photo by Leon Farrant
SIZZLE is an EP by the artist known as Floated recently released on Totally Real Records and it’s just the sort of synth-stained downtempo dreamwave planetarium soundtrack rolled up in a tangerine swisher with marmalade skies projected on the dome’s ceiling that you didn’t realize you needed until you heard it and realized that you need these five crystalline tracks in your life designed for floating high above this beleaguered blue marble of ours for the duration of 12 minutes and 2 seconds or for even longer if you put the EP on repeat.
Either way, David Maine a.k.a. Floated has got you covered from the opening ambient wash of lead-off track “3AM Intro” (an ideal hour for giving SIZZLE a spin!) which soon envelopes the listener in slow-motion-placid-on-the-surface swirling amniotic-cosmic sonic afterbirth alongside ricocheting lo-fi beats and vinyl surface noise and disembodied seraphic voices…
…to the record-closing “End of the World Outro” a mellow best-case apocalyptic scenario that sounds something like if Claude Debussy rose from the grave and gave his 1909 piano miniature “Voiles” an upgrade with sub-bass tones and chiming guitars ostinatos and Air-esque blunted vocals the latter of which being an appropriately Gallic reference point for the undead Debussy.
And then finally there’s the penultimate track and single “Me and My Cat Are Busy TTYL” (see above for a WORLD PREMIERE sneak peek at the music video!) a chilled out track that perfectly captures the feline grace of a tuxedo-clad tabby chilling out in the chill-out room coming down after a full day of pogo dancing to happy hardcore for hours on end after snorting crushed MDMA pills off the teats of a hard partying puss in go-go boots even though the video for the song (directed by Floated, edited by Brendan Dean) depicts a more innocent domestic scene.
And at long last just in case you’re curious about this enigmatic “Floated” character and would like a snappy biographical profile here’s the skinny quoted straight from the Totally Real press release: "Floated is the Brooklyn-based project of producer & songwriter David Maine. A classically trained pianist and multi-instrumentalist, Maine was previously the bass player for the band Frankie Cosmos who he toured and recorded with for four years, often alongside his brother Aaron Maine (of Porches).
In 2018, Maine began refining his voice as a solo musician in his bedroom studio. Floated is his outlet to cultivate an imaginative and focused sonic world, capturing snapshots of his life in music and coloring them with inspirations, spanning from vaporwave to grimy upbeat electronic-RnB.” (Jason Lee)