Name: The Crystal Cowboy
Brand: Drew Lustman

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

ziq361cd

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2015-04-20

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

5055300382924

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

ziq361

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2015-04-27

5055300382917

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2 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Drew Lustman

Genre GB

Bass / Breaks

Label GB

Planet Mu

Drew Lustman leaves his 'Falty DL' persona at the door and dons his Cowboy hat for a new alter ego - 'The Crystal Cowboy' - his cleanest, most concise record to date. The eleven tracks here are a body of work that Drew put together quickly, free of the connotations and associations of his Falty DL moniker. Creating music in the small hours of the morning rejuvenated his sense of experimentation and freedom. Under this new name Drew found himself making the kind of music he would DJ with or play to friends without the pressure of the conceptual weighing him down. Like all great projects between Planet Mu and Mr Lustman, these songs found themselves in Mike Paradinas' inbox with little fanfare, letting the music speak for itself. The album often uses the speed or tropes of hardcore and drum &amp; bass, assembling tracks a bit like lego, but adding in Drew's own almost opaque elements of sophisticated soul and funk to give the roughness some melodic light and emotional pull. The album opens with 'Watch A Man Die' which relives memories of mid-nineties drum and bass, weaving delicate melodies and smooth strings into brisk latticed drums. 'Time Machine' is a stab-heavy recall of hardcore, with reverbed animal calls giving the track a humid jungle feel. 'Angel Flesh's' delicate looped soul voices blend into a gaseous haze over jazzy drums, while 'Green Technique' layers intense beat and synth loops into a dark and disorienting vortex. 'Wolves' is Drew's melodic take on dub techno building crunchy, rolling drums and shivery chords into one of the albums many highlights. Placed at the albums midpoint, 'Hyena' takes a broken diva vocal and repeats it into an intense howl, leading into the title track whose carefully poised rhodes jazz chords and vocals are balanced against rough hardcore breaks and dense distorting bass which makes you feel like your bouncing on water. Drew takes things slower with 'Onyx' which featuring the rapper Le1f's first ever sung vocals, over xylophone and light raindrop rhythms. The album finishes on the pumping electro of 'Sykle' whose itchy overexcited rhythms rub up against plaintive childlike piano and shimmering synths making it one of the album's most memorable highlights.

The Crystal Cowboy

Music GB