Drew Lustman may be electronic music’s most restless experimentalist. Since he first burst onto the scene with 2009’s Love Is a Liability in the first flush of the post-dubstep implosion, he’s worked in everything from big room house anthems to steely glam post-punk over the last 16 years. His restless, relentless innovation means there’s simply no telling what a FaltyDL record will sound like, other than that it’ll be impeccably stylish and carefully produced. While this may have prevented FaltyDL from developing a cult following, as each release can sound dramatically different from the next, it has established Lustman as a reliable weathervane to let you know which way the winds are blowing in electronic music.
This time around, Lustman finds himself inspired by the recent insurgency of pop-infused electronic music, or electronic-tinged pop, take your pick. As he recently told music journalist Philip Sherburne in his Futurism Restated Substack: “Summer of ’24, we were in Catalonia. My girl, our young daughter, the old folks. Days by the village pool, afternoons on the dirtbike. At night, I made salads. Simple things. Good things. One afternoon, lying back, phone in hand, I saw a friend post a GRWM. The music behind it stopped me. A song grabbed hold.
“The track was ‘Secret’ by Mietze Conte, which is fast-paced Europop dance music, like soft, fluffy gabber with childlike vocals. I hunted down the full version. Played it again. And again. Twenty times over the next few days. It unlocked something. The best music does that. Like the first time I heard Burial. Had to know what was happening under the surface. That time, it led to Love Is a Liability in 2009. This time, it led to Neurotica.”
This revelation inspired Lustman to dive right into crafting ultrasonic dancefloor ragers in the 180-200 bpm range, which somehow makes extreme electronic genres like hardcore or the gabber that inspired the record sound dainty and restrained. After ramping up with the barnstorming techno of “Son of the Morning”, at Planet Mu labelhead Mike Paradinas’ (μ-Ziq) request, Lustman keeps the pedal to the metal as he swerves and steers his way through a beguiling, headswirling mix of pop, hip-hop, techno, trance, and drum and bass.
There’s a heavy emphasis on the sugary hyperpop that inspired the record – the triptych of “Don’t Go”, “Con Air”, and “Craving You” that ride in on the wake of “Son of the Morning” are especially brilliant examples of the style – but that’s far from all there is to Neurotica. After 15 minutes of straight bangers, Lustman lets you catch your breath with the gossamer drum and bass of “Chaotic Child”, whose fizzing, skiffling riddims should lay any fears about FaltyDL losing his drum programming chops to rest.
“Breeding” is similarly restrained, but leaning harder into the hyperpop, like a Charli XCX track sleepwalking next to an inground swimming pool. “Fix Me” almost brings things back around to FaltyDL’s original Burial worship, with its ethereal vocal hook and 2-Step beat. “Speed” mines a similar terrain, with a deep dubby riddim and very little else. “Trace Your Ground” is even more minimalist and sparse, with little more than the title repeated as a cotton candy hologram and the ghostly outline of a beat.
Things don’t return to the upliftingly poppy until “By Your Side”, with its optimistic handclaps and nonsensical pop vocals, like some underground new wave record played at 150%. That sets the stage for “Cried Later”, which closes the album out on a sugar high, with a simple high school robot vocal over a rudimentary Gameboy beat that will leave you feeling like your platform creepers are levitating six inches over the light-up dancefloor as the album fades to black.
Neurotica feels like FaltyDL’s most comprehensive statement since last year’s In the Wake of the Wolves on the excellent Central Processing Unit label. He’s clearly feeling invigorated and inspired by this heady blend of pop immediacy, detailed production, and intricate sound design. It’s one more nail in the coffin of the idea that pop music can’t be smart or ambitious, and another in the misconception that electronic music needs to be super serious at all times. It’s some of his most accessible work in years, without forsaking one little bit of the quality that has made FaltyDL one of the most reliable, if unpredictable, producers of the last two decades.