With this album's splashy record sleeve, self-assured samples, and uplifting, light-flooded outro ("Bells"), it might not be obvious that FaltyDL spent many hours perfecting his first full-length for Ninja Tune and the Brooklyn producer's own Blueberry Records imprint. Or, as Drew Lustman recently told Dummy magazine, there's more to his music than making a raging dancefloor track. "I'm trying to create some real art now," he said. And artful this is. FaltyDL's aptly titled third album, Hardcourage, is his most focused effort yet, leaning heavily on a house sound (lots of lavish piano lines and lean soul loops) while broadening his palette further with break-of-dawn beat science ("For Karme"), ghostly gospel choruses ("Re Assimilate"), caffeinated chords ("Kenny Rolls One"), and hushed harmonies ("She Sleeps," featuring Friendly Fires frontman Ed Macfarlane). Polished and progressive in equal measure, it's as groove-locked as growing pains get.