The pace of New York City is vibrant, vivid and sometimes overwhelming. There’s so many layers that one barely has a chance to catch their breath no matter what time of day or night. The sound that matches that pace can be found within Drew Lustman’s latest release, Bravery. Immersing himself in the sound that is the beat of New York, FaltyDL shows us his unequivocal range of production skill within an eight-track journey melding music and mind as one.

The opener, “Made Me Feel So Right” starts off with an awkward, sort-of stumbled percussion groove along with a group of female vocal samples and melancholy synths.  The sounds that follow show off a sort of throwback for Lustman, as percussion patterns are vaguely reminscent of his 2007 jungle productions except way slower. It builds up more, with more snares and rimshots added, and a ever-sneaky hi-hat peeking in the background, almost fighting for a chance to between the vocal samples and the damp synths. It’s an opener that’s affluent in dark and off-beat layers.

The next two tracks, “Mother Beam” and title track, “Bravery”, show off a chilled side of FaltyDL’s productions, as “Mother Beam” fades into an electric piano line and shaker and crash percussion combination (also with the help of Mary Anne Hobbs’s lovely voice sampled into a lush oblivion, saying “Drew Lustman….live in New York City”); it extends us an invitation to drink as well, with samples telling us to do that in regular and low pitch. “Bravery” is sort of the continuation, with lounge-esque ascending vocal samples and slight reverberated wobble and too-precise-to-be-random synth patterns (not that it’s bad thing). Around the halfway point of the track, synth buzzes and the handclaps begin to mount and the drums kick in, taking us on a ride back to the vibes of some of Lustman’s previous releases.

The following two-some; “Play Child” and “Tronman” can be lauded as the best tracks on this release; mainly for their amazing attention to the smallest things finding the light of day. “Play Child” begins with a repeated snare that sounds like a muffled video-game gunshot, that leads into a vocal in distress, in terms of finding resolution, while finding comfort being nestled between more beats around it. The claps and kicks form a nest and the song takes off soon thereafter; taking form of a shuffle-based behemoth that only has more to surprise us with. Right past the halfway point, shines an amazing orchestral sample, that’s alive and alarming all at once, garnering attention to the sounds that surround it right then and there. More percussion is added and as booming kicks and snares find every crevice to come out of, but right when we think a climax is about…the song fades out. “Tronman” is pretty much a NYC subway ride gone wrong on a 4AM drunken bender; bridge and tunnel crowd messing with your drunken swagger, too many people talking and not finding the solace in your crummy seat on the way home. It’s snare-based controlled chaos at its best, that has a fantastic breakdown by the end with some amazing synth and less-than-booming claps.

The last three tracks, “Must Sustain”, “Pressure” and “Discant” all show off the positive and fun vibes of Lustman’s production prowess. “Must Sustain” is a great track full of relaxing tones and great harmonized vocal samples, with the addition of shuffled claps and some really funky-sounding synth. “Pressure” takes note of some UK Funky sounds as well as some interesting guitar bits; this falls somewhere between Todd Edwards, Roska and Luke Vibert in terms of comparisons. The final track, “Discant” is just a really solid closer to the journey; clap-heavy, solid beat and some amazing synth layers, from sawtooth bass to some jazzy piano riffs and of course not forgetting to highlight the percussive beauty. A few more wacky sounds and a few minutes later, the bass synth and piano are all that’s left…and we end  with a last taste of jazz in this long and interesting journey.

What Bravery proves more than anything is that Lustman provides whatever’s necessary to understand the beat of New York from a provocative and personal standpoint; he makes sure that within this piece of work he put all his unearthed feelings onto something. The perspective one should get from the sounds of this release should be one in the same in finding solace in daily, nightly, good and not-so-good situations; it’s life within music. We’re all trying to live a decent one, but it’s always better to listen a good one.

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