Floating Points: "Peroration Six"

At the end of Floating Points’ excellent new album, Elaenia, “Peroration Six” speaks to the agitation one might feel on a terrible day—when the hours slog by in a churning heap of fucked-up traffic and lukewarm coffee, and you’re just grasping for control. Its buzzing guitars and slow-rising instruments bubble to the surface without boiling over completely. And just as the drum cymbals and strings escalate to a volcanic peak, the song abruptly ends, cut off like a “Sopranos” final episode.

It’s unclear why the track concludes this way. Maybe producer Sam Shepherd finally went off the deep end. Perhaps he got over that shit and decided to move on. “Peroration Six” is the edgiest of Elaenia’s seven robust compositions, and while the rest of the album is largely unrestrained, this track fuses electro-jazz and rock in a combustible burst of seething intensity. Shepherd feeds on the suffering and aggression, releasing it in a five-minute rage. So much for keeping under control.

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