Floating Points - Shadows

New five track EP (double 12” in gate-fold - sassy) from Sam Shepard a.k.a Floating Points. Highly sophisticated jazz/funk influenced dance that was probably produced with home listening in mind, as opposed to dance-floor domination. I've always found Shepard's stuff to be very mature in it's approach - lots of live instrumentation and what sounds like actual playing as opposed to the mere manipulation of loops and samples. That's probably what gives it that '4 Hero jamming with Tangerine Dream' (not my words - Boomkat talk) vibe. I guess I can dig this kind of stuff if I'm in a certain mood. The at-peace-with-the-world coffee-table mood where even a dose of Two Lone Swordsmen's or Red Snapper may pass unnoticed or un-criticised. 'Shadows' features both new and old material, though I'm hard pushed to tell you which are which. They all feature fantastically smooth synths, marvelously intricate beat patterns and tasteful use of ambient tones. Opener 'Myrtle Avenue' probably suits me best though 'Arp3' has got it going on in a Four Tet meets Gil Scott-Heron kinda way. Real nice packaging on this one and, as touched on in the pres release, this is part of a bigger audio-visual collaboration with long-time friend Will Hurt.