FaltyDL, Hardcourage
Featured Album
Aiming further into the territory of minimal and tech house
Anyone going into FaltyDL’s new album Hardcourage expecting a continuation of the old-school dubstep and UK-garage inflections of You Stand Uncertain could be in for a shock. In less than two years since he released that previous album, Drew Lustman has pared down the elaborate drum programming and aimed an already airy sound even further into the territory of minimal and tech house. That doesn’t make it any less malleable, however: There’s still plenty of space for elaborate melodies and percussive interplay. The album breaks out of usual genre lines here and there: “Stay I’m Changed” is a Factory-direct synthpop meditation, while the clanky swing of “Re Assimilate” calls up memories of German techno’s schaffel moment. But Hardcourage is at its best when it lets the 4/4 pulse run free, like it does through the glitchy soul vocal-driven “Straight & Arrow” or the bucolically high-strung closer “Bells.”
