In a world of short stories and limited attention span, reflected in a music industry heavily dominated by standalone single culture, it is refreshing and promising to see a full album from a leading genre tastemaker like Flux Pavilion. Running for a little over 1 hour, .wav features 16 tracks in total, with 11 singles shared or teased over the last few years.

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The record focuses heavily on melodies, vast soundscapes and carefully selected collaborations, a slight turn away from Flux Pavilion’s established style. Hard bass lines and sharp drops seemlessly give way to ethereal instrumentation and beautiful vocal harmonies. Easy to digest and listen to without being boring or predictable, .wav gently transitions from track to track while keeping the flow fresh and captivating.

The first track to premiere all the way back in July 2018 was the collaboration with Layna for ‘Symphony‘. The year after Flux Pavilion followed up with ‘Lion’s Cage‘, ‘Somebody Else‘, ‘Surrender‘, ‘20:25‘, ‘I Will Stay‘ and ‘Endless Fantasy‘. In 2020 the producer shared ‘Survive‘ in June, ‘Sink Your Teeth In‘ in August, ‘You & I‘ in September, and ‘I Believe‘ in December. Only yesterday Flux Pavillion dropped the last promotional single ‘Fall To Me‘.

Flux Pavilion teams up with a wide range of producers and guest vocalists including Feed Me, Turing Brakes, meesh, Nevve, Drowsy, Asha, Kata Kozma, Layla, Chime, GLNNA, spaceKDET, Chain Gang Of 1974, Eli-Rose Sanford and What So Not. The record is released via Circus Records, established and ran by Flux Pavilion and long-time friend and EDM veteran Doctor P. Born Joshua Steele, Flux Pavilion features on an album review and short interview for Forbes. Contributor Lisa Kocay describes the record as “texturally varied, boasting everything from emotional vocals to playful bass lines, euphoric melodies, percolating beats and a melodious dubstep take on a style of fugue by famed composer Johann Sebastian Bach“.

Speaking about the inspiration behind the diverse music and meaning of the title (.WAV standing for a higher quality Waveform Audio File), Steele adds: “This album, to me, feels like a WAV and everything that came before felt like an MP3 […] When I got popular with Flux, I sort of got stuck with having to write Flux Pavilion music. It’s been a real breath of fresh air just removing those constraints from my life and writing freely again.”

.@Fluxpavilion Departs From His Usual Sound With New Album ‘.Wav’ https://t.co/LiHGOORu12

— Lisa Kocay (@lisakocay) January 21, 2021

With a January release early in the next year, .wav will mark more than five years since the premiere of Flux Pavilion’s debut record Tesla from 2015. It is also coming out over a decade since his iconic first EP Lines In The Wax from 2010 that featured the killer team-up with Foreign Beggars for the title track and the timeless dubstep classic and club anthem ‘I Can’t Stop‘ boasting close to 100 million streams.

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With most electronic music producers it is not uncommon to stick mainly to standalone single releases, occasional EPs, mini sets, remix compilations and various collaborations with other DJs so it is not a surprise for a huge name of the genre such as Flux Pavilion to be preparing only his second full album despite years of leading the genre and setting the trends in the UK club scene. The record’s official tracklist was confirmed alongside the announcement of its final title and release date, and highlights most of the dubstep giant’s major singles from the last couple of years.

As EDM.com rightfully points out, Flux Pavilion is “just as well known for technical and heavy-hitting sound design as he is for melody and musicality” but with most of his more recent tracks relying on more gentle and liquid sound “there’s still no telling if that’s the direction the entire album will take“. Gone are the glorious days of trendy heavily distorted bass bangers and extreme dubstep madness but for a DJ globally known for versatility and trend-setting flair, there might still be a few surprising entries in .wav.

A brand new @Fluxpavilion album is on the way .wav is coming Jan 21! PRE-SAVE – https://t.co/OgxY92VsHD pic.twitter.com/txCvKLubkl — Circus Records (@circus_records) November 25, 2020

The oldest track on the record is the collaboration with Layna for the significantly calmer and even minimalistic ‘Symphony‘ from July 2018. The year after Flux Pavilion, followed up with ‘Lion’s Cage‘, ‘Somebody Else‘, ‘Surrender‘, ‘20:25‘, ‘I Will Stay‘ and ‘Endless Fantasy‘. Most recently this year, the producer collaborated with Feed Me and Meesh for ‘Survive‘ in June and with Drowsy for ‘Sink Your Teeth In‘ in August. His last release ‘You & I‘ came in September 2020 featuring the multi-talanted producer and singer Kata Kozma, available to listen below.

Born Joshua Steele, Flux Pavilion has been active for more than ten years with an extensive discography boasting the critically acclaimed studio album Tesla, three solo EPs and huge collaborations with the likes of Excision, Doctor P, Datsik, Marshmello, Freestylers, Childish Gambino, Wethan, Steve Aoki, Major Lazer and many more. In 2009 Steele found Circus Records with fellow DJ and childhood friend Shaun “Doctor P” Brockhurst, Simon Swan and Earl Falconer from UB40, leading the local club scene ever since and responsible for most of the biggest EDM releases in the UK every year.

The full tracklist for .wav is bellow:
1. ‘Every Cable Goes Somewhere’
2. ‘Survive’
3. ‘20:25’
4. ‘Lion’s Cage’
5. ‘Partial Fugue in B Manor’
6. ‘Sink Your Teeth In’
7. ‘I Believe’
8. ‘Twitterbird’
9. ‘Breathe’
10. ‘You & I’
11. ‘Symphony’
12. ‘Fall to Me’
13. ‘I Will Stay’
14. ‘Somebody Else’
15. ‘Endless Fantasy’
16. ‘LOVE’