Track By Track: Falty DL – In The Wake of Wolves

Its this genre-voracious nature, where Lustman takes inspiration from across the electronic music landscape has helped him to carve out  his own unique voice. The album’s closing track, “Mila Stans In A Meadow For The First Time Eating Strawberries,” encapsulates this blend, a serene, emotionally evocative piece that draws on influences like early Aphex.

Here, Lustman guides us through the making the album, discussing various aspects of the creative process including balancing simplicity and emotional weight, experimenting with production techniques, and drawing inspiration from personal experiences and influences. Throughout, the artist emphasises the importance of maintaining a playful, hands-on approach to production and allowing personal moments, like fatherhood, to shape the album’s atmosphere and tone.

Need You
I used to make these overly complicated percussive tracks with vocal samples and pawn them off as garage tunes. I think in the wake of Burial it all made sense with the landscape at the time. The problem was they were nearly impossible to mix. Years and years of DJ’ing changed my sound and production so much I stepped away from vocal samples and focused on more four to the floor stuff. But I began to miss the creative process of the old tunes. I think what I did here was keep it simple with very few elements but bring back some of the emotional weight of the original vocal chops. And to be honest I do need you, the listener. Feels like a mantra to me now listening back. Closed eyes, drifting back and forth.

Further
I scored some excellent drum samples from Umru and cranked the BPM up to 150. I blew my ears out early making this tune and had to take a lot of breaks. I produced myself into a corner as well with so many effects on the master channel. I wanted the breaks to feel like they were tearing your speakers apart. Im really pleased with the beat repeat stuff toward the last third of the track – that’s done by chopping the entire tune and pasting it in different lengths. No VST did that, just weird math and boredom. The little orchestra sounds I wrote and jump out nicely with the heaps of compression squeezing everything out the cracks throughout the song. It’s one of those songs that has this perceived volume that just feels massive compared to what the meters might be reading.

GasGas
Who doesn’t love an ambient tune in the middle of an old Braindance record. I slowly move the bpm up and down by about 1.5 in either direction by hand giving a warbled tape feel but again I wanted to do it myself and not have some VST emulate it. Although those prob sound even better tbh. GasGas is a motorcycle compony which made the 1991 125CC dirt bike I learned to ride on in the village in Spain where we visit for family a few times a year. It’s 30 year old technology and rips around so good, still. All the kids in the village know when I have arrived because they hear me on it during Siesta. I almost crashed it two years ago, I couldn’t slow down in time for a circular exit with a raised garden in the middle of it. I went straight through over the far curb and landed in a field of corn. Everything including me was OK, but I lost the kick starter and had to weld a new one. You now have to start the bike from out in front, kicking it backwards. After I had my daughter I lost the need for speed and ride like a responsible person now.

Minds Protection
I’ve always worn my influences proudly on my sleeve. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything truly original. The reason I am OK with that is because I sometimes nail it. And after I have I think well what’s the point now? I figured that out, what else can I figure out? It’s almost like a challenge and an obsession. Can I get inside that tune and deconstruct it? This is all in my head of course and folks have told me otherwise, but here is me doing my best squarepusher. I can’t hold a candle to him, but I met Tom in 2015’ish and he was very sweet to me even though I had trouble putting together words to form sentences at the time.

WORKOUT
More FX gymnastics here, really fun track that I play a lot for my young daughter. I have a longer edit but I wanted there to be this straight punch to the gut in and out no time to recover type of feeling on the album. Here is an idea, here it is inside out and backwards and it’s gone. Feels like a spy novel or a theme to a show I’d never watch because it thought the idea of multiple timelines and realms is more interesting then what we have going on here on Earth.

Half Spectrum
I have a bunch of ’Spectrum’ tracks. I really love what young kids are doing with drill and grime. It’s like impossibly dark stuff only kids can make. I think kids make things that feel over the top because they constantly feel like they are being pushed over the top by their own emotions. From the outside it’s kind of alarming but I was also young once and made shit that felt scary because I was also scared. As I get older I am less frightened by things and more importantly less frightened by my own thoughts and that’s reflected in my music. So it’s fun to just play around in the these textures.

New Friends
Another quick jam with a simple structure and idea. I honestly don’t over complicate things any more and it’s very relieving. Also I think folks like simple things they can rely on. I go back and forth I guess about what I like about other peoples tunes. The reliability ie. resolve? Or the unpredictable weight of the next note…

Full Spectrum
The scarier cousin to Half Spectrums’ lightness. I made many mixes of this song, most of them much cleaner. But I really like how this version distorts on the big synth hits. There is a vibe I am chasing with this one, a sort of running in the dark too afraid to look back feeling. The scarier the tune the more silly it is to me. I would love a serious MC to do a version though – get in touch!

No Self Their Own
My least favorite track on the album, but the one that got the most responses from a close group of friends. There is always one. That’s how Uncea got on Hardcourage and it’s maybe my most streamed song of all time. I have zero clue what makes a song successful and if I tried to let that little knowledge I have dictate my career I’d be rich an… just kidding I’d be in the same position I am now just not as happy 🙂 Also the intro bass progression could have gone on forever. I sometimes don’t know how to resolve a progression so it just goes on and on. Enough 7th and 9th chords will do that. It’s like if Steely Dan were jamming in high school, they just didn’t know where to end things yet.

Mila’s Dream (Mea Culpa)
I hope my daughter Mila listens to this in 20 years and gets a vibe from it. I hope it isn’t cringe seeing her name on a record..! I play her all sorts of things and she harmonizes beautifully now. I played her Eno’s ‘Ascent’ every day for the first year of her life and she began to recognize it by the first note. It was so cute, I’d be pushing her in a stroller and play it off my phone, she’d turn her head smile and hum along. She’s getting really good though, sometimes in key perfectly. She dances too. Well this song is for her because I wonder what she dreams about. Every once in a while she has a nightmare and I just have no clue what it’s about! It’s so heavy when you think about it. Separation? Scary stuff? Ahhh!

Forget Me Not
I snuck in a vocal sample of a friend singing and a snare drum from another friend – I hope they don’t figure it out. But I do like bringing them both along on this song. I lost the song file and only have this stereo bounce from 2016. It’s the oldest track on the album and the only thing I didn’t make specifically for this record. But it fits. The breakdown where the bass gets all moody is really fun. Im proud of this tune. But if I did have the song file id take out the little 3 note synth melody in the intro and use it more sparingly. I tried to cut it out with another section but thought fuck it. I do get lazy sometimes.

Peter Around Town
Another inspiration proudly on my shoulder? This song started as just playing around when I was bored one day. The detuned synth is in a strange scale, it’s a mixture of semi and half tones or whatever you call them. It’s not any scale that makes sense really, so it’s all just feeling. I encourage producers to just feel things when they play as much as possible and worry less abut whether it makes any once. Like does it sound good? Great, move on.

Mila Stands In A Meadow For The First Time Eating Strawberries
I’m def over typing that entire track name out ffs! I love the chord progression and simplicity once again. Just repeat with further octaves opening in the arpeggiator like ‘New Friends’. Instant tune. But I made this track and was playing a demo of it out of my phone while doing what the title says and Mila made a little laugh at the end. I recorded it and put it in the track. It’s the last noise you hear on the album, Mila laughing. It was my first father’s day and was really sweet and gentle and reminded me of boards of canada and just being kind with myself and those around me. This ones for Mila and her humming harmonies.

More Info here