FFT’s debut album on Numbers, ‘Clear’ is out on 24th June 2022. The follow-up to 2021’s ‘Disturb Roqe’ and the result of three years of focused writing and programming by the London-based producer, ‘Clear’ is deeply psychedelic, defined by a mature sense of melody and structures crafted at a monumental scale.
→Buy and stream ‘Clear’
→ Visit fft.quest
→ Watch the video for ‘Redeemer’ by Sensory Works
The limited edition vinyl is screenprinted by Numbers’ neighbour Matthew Rich of M.A.R.S, who cut his teeth in Manchester in the ’70s making posters for Factory, the Haçienda, The Fall and more, and includes an art print insert with original photography captured by George Cowan in 2020, designed by Sensory Works.
Though FFT has previously released a handful of tracks under various names, it wasn’t until 2017’s ‘FFT1’ EP on the Uncertainty Principle label that his production talents began to fuse into a distinct and personal style, especially evident in FFT’s ‘Regional/Loss’ EP on The Trilogy Tapes in 2019, multiple releases on Bruk Records and 2021’s ‘Disturb Roqe’. Through it all, FFT has mastered a complex sense of mood catalyzed by sound itself: He builds patches and presets from scratch, and feels these synths and software have their own objectives and reactions, creating a kind of compositional feedback loop. The result is an album that brings to mind a collision of electronic pioneers like Delia Derbyshire and Bernard Parmegiani, 2000’s braindance, the Max-imized wares of an OPN or Objekt and the rough rhythmatics of SND or Mika Vainio.
The layering of sonic elements and intentions is starkly audible across these nine tracks. They can be seismically concussive and grandiose, but granular and fluid – echoing the Icelandic volcanic eruption that features in the artwork photography by George Cowan. The overall impact of ‘Clear’ is cinematic and precise, marking the arrival of an impressive electronic musician who is not new but has come into his own as a fully developed artist.
The London-based composer and producer Josh Thompson, who performs and produces under the name FFT, has been releasing music and finessing his skills as a producer since 2012. His output over the course of a decade has been dispersed across a number of European labels and transmitted under a series of obscurant aliases, all composed and created while Thompson led a nomadic life between houses and cities, occupations and attractions. Taken together, his body of work demonstrates an impressive, evolving artistry, exploring harmonic and textural sounds unified by a powerful devotion to computer-based production.
FFT — Clear
LP • Out Now
Numbers 2022 • NMBRS68
1. Clear (Eight-Circuit Mix)
2. Redeemer
3. 3 Sided
4. Disturb Roqe 2
5. Clear
6. You’ve Changed
7. Heal
8. Heal (Alt Mix)
9. Ashley Hill
Written, produced and mixed by FFT
Mastered by Lewis Hopkin at Stardelta
Design and ‘Redeemer’ Video by Sensory Works
Artwork Photography and Videos by George Cowan
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Photo by Beth Sheldrick
