If you’re a bit OCD about the neatness of your musical labels, you could find Drew Lustman (aka Falty DL) a little unnerving. In a relatively short space of time the New Yorker has released tracks that straddle an impressive range of genres. You might identify 'Mother Beam' on his 'Bravery' EP with a dusty, bolder kind of Burial, the title play from ‘Phreqaflex’ with vintage garage and the track ‘Endeavour’ as classic house through a kaleidoscope. What you won’t be able to do to his musical output is pigeonhole it. Not that he’d care if you did: “It doesn’t matter, as long as people aren't being mislead. At the end of the day, it's all music. It's all good. It's all justifiable."
Appropriately for someone who has such a wide horizon he can do much more than just music. There's the often reported fact that he was a sushi chef – he carved fish for just one year, but the kitchen skills remain: “my stir fry is dangerous" - and then there's film. "I love film. I really truly do. I get lost in films as much as I do in music.” He is pretty enthusiastic about French New Wave producer Eric Rohmer, a contemporary of Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddard, “his films are amazing because I don’t actually think the acting is very good, or the direction at times, but they capture conversations and relationships that we can all relate to, but mostly fantasize about.”
Can he connect the love of these films to the drive to make music? "Those are very stylized movies, and the idea of a visual style as represents a lifestyle is an important thing. This is an inspiration for me, as an album is an attempt to maybe do something along the same lines." His appreciation of visual style is there too in the carefully selected artwork for his releases, from the vintage black and white women of ‘Love Is A Liability’, to the graphic patterns and block colour of the ‘Bravery’ EP. “My first album was a bunch of images that I really liked because they portrayed a certain period and a certain idea of beauty. Fashion images reveal an aspect of life that no one really leads – it’s a fiction. Those beautiful women bleed, cry and all that jazz too.”
Despite being a bona fide New Yorker, Lustman’s releases have so far appeared on British labels (Ramp and Planet Mu), something he sees as the result of his "making British sounding music.” Wouldn’t he like to be releasing on home turf? “There aren't many US labels really on it at the moment, none that I know at least. I do love DFA Records. I talk to them sometimes.” Over the next few months the UK will be treated to more Falty magic with two 12”s due, one on Planet Mu and the other on UK imprint Swamp81, as well as a new Planet Mu album being readied for early next year. He's also making a trip over to the pond to DJ at the launch of Dollop this Wednesday (27th October) at Heaven.
Although it might seem a little risky for someone with a relatively new profile to be spreading themselves so thin over so many different genres, there's something exciting about such a mercurial approach. Lustman isn't desperate to gain recognition as a certain type of producer, he doesn’t seem to care about 'scenes' and he certainly has no time for journalists' labels. Such disregard for the status quo could get him a reputation as a shady revolutionary. It could also inspire other young producers to follow his lead and create their own brand new beatmaking rules. So, Vive La Revolution...
www.myspace.com/faltydl
Best new producer hands down
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