[Eglo]

To say it has been a good year for Sam Shepard, aka Floating Points, is a gross understatement. He started 2009 as a relative unknown, but thanks to four faultless releases has quickly become an exciting new talent keenly watched by all manner of musical enthusiasts. His debut 7″ release, “For You,” quickly pricked up the ears of purveyors of chalky hip-hop and squashed funk before he grabbed the listening cavities of house heads with the endless cresting waves of sunshine on wax via “Love Me Like This.” Left-footed dubstep pundits were also sated with his “J&W Beat” twelve on Mu and now he returns with possibly his best work yet on his own imprint with the “Vacuum EP.”

“Vacuum Boogie” begins with cold foggy breaths pushing around a kick and clap before being flooded by aqueous, slinking synths and a whirlpools of drifting pads. When the descending bass line drops it feels like mountains of sand slipping away from beneath you, dropping you down into a deep netherworld of subterranean slow-mo boogie. “Truly” floors me every time I listen to it; how can one song pack in so many ecstatic melodies and not sound like a endorphin addled, jangled mess? Testament to Floating Points’ classical training, each key line works lovingly with chord pulses, synth leads and ethereal tinkling. A frame by frame house cut backed with a deep dubwise bass line sounding more akin to the likes of Pangaea, “Truly” sounds like the musical equivalent of pushing yourself out to a sun-baked sea on a giant marshmallow. “Argonaute II” works its elements in a similar fashion to “Love Me Like This,” building its unhurried, winding groove and melodies to a peak, rolling them off and reassembling them again. Like the other cuts its slippery polyphonic rhythms carry with them a distinct aquatic flavor, though this is perhaps the slinkiest of them all. Carried along by gorgeously warm organ tones, “Argonaute II” rounds off another prodigious release by one of 2009’s breakout producers.