet Mu, supported Radiohead (and topped Thom Yorke's office playlist,) as well as remixed the XX, Scuba and Mount Kimbie - to name but a few. He also has his own label, Blueberry Records, in collaboration with which Ninja Tune presents 'Hardcourage.'
'Hardcourage' is the NYC-based Lustman's masterpiece: an electronic opus inspired by love and crafted with renewed intent and dedication. Lustman often makes mention of attempting to channel the music in his head, to allow it to pour forth direct from his subconscious. In 'Hardcourage' it seems he's succeeded. The music here feels incredibly natural, the songs taking the most perfect of shapes, their emotive rise and swell both subtle and immensely powerful.
Halfway through making the album, Lustman fell in love - the object of his affections rapidly becoming his muse. He's been very lucky in more ways than one: 'Hardcourage' is full of uplift, energy and purpose - it genuinely feels like all the best parts of falling in love.
The album's opener 'Stay, I'm Changed' is much more than just a track that happens to come first, it genuinely opens the album, setting the tone and enticing the listener in to the self-contained world within. From its initially tentative, horn-like synths, it gradually grows in urgency, drama and emotional depth.
Second single 'She Sleeps' is the only vocal track on the album, featuring a brilliant, haunting turn from The Friendly Fires' Ed Macfarlane. The pair bonded over a shared love for garage music, (ironically, garage being the sound Falty has moved away from on the album.) The collaboration feels instinctive and inspired, two minds meeting to make a song with a purity and vulnerability not often found in electronic music.
‘Finally Some Shit/ The Rain Stopped’ feels like the blues lifting. Its pattering drums bring to mind rain against a windowpane, the driving bassline is like renewed resolve captured in music. ‘Hardcourage’ is about ‘when things are in Limbo and having the courage to carry on,’ says Lustman, and nowhere is that more in evidence than here.
The album’s first single ‘Straight and Arrow’ summarises the musical direction Lustman has taken with ‘Hardcourage.’ His move away from a US take on garage has resulted in a masterful brand of atmospheric, soul-drenched house and electronica. As you'd expect, Falty has applied as much vision to the album's close as he has its beginning. 'Bells' has a strong claim to be electronica's greatest love song. Like the clouds parting, the heart leaping, the world seeming to chime with happiness, it's the perfect end to the perfect declaration of love.
‘I didn't make this album with the intent of sharing all of it,’ Lustman has said. That’s obviously served him well. Luckily for us, share it he has.
Track List & Soundclips:
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Stay I'm Changed |
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She Sleeps |
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Straight & Arrow |
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Uncea |
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For Karme |
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Finally Some Shit / The Rain Stopped |
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Kenny Rolls One |
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Korben Dallas |
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Re Assimilate |
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Bells |
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Drew Lustman aka FaltyDL was born and grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. It’s a place best known as the home of top Ivy League establishment Yale University. Other than that, Lustman explains “it’s a big ghetto.” The young Lustman found himself bouncing between these two worlds, not entirely comfortable in either. “i was a shitty student,” he explains. “I barely graduated, did a lot of drugs, and ended up in rehab at 16/17. Music was my way to get out of it.” He started off playing in jazz and rock bands, but by 19 he’d decided to go it alone and named himself FaltyDL.
There followed a few years of intensive music making interpersed with attempts to find a home for what he was making. Eventually Mike Paradinas of the legendary Planet Mu said he’d release the young producer’s records, “a huge moment,” Falty remembers. Shortly after, he relocated to New York and it was here that his musical career really took off. “My good friend Boxcutter advised me to the slow the BPM down to like 130BPM and was sending me a lot of garage-influenced stuff like Horsepower and El-B, and I started making "Love is a Liability."” Since then, Lustman has looked to expand and evolve his signature sound over two albums, an EP and three singles for the label. In addition, he has released an afrobeat-inspired 12”, “Mean Streets Pt 1” with Loefah’s Swamp81 label, a single on Ramp backed with a remix from Jamie XX and begun releasing collaborations with Machinedrum online. An in-demand remixer, he has made versions for the likes of Seun Kuti (Fela’s son), Mount Kimbie, The XX, Scuba, Photek, Anthony Shake Shakir and others. Recently he supported Radiohead in New York and topped Thom Yorke’s office playlist. In additon to all this, he set up his own label, Blueberry Records, named for both the fruit and the Blueberry Hill he used to climb near his grandmother’s house.
But if FaltyDL was known for his own twisting of the garage template (a music which had crossed the Atlantic, mutated, and now come back to be twisted again) his new music signals another change. “I've moved completely away from that sound,” he says. “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. Filtering through the sounds in my subconcious. This is the closest I've ever got." Partly the changes are down to that old black magic, love. Lustman met his girlfriend mid-way through the writing of the record (shortly after signing to that cupid amongst labels, Ninja Tune!) and she “became my muse. I didn't make this album with the intention of sharing all of it. Of course some of it, but most was made for one person in particular.” And, more than anything else, that honesty and intimacy shines through.
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