Rhythm Based Lovers aka Jason Letkiewicz aka Steve Summers is back on Future Times with a new 12”. Once again the songs are split up in an RBL style, on the Dance Side we have ”Frequency Illusion,” a glorious slap of vibro-house for the deejay crew, coming in hot like a rugged Pal Joey tune, and on the Romance Side we have the slow hypnotic funk of ”Number Games,” complete with dope mantra vox and Italian slo-house chug.
FUTURE TIMES CATALOG + is a special digital Future Times compilation, and a must for the uninitiated. Past + Present + Future tracks from the likes of Hunee, Hashman Deejay, Beautiful Swimmers, Jordan GCZ, Protect-U, Huerco S, Tom Noble, Maxmillion Dunbar or Steve Summers.
Name your price for this compilation.
Hashman Deejay’s Future Times debut, Tangerine, was something of an overlooked gem – an exotic, melodious gem that pinned Tangerine Dream style electronics to a restless techno groove. This surprise debut album has a similarly dreamy feel, even if the techno side of his output has been tamed a little. Instead, we get a range of eyes-wide-shut compositions that variously touch on Mood Hut style deep house (“Mercury”), ultra-deep electronica (the odd beats, spacey noises and relentless chords of “Mozaic”), swinging, Max D style drum workouts (the rich bass, dubbed-out synths and loose house grooves of “184”), trip-hop style downtempo beats “Statues PF”), and thrillingly loose, new age house anthems (“Xssential-3”).
Jordan GCZ, aka Jordash from Juju & Jordash delivers for Future Times! ‘Swingonoguitaro’ hits a very unique place. Far from chopping up typical disco guitar licks, J runs a fierce house rhythm through varying six-string zones, from rainy day Slippertronics and Cocteau strums to the dusted, poly-rhythmic bends that warp the song’s ending. ‘Digitalis’ starts as cold, snake-charmer funk that gets washed away in outrageous keys and hovering, molten electronics. ‘Fusionfuk’ closes the EP with a barrage of library gusto. Jordan showcases his amazing synth work on this one, destroying and rebuilding melodies at will.
“Free USA” is the first full-length album by Protect-U, the Washington, DC-based duo of Aaron Leitko and Future Times Records co-founder Mike Petillo. On their two Future Times EPs – Double Rainbow and World Music – Leitko and Petillo poured layers of ambient drift onto nearly-steady house foundations, creating long and propulsive zone-outs. On Free USA, Protect-U doesn’t depart from this sound as much as they launch further and further out with it, specifically in the rhythm section, which pivots and lurches into unexpected places throughout the LP. Melodically, automation and humanity combine with dizzying, psychedelic grace, making the sound design sparkle with cool precision. From the bright, super-soaked opening track ”Needs” to the boxed-in drum clunk and iced-out coda of ”Down the Tubes,” Free USA showcases Protect-U’s constantly mutating strand of electronic music.
Mysterious one sided 12” from the Future Times camp. Some serious swinging house business right here!
Swiftly following on from the Future Times debut of Aquarian Foundation pair House of Doors and Kinetix Electronix comes the arrival of Hashman Deejay, another soldier from the Vancouver crew known as Mood Hut. The superbly named Hashman Deejay is allegedly the third member of the Aquarian Foundation, though anyone familiar with Mood Hut will know this gang prefer to work on a need to know basis. Regardless Tangerine represents a fine 12″ debut for the Hashman and almost seems executed with Future Times in mind given the hazy new age textures that greet the opening bars of the title track. The track does however find its groove once the bassline aligns with the rugged yet subtle drum arrangements and the momentum builds as it progresses – sort of like a Terekke production given an adrenalin jab. B Side track “Orbis Tertius” is a more codeine addled production set to a star gazing angle throughout the opening minutes before opening out into a wonderfully uplifting arrangement that’s blessed with a grubby backbone.
Future Times is proud to present Vancouver’s Mood Hut crew. House Of Doors delivers ”Bicameral Mind,” an evocative excursion between nightclub shade and inner-visions, featured here in a collaborative style with Maxmillion Dunbar on the mixdown. Drums jack metallic like hammers and bump like pillows around the lush keys. The B-side belongs to Kinetic Electronix, and their cut ”Astral Kin” which works up a sweat right away with full disco classico production before storming off in a puff of steamy Murk’d-out groove.
Future Times is very happy to present Son, the debut full-length release from Beautiful Swimmers.Nine brand-new tracks and two out-of-print classics from the duo of Ari Goldman and Andrew Field-Pickering (aka Maxmillion Dunbar) that ride together across 2 LPs. Son is a true trip, an hour in the zone that sounds like everything in the duo’s record bags happening at once.
Future Times is back with a release by Huerco S. Three shlazed house beasts, including the crushing anthem “Apheleia’s Theme,” which has been a fixture in dope DJ sets for months.
Future Times presents a limited 12″ release of “New Balance,” from the forthcoming Beautiful Swimmers debut LP. The EP features a great Maxmillion Dunbar mix.
New Yorker Steve Moore on Future Times with two deep slow cosmic house tracks. “Zen Spiders” heads for the Outback with cresting waves and eureka moments set against a blinking synth sculpture. On the flip, “Lwaxana” turns slow motion into no motion at all as the track hovers and forms into a cloud, at sleaze tempo.
Future Times presents a new Max D 12″, with a remix by Terekke! Max is back from the jungles of “Polo”, and he’s shed some of the atmosphere to make two cuts in full precision mode. “Orgies Of The Hemp Eaters” swings between Sakamoto romanticism and classic bass euphoria while the drums almost snap the track apart. Terekke steps in next with his “Can’t Get Enuff Mix” and punishes with a smudged version. B-side “Slick” streamlines the flow into a taut, intricate frenzy – a meditation on melody and the pure bliss of machines.
The Future Times posse returns with an extended family for the newest installment in their “Vibe” compilation series. This DJ double pack includes tracks both rugged and pristine, from Alexis Le-Tan, Steve Summers, Tom Noble, L.I.E.S. remixed by Max D, Juju & Jordash, Confused House, Steve Moore, Hunee and Swimmers & Gang.
‘World Music’, the second 12 from Washington, DC’s Protect-U is a total mutant house/techno. On the A-Side, synth lines bubble like 80s-style Francis Bebey, then burn up into a space-pulse overdrive. The flip, U-Uno, is an underwater electro-sitar dream straight outta 24th century India, followed by a slo-mo dub of World Music that slips back and forth between digital Jamaica and European nu-romance.
The Hipodrome Of Music 