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Music

Premiere: FTSE - "JOYLESS"

Turn this up and dance off your post-bank holiday blues, because death is coming!
Emma Garland
London, GB

Birmingham-born producer Sam Manville aka FTSE has the kind of big, bold sound that will inevitably lead to even bolder comparisons. The Guardian once described him as "Jarvis Cocker in Burial's body, or Drake if he came from the Midlands", and though statistically nobody needs to think about what "Hold On, We're Going Home" might sound like with a brummie accent, FTSE is owning his shit.

We're premiering the title track from his debut album JOYLESS, which is basically a critique of modern life that you can dance to. Merging the bursts of furious instrumentation that recall his past with mathcore band Blakfish with jungle beats, orchestral crescendo's, and spoken-word verses, "JOYLESS" packs a lot into it's pop framework. One of the lines in the chorus goes: "Enjoy this, even though it is pointless," which basically means turn this up and dance off your post-bank holiday blues, because death is coming!

If you're wondering about his name, by the way, FTSE explains: “Being anti-capitalist, I thought naming myself after the stock market [was] quite funny,” although he also jokes that it stands for "Fuck The System, Ennit.”

JOYLESS will be released on August 28 via Lucky Number. In the meantime, FTSE is playing at Electrowerkz in London tonight for those who would rather dance off the post-bank holiday blues with other human beings instead of a solo Just Eat.