All Singing, All Dancing (2020), 247 365 (2021), It Is What It Is (2021), Miracle in Transit (2022), Naked Flames
Fetishizing the past may be an inherently human trait and Naked Flames is just one of many, many artists who’ve sought to capitalise – though he does, admittedly, do it all quite well. All Singing, All Dancing attempted a DJ set comprised solely of nostalgia, a work that was thoroughly intellectual in its intentions and accomplished in its composition. 247 365 pulled off a similar trick with videogame tracks; concocting tunes that, if I’m being cynical, blatantly intended to grab old gamers and get them hooked on a blissfully non-existent past. Leaked (and eventually officially released) mixtape It Is What It Is shifted back to the club, opting for house, techno and dub in a longer-form, somewhat grittier version of All Singing, All Dancing. Last year’s Miracle in Transit is arguably the project’s most compelling release so far, a heedless rush as appropriate for a dancefloor as an OST. Whether one enjoys all this or actually wants a future like the one supposed by Naked Flames, one in which all enjoyment of music stems only from which has been rather than any kind of glance toward the future, may be debatable. But there is no debate of his technical competence and the impressiveness of his nostalgia bait.
Pick(s): ‘All Singing’, ‘The Ping’, ‘A Certain One’, ‘Under Every Tree in England’
