Albums
July: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Laurel Halo, J Hus, Robert Hood and more
Floating Points 'Reflections – Mojave Desert' (Pluto)
Anyone who’s seen Floating Points live in the last year or so will be primed for this. The pure house of early releases is long gone, and though the rippling modular synths and elegant jazz-fusion drumming of 2015’s ‘Elaenia’ are still present, the ebb and flow of this album is dominated by a slow-burn, highly considered instrumental psych-rock sound. It was recorded at the base of huge rock formations in the actual Mojave desert (apparently, this release is just the first of a series of“responses” to landmarks encountered on the producer’s travels) and it certainly sounds as big, occasionally bleak and often beautiful as the landscapes it’s inspired by . Not as immediately blissful as ‘Elaenia’, but a magical new direction nonetheless. Joe Muggs
8/10
