FLOATING POINTS - CASCADE

Released: 13/09/24

Following the incredible global success of Promises, Sam Shepherd’s 2021 collaboration with the legendary US jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, it would’ve been understandable if the Mancunian had taken a chunk of time off before getting down to writing the next record – not least as he was still working on huge Promises-related projects in in late 2023, such as the world premiere of the nine-movement composition at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, which featured guest artists including Shabaka Hutchings, Four Tet, Caribou, the Los Angeles Studio Orchestra, and Sun Ra Arkestra (Sanders had sadly passed away the previous year).

Somehow though, during all of this, Shepherd seems to have found time to make solo album number four, the tremendous Cascade, a return to the electronica-house-techno formula of 2019’s Crush. About as far from the contemplative spiritual-psych-ambience of Promises as you can imagine, Cascade is a pure club record, purpose-built for the dance floor – which is not to say that Shepherd has eased off on the melodic complexity found on Promises, but rather that with standout tracks such as ‘Birth 4000’, which features a deliriously demented Giorgio Moroder-esque arpeggiated acid-inflected bass line, he has put his considerable compositional talent purely in the service of sweaty hedonism.