Flume Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Debut With a Cut That ‘Never Quite Made It Onto An Album’
It’s been a full decade since Flume unleashed his first collection of sonic specimens, with his self-titled debut album. To celebrate, the Sydney producer opens the vault and drops “Slugger 1.4 [2014 Export.WAV],” an expansive cut with a belting beat and all the fades and feels of old-school Flume, which somehow never found a home.
“Made this one in Paris, always loved this demo but it never quite made it onto an album,” writes Flume, known to friends and family as Harley Streten. “I figured now that it’s 10 years since my first album was released it would be a good time to share. Hope you like it.”
Released through Future Classic, Flume was a critical and commercial success, blasting to No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, winning the J Award for Australian album of the year, and setting him up for the biggest stages on the planet.
The album was so influential, Flume would radically change his sound to escape the copycats.
Next up was Flume’s 2016 LP Skin, which won the Grammy Award for best dance/electronic album, the ARIA Award for album of the year, and its first release “Never Be like You” won triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown.
Like its predecessor, Skin hit No. 1 in Australia, but it also gave the electronic music star his first U.S. top 10, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart. His 59-date world tour in support of the album sold over 300,000 tickets, reps say.
In 2019, Flume’s Hi This Is Flume mixtape earned him a second Grammy nomination for best dance/electronic album and his third and most recent studio LP, Palaces, from May 2022, is up for six ARIA Awards and recently scooped a J Award nomination.
Following a run of headline U.S. dates and festivals, Flume returns home this week to wrap up his world tour, starting Friday with a sold-out show at Perth’s Red Hill Auditorium.
Lars Brandle
Billboard
