Cascade

Pulls its weight at the points that count, fumbles mainly at those that don't, feels less successful holistically than it does as the sum of its parts, leaves me with anything but satisfaction by the time it's done, and does very little to address the question of when Shepherd will finally show the chutzpah and scope of vision to make a truly great work on solely his own terms.

He returns to form, suggesting a yearning for the excitement of live shows (thanks to COVID). Across nine tracks, Floating Points guides listeners through a series of self-reflective passages and hard club drops, suitable for both sweaty dance floors and moments of existential solitude.

Closing with the beatific ‘Ablaze’ – with sonic shades of John Martyn’s crepuscular ‘Small Hours’ – ‘Casade’ made lack the breathless ambition of Floating Points’ orchestral manoeuvres, but that’s not its purpose. A resetting of the dials, it transplants the producer from symphony hall to sweaty club, and that alone makes it truly vital.

Cascade is a unified and more straightforward album from Floating Points, made for those looking for dancefloor elation.

Floating Points continues to create striking, original electronic music, and with this album comfortably achieves his aim of creating a set of bangers rich in colour and content. Harnessing his electronic orchestra for wholly uplifting means, Sam Shepherd has made something rather special.

It's an album of unapologetic bangers, boasting some of the most enjoyable music Shepherd's ever released. But it also sacrifices some of what makes his best work so singular.

Now all parts of Shepherd are on display, the scientist-DJ-producer-jazz-musician who can have his cake and eat it, too.

The delicious, Moroder breakbeat thump of Birth4000 and squealing garagey rave of Vocoder (Club Mix) have the swagger and heft to leave club soundsystems wobbling, but also need good headphones for home enjoyment. [Oct 2024, p.82]

Pure pleasure with an experimental edge. [Oct 2024, p.34]

Cascade is yet another marvelous Floating Points album, and easily the most successful work he's made as a dance producer.

More careful explorations of Cascade’s less instantly obvious depths suggests that Shepherd may well have found a method for seamlessly blending the widescreen, unhurried explorations and subtle variations on a theme that characterised Promises with his foundational roots and ongoing interest in the simple joys of surrendering to hypnotic repetition that drives the pummelling physicality of dancefloor-friendly electronic music, most recently sampled on 2019’s Crush.