Floating Points at Outernet review: big swings from one of techno's most interesting names
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Floating Points – aka Sam Shepherd – doesn’t do things by halves. People coming to his (sold out) gig at Outernet were perhaps expecting some light techno to blast them out of the January blues. What they got was a multi-medium extravaganza involving a harpist, a visual artist creating paintings live on stage and a two-hour set whipped up on the spot using an array of modular synths.
More fool us for expecting anything different from an artist whose DJ’ing abilities are as revered as his nose for jazz – and who, indeed, has a PhD in neuroscience to boot. This is a man who has made a career out of his versatility, as well as his ability to create complex music on the fly. His mini-residence comes hot on the heels of his most recent album, Cascade: a tribute to hazy nights on the dancefloor, and a welcome change from the chaotic noise of his previous album Crush. And the dancefloor element was well and truly present here.
First, though, we had the harp. For an act that began at 9pm – with no warm-up – putting harpist Miriam Adefris on stage to take us through a melodic rendition of some of Floating Points’ hits (including Birth and a excerpt from his ballet, Mere Mortals) was a ballsy move. Did it pay off? For the first five minutes, yes. Then the crowd got restless.
Fortunately, Shepherd was on hand shortly after to warp the sounds into something infinitely gnarlier and more interesting. He’s an old hand at making music live these days, but it never fails to be impressive, especially when the camera panned over his decks and displayed the equipment arrayed on stage: a rainbow looping of wires and incomprehensible buttons.
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