FaltyDL: Hardcourage (Ninja Tune)

FaltyDL takes the full early 90s plunge with this 2-tracker on Ninja Tune. He’s always suggested loyalty to dance music of that era, but these two tracks pull out all the stops and hark back fully to the time period. “Hardcourage” is a mid-tempo dance track full of tinny snares and a steady kick, a rolling deep bassline and vocal samples. My favorite is on the flip, though: “Our House Stab” has a palette of sounds that is so completely of another time, reminding me of early 90s Warp. It’s aptly named, built largely around polyphonic synth sample stabs on the house tip. There’s virtually none of the R&B pastiche of his You Stand Uncertain full-length, though that album has its moments of nodding in this direction (“Tell Them Stories” might the closest thing), and instead he’s really distilled his ideas through a nostalgic filter and presented two unassuming but tight throwbacks.

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