15. Elaenia / Floating Points

Floating Point's Sam Shepherd created an almost indescribable album.  Soul-jazz abstractions.  Studied synth excursions.  Ambient dance compositions.  Post-rock divinations.  If Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock had come of age under the watchful eye of British dubstep, this is the retro-futurist record they may have come up with.  But even that theoretical prediction falls short.  A prodigious child pianist and musician who grew up singing in the Manchester Cathedral Boys Choir (and where they still perform his early choral works), Shepherd, only in his 20s, produced something utterly singular with Elaenia.

A prolific presence in England's dance music scene since 2009, Shepherd's debut as Floating Points features an ace collection of players ranging from Afro-punk bassist Susumu Mukai, multi-instrumentalist Alex Reeve, Hot Chip drummer Leo Taylor, house luminary Matthew Herbert, and Tom Skinner (accompanist to Jonny Greenwood when he is not doing Radiohead).  As one critic noted, "the music they make together is loose but meticulous, grand though never bombastic."  It all merges into a science-fiction experiment gone perfectly, perfectly right.

Shepherd obtained his Phd in neuroscience from London College, where he studied epigenetics and the science of pain, but he left his research to pursue his sought after DJ sets and elegant, multi-disciplinary musical compositions.  The D Man is not well-versed or skilled enough in composition theory to adequately describe the record, although I am fully equipped to appreciate its allure.  Rhythms are unorthodox.  4/4 time signatures are few and far between.  Live percussion underpins meandering threads of synthesizers, bass lines, guitar weaves, and other instruments that I can only pick up by reading the liner notes.  It is a heady but instantly accessible record that bears repeated listens.  The ten-minute centerpiece, "Silhouettes (I, II, III)," may be one of the most vital tracks of the year for where it takes the music of today.  So it goes with the rest record.