Faltydl : Vega

“I skirted death and brought in new life”
FaltyDL, AKA Drew Lustman, is set to release his new album 'VEGA' via Drowned By Locals on 6th November. Written between two life-altering events, a motorcycle crash and the birth of his second daughter, Vega, the record traces the fallout of both, and the clarity that followed. Restless, euphoric, and bruised, it is the sound of a life thrown violently off course, and the music that came out of it.
For almost 20 years, FaltyDL has been happily confusing algorithms, DJs and genre purists, ricocheting between jungle, house, garage, ambient, techno and broken beats, leaving a trail of records across Planet Mu, Ninja Tune and beyond. Alongside his own work, he has continued to move between production and collaboration, most recently working on Mykki Blanco's forthcoming album 'CAFE PARADISO', due 4th September via Transgressive, and developing his new label Freak Technique.
The album's title track, 'VEGA', was written shortly before Lustman's second daughter was born. Listening to Jóhann Jóhannsson as he waited for her arrival, he wrapped himself in the hope that she would arrive OK. She did, and the family became four. The track captures the suspended feeling of waiting for something enormous to happen, holding anxiety and relief in the same space. Elsewhere, 'Queen Brute' continues the sound developed on 'Neurotica', slowed down and given room to breathe, while 'True Science' takes that sound towards its logical conclusion, folding in elements of trance along the way.
The motorcycle crash surfaces across several tracks. On 'Old Pioneers (Escape Death)', Lustman confronts the experience directly. A bass player since the age of 13, he describes the track as something that took 30 years to write and two hours to finally make. “I had to crash a fucking motorcycle for it to come out of me.” He remembers flying over the handlebars, his shoulder and helmet making first contact with the road, rotating three times and sliding 15 feet into a ditch full of hay. “Freaking hay! Thank god for the hay.” 'Wetrh (Concussion Mix)' stays closer to the aftermath, with Lustman standing by the roadside dripping with blood as cars slowed down, while 'Falty is Dead' deals with what came after. It took six months for him to get back on a bike. “I built the machine up as a monster in my mind.”
But 'VEGA' quickly becomes bigger than the two events that set it in motion. Lustman had initially intended the album to be entirely about the crash and the birth of his daughter. “That was short sighted. There is just so much more life going on around me these days.” That life finds its way into the record in different forms. 'Walk With Mila' imagines his eldest daughter reaching for an album called 'VEGA' one day and discovering that her name isn't on it. 'Antlers' is her favourite song, accompanied by her own improvised lyrics as she walks around the house. 'The Kids' turns two daughters into “hurricane winds across the Pacific”, while 'Be With Me' finds Lustman confronting the everyday pressure of shepherding two children through life. The album draws on Chris Clark, early Nine Inch Nails, King Crimson and John McLaughlin, as well as the people closest to him: his family and friends Jack, Dave, Tom and Jamie.
'Queezy' was tested on late-night drives, with Lustman cruising towards an endless horizon and nowhere else to be. 'Old Pioneers (Escape Death)' and 'New Pioneers' sit at opposite ends of the album. The first looks back at the moment everything could have ended. The second refuses to stay there. “I am a hurricane! I will never stop! You can't stop me! Get out of my way or become part of the wreckage!”
After nearly two decades of resisting being pigeonholed, Lustman has made the album he always wanted to hear. “I love this record so much. This album is for me if I am being completely honest.” For all its talk of crashes, birth, survival and family, 'VEGA' never attempts to turn any of it into a neat narrative. It is simply what came out of it.