{"product_id":"michael-mayer-the-floor-is-lava-2lp-kompakt","title":"Michael Mayer - The Floor is Lava (2LP) [Kompakt]","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 400px; height: 439px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1828023809\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/michaelmayer.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-floor-is-lava\"\u003eThe Floor is Lava by Michael Mayer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMichael Mayer albums don’t come around all that often, which is one of the many reasons his fourth collection, *The Floor Is Lava*, is such an event. It’s been eight years since his last work, the collaborative *\u0026amp;*, released on !K7; his predecessors, *Mantasy* (2012) and *Touch* (2004), similarly took their time. It’s not really a surprise, considering the many roles Mayer performs: globe-trotting DJ, revered remixer, inveterate collaborator, and boss at Kompakt and Imara. His solo productions are therefore relatively sparse. But this also speaks to their quality: Mayer’s name on an album cover is a sign of quality, of music that looks to the future while also evoking the past, that balances the demands of the dance floor and the living room, that is as exploratory as it is functional.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn *The Floor Is Lava*, Mayer seems to be taking the pulse of both the music around him—past and present—and industry trends within which he operates. Starting with the album’s iconic title. “The album’s mindset,” he says, reflecting on those four words together. For Mayer, it’s partly a critique of the way the industry boxes in producer and listener alike, focusing them into genres, markets, into the next and the new: “To be a free-spirited genre transcender has become an uphill battle.” A battle worth fighting, and with *The Floor Is Lava*, the result is an album that’s varied, quixotic, idiosyncratic, charming, and deeply, addictively listenable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the album, Mayer finds excitement in exploration and juxtaposition, allowing unexpected things to emerge and giving them their life, their platform, lobbing exciting curveballs at the listener: “It's a DJ album from a DJ who gets bored easily.” Whether it's from getting bored easily or being infinitely curious, *The Floor Is Lava* is full of ideas. It kicks off with *The Problem*, which looks to the past to move forward, embracing the way early house productions would throw samples together with joyous abandon. Mayer cites Pal Joey and the scene around Rockers Hi-Fi and their *Different Drummer* imprint as reference points, and you can hear that easy-breezy spirit throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s followed by *Vagus*, a minimal, sensual house number Mayer describes as his “musical catnip.” The flow of these first two tracks defines the dynamic of *The Floor Is Lava*, setting up the dialectical impulse at its core: thesis and antithesis lead to synthesis, but with a welcome rough edge that makes you always excited, always engaged. It’s also productive in the way it derives energy from rubbing genres and sounds against each other, in unexpected ways, to generate maximum musical frisson. There’s psychedelic techno on *Feuerstuhl*, more minimal techno on *Ardor* (Mayer cites the 90s *Immer 1*-era of minimal as an inspiration), a slippery, Shepard-tone-like breakbeat on *Sycophant*, a beautiful, lush vocal turn on the poppy *The Solution*.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album closes with the melancholic *Süßer Schlaf*, where Mayer sets a Goethe poem to one of his most haunting and moving pieces of music, in an abstract tribute to a lost friend. It's one of the most poignant moments on *The Floor Is Lava*. There’s also an update to 2020’s wild *Brainwave Technology* EP, with the surreal and brilliant *Brainwave 2.0* (check out those claps!), where Mayer reflects on the socio-political precipice of the now: “I'm reading with great interest about this whole complex of how mankind is about to cross so many lines and the implications the resulting financial and educational inequality will bring.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat’s *The Floor Is Lava*: the before and the now, brainwaves and nerve structures, problems and solutions, genres ablaze; the real, the unreal, and the surreal. An album for the easily bored and the infinitely curious. Mayer gets the last word, telling us everything we need to know about the album’s spirit: “Burning for the cause, being zealous, being addicted to the heat of the night, to the exuberant powers of music.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tenampa Record Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45482774757539,"sku":"","price":860.0,"currency_code":"MXN","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0583\/1239\/2867\/files\/image_9e391f6f-1570-4bb2-9b1f-72ab1b2d2d2a.jpg?v=1735215779","url":"https:\/\/tenampa.mx\/en\/products\/michael-mayer-the-floor-is-lava-2lp-kompakt","provider":"Tenampa","version":"1.0","type":"link"}