New (old) essay is online.

The paywall is now down in case you don’t subscribe to First Floor and you’d like to read it ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

I wrote an essay for Shawn Reynaldo’s First Floor newsletter about an emerging moment in electronic music events that is absolutely not club-centric.

We are so utterly cooked. ‘… Live Nation’s behind-the-scenes push for a negotiated deal [reflects] a broader Trump-era pattern in which politically connected lobbyists … override … career antitrust staff — fueling the perception among critics that “the fix is in.”’

I published an interview with Bay Area psychedelic folk duo Phipps Pt., whose album “Songs We No Longer Sing” was one of the best things I heard in 2025.

I really can’t believe how good this mix is. Slo-mo house, natty rankin digidub, drumless techno, airy jungle, half-time, trip-hop, 90s IDM cuts I’ve never heard. Honestly reminds me of Coldcut ‘Journeys by DJ,’ same zone. I think it’s all vinyl if you care about that.

This is true 👇 The root cause is Substack, whose business model atomizes writers and pits them against each other. It’s effectively the Spotify model, but for writing. Also, to be very clear: You don’t write ON Substack, you write FOR Substack. Writers on Substack are NOT independent.

“ambient” music? sorry? dont understand—oh you mean Atmospheric Experience Music oh yeah i get it now

mask off moment for a dear friend here in San Francisco he’ll be performing live for us inside the ‘stratus in the void’ atmospheric experience room at Parameter 11, May 14-17, 2026 his excellent records are (and many more) available via @brianfoote.bsky.social ‘s family of labels

Nytimes reheating my leftovers

Wrote a recap of my year in left-field music. Included are a handful of thoughts (Micro-Essays?) plus mini-reviews of a lot of records that I loved: freak folk, neo-psy, some rap, techno-bass compilations, etc.

new record from 2hollis’s dad’s band

treasure from my circa-20s CD collection

I just wrote an essay about one of my favorite records of all time, which I think is also one of the most influential albums of the past decade.

Hi I have been working behind the scenes for about two months now to curate and organize part of this “don’t call it a festival” type event. I love paying artists.

lol

Phenomenal writing by @drewdaniel.bsky.social Good lord, “end of year list season” is so utterly cooked. We have got to move on from this schtick, everyone. Please.

This is the type shit I’m on all day every day

Had a bummer convo back when with a super-talented new artist who produces and runs a label, and she mentions that she uses ChatGPT for all of the copy for her label, because why not? It’s easy, free, and good enough. I also see ChatGPT all over social posts from ‘underground’ artists and labels.

RE: that Autechre guitar record I’m pretty sure this track by Italian band Larsen, 20 years old now, is a cover of Autechre “VLetrmx21.” Thoughts? Whole record rips btw.

I wrote an essay about the encroachment of fake machine-generated music products in the music industry. You should read it.

sold’s set was one of my highlights of the excellent Chillits programming this year

Nine years ago, we lost thirty-six people in the Ghost Ship fire. A couple years ago, word spread that Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman were in talks to produce a television series based on the event. I wrote this in response.

my writing does really poorly on this website but people i trust and respect tell me they enjoy reading it so is good enough for me (affirmation voice)

I’m realizing that there’s something interesting, and additive, about the way I use hyperlinks when I’m writing. I use them like footnotes, but maybe a little different, even denser in meaning. Anyway here’s a new essay. Sorry for doom looping LMFAO voice

yes

you ever land on that kind of lasercut techno that gets you excited about DJing dance music again. music is good

sharing a mix recorded earlier this year at Chillits — I think it turned out really nicely — inspired by poetry and the spoken word, including a few spoken word bits of my own layered onto a couple tracks #abstract #experimental #lyrical #beatless #DontCallIt’A’Word

praxis

i know it’s a total dead zone on here for gigs, but: gig alert tix: ra.co/events/2272797

Published a long interview with San Francisco legend Jonah Sharp aka Spacetime Continuum and his son Jasper, aka Cahl Sel, one of the only intergenerational electronic music duos I know. Includes original photography and vintage rave flyers from Jonah’s archive, likely never published before.

thinking about how i read an excerpt of an essay by someone reflecting on their time at the recent 3-day Parameter x Endzeit weekender (unreal rave experience) which compared it to their time “at Goldman”

Editing an interview with Jasper Sharp, aka Cahl Sel, and their dad, Jonah Sharp, aka Spacetime Continuum. Real San Francisco rave history in here—also the first interview I’ve done with original photography. Gonna be publishing some flyers from Jonah’s archive too. Crazy Autechre history here.

I wrote about some new records I’ve been listening to on repeat. I don’t know about you, but I’m discovering so much incredibly good new music that it’s overwhelming. The Music Business today is shit—but the records coming out these days are incredible.

Just published a huge interview with Orphx, two of the best to ever do it, on three decades of industrial and techno history. There’s some incredible archive photos in here plus some deep lore on the Canadian techno and experimental music scene.

Can’t shake the feeling that ‘newsletterization’ is a disempowering, disenfranchising, and atomizing condition for writers to work in—effectively analogous to what streaming has done to musicians (and record labels).

Music is good

Fell off my writing schedule a bit because it’s been a weird and unsettling summer, but here are five new records you should listen to right now: Davis Galvin ex_libris sachi’s mirror Roomer schuttle + Jorg Kuning

Picking tracks to play in the club has me remembering Oh Holy Shit Techno Is Good (Sometimes)

here is an event i am organizing Friday August 8 Gray Area, SF Purelink live (SF debut) Daria Lourd (Bored Lord) live (ambient/dub set) myself and Matt DJing tickets: ra.co/events/2211385

I wrote about Dripping, a multivalent music and performing arts festival in the woods of New Jersey. “Events like these remind me … that music is a communal and participatory artform … [& that] the musical experience—live and direct—still has the power to shock, delight, and unravel me.”

Read about (and listen) to new records by: Mineral Stunting @lighghtmusic.bsky.social Plumes of Enceladus @stringbot.com Lara Sarkissian @larasarkissian.bsky.social Yetsuby Cahl Sel certainsound.net/now-listenin...

successful morning tuneage guaranteed :)

Recorded a proper mixtape for the first time in a long time. Thanks to my friend Pressing and Noods Radio for hosting the mix. on.soundcloud.com/bkqD6Rjxg41Y...

it seems no matter what i cannot pull myself away from putting on music gatherings here’s stratus, a new series dedicated to soundsystem music outside of club spaces. our first up features special guest CZ Wang (two CZs for the price of one) Saturday May 24, 4-10pm

‘The reduction of [the creative] impulse to at-will text prompts and online gadgetry, whose outputs recycle and remake without consent the work of human artists, symbolizes the fundamentally anti-humanist triumph of technology over creativity.’ certainsound.net/silicon-vall...

Yeah I support LGBT L ong reverb tails G uitar pedals B asslines T ransgender

met a guy at the wine bar last night and Tetsu Inoue came up in conversation and we both quickly agreed that Organic Cloud is probably the greatest album of all time youtu.be/2v6pmM1KWl4