La Prochaine Fois

In 2001, “folktronica” was just starting to be a thing — and this album could be seen as fitting right in. But Riz Maslen was way ahead. In her work in the mid 90s, as Neotropic and Small Fish With Spine, and playing with the likes of 4hero and Future Sound of London, she had already honed a unique talent at blurring acoustic instruments and electronic sound for the trippy backroom and post-club environment. La Prochaine Fois is a consolidation of an already serious body of work — and still sounds out of this world years later. There’s ambient, there’s folk horror, there’s field recordings, there’s a proper songwriting sensibility, and always there’s that chillout room sense of total immersion. Maslen would go on to expand her body of work exponentially hereafter, but this remains a cornerstone of her oeuvre and an under-appreciated gem of deep listening that is ripe for rediscovery.