FUTURE TIMES records: BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS / MAXMILLION DUNBAR / PROTECT-U etc

these guys have been bubbling up for a few years now with a string of releases and side-projects that share a sorta cosmic/proto-house/funk/new-age aesthetic. seems like they've been making more inroads lately with a nice label feature over at ra (with associated mix) and a beautiful swimmers mix on beats in space within the span of a week or so. also i've heard some good things about the whale parties in dc and other parties in philly, which is interesting because this stuff seems slooooow and not always danceable

started paying attention with the "swimmers groove"/"o yea" 12":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK4qpfUSFgY&feature=related

"big coast" came out last year and is also great, on more of an industrial-tinged reggae trip (what is this sample btw? it's very adrian sherwood):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1bkFvWUM14&feature=related

i guess the breakout protect-u track is "double rainbow" but since i can't find that one on youtube i'll post this one instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ixs6_1s7RQ&feature=related

i think everyone but fact sorta slept on the maxmillion dunbar album last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTfxRBVFmJA

there is a lot more out there, much of it compiled on the ra/bis features, most of which is worth checking out ime. so yea... list your personal favorites, update this thread when new stuff comes out, and maybe somebody can be a bit more eloquent in describing/hyping this stuff?

ps sorry about the upper case in the thread title, didn't realize how obnoxious that would be

protect-u is super great live

it's cool that they do a live thing, guess i would have expected more of a dj-set thing. hopefully the label gets big enough this year for them to come out to the west coast at some point

protect-u was in SF like three months ago! all these guys are my buds from university of maryland.

search MANHUNTER, STEVE SUMMERS, MALVEAUX, INNERGAZE, FOOD FOR ANIMALS, CONFUSED HOUSE

^ha, was going to say that i want them to come to portland, specifically. i remember liking that steve summers track someone posted in the beardo thread (? i think):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ce8kAGWjzY&feature=related

love all this stuff, I got O Yea / Swimmers Groove right when it came out and then stopped paying attention (had a kid lol) until the Resident Advisor thing reminded me to check for more of it

i think the steve summers HOUSE INVASION shit is the best

Party in Bklyn with live sets from Protect U, S. Summers, S. Moore and Swimmers / Ron Morelli dj'ing was a hilite of the winter. Solid music and all FT crew very cool people.

http://twitter.com/FutureTiming/status/40506286273470465

on rvng, not future times, but the new maxmillion dunbar ep is great

http://soundcloud.com/igetrvng/maxmillion-dunbar-woo

I really love this one, with vocals by John Davis from Q and Not U/Title Tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0RdqCPkDgQ

honest question, what's so great about that MD track?

hey DC people this is happening soon:

/// THE WHALE ///
FUTURE TIMES HOLIDAY PARTY
Sunday December 23, 2012
U Street Music Hall /// 1115 U St. NW DC
Free (over 21) /// $5 (under 21)

STEVE SUMMERS live set
BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS dj set
MAXMILLION DUNBAR live set
MONDO dj set

idk it's charms seem pretty immediately obvious to me, i'm pretty easily won over with that type of texture i guess but to me that loop is fuckin gorgeous

New Max Dunbar on RVNG Intl. Hot!

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/10/171191614/first-listen-maxmillion-dunbar-house-of-woo

listened to it yesterday. good stuff.

enjoyed the new-agey-ness of some of it. pretty fresh.

I wasn't too enarmoured with this at first but loving it now. Top grade ear candy is this.

died when the "enigma flute" came in during "peeling an orange in one piece"

great album

liking this!

<3 this MD album so much!

died when the "enigma flute" came in during "peeling an orange in one piece"

hahaha yeah exactly

http://www.spin.com/#articles/maxmillion-dunbar-interview-future-times-house-of-woo

Nice P. Sherburne interview

I finally picked up House of Woo. really good record.

it's also mixed 10x better than "cool water"

yeah I didn't like that one much ... House of Woo is just as good as the Beautiful Swimmers 12"s imo

too early for me to have a real favorite on it but Ice Room Graffiti is up there right now

So this is pretty good. Beautiful Swimmers full-length!

http://www.npr.org/2013/06/23/193875887/first-listen-beautiful-swimmers-son

Some of it is from the 12"s (Swimmers Groove, Big Coast). Some of the new ones are pretty '90s sounding, almost trip-hoppy. A bit unexpected but not out of line with what some of the slowed-down-disco, ESP Institute / International Feel crowd are putting out. Like I've been listening to that Tornado Wallace record on ESP from last year and "Thinking Allowed" sounds like the Orb to me. Long story short I liked this Swimmers record on first run-through yesterday and will probably listen again today.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/44528/vibe-hard-how-did-future-times-become-dcs-coolest-dance/

overall the ones that were already out as singles are the best on "Son" but "Dream Track" is pretty sweet

this beautiful swimmers album gave me incredible late night summer vibes last night

Yeah, great album.

i wasn't really feeling this on first listen at npr - prefer their deeper stuff.

the max d album and dj sets are good too, as is the huerco s thing on ftimes.

been hearing Huerco S.'s name a lot, I'll have to check for him

RA just had a post today that he has a full-length coming out on Software

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=20359

I'm a little surprised that I like House of Woo more than the Swimmers album

It's much better. Max D's Beats In Space is worth checking out, one of the best this year.

house of woo and son are very different, i was surprised. house of woo is prettier, more varied, dancier. son is...more hippy vibes i guess.

definitely feels more self-consciously retro in that some of the stuff on Son feels like it could be an edit of an old track. House of Woo references a lot of older dance sounds but makes it feel newer & fresher somehow.

Son's still pretty good though. Out of the new ones I like Dream Track, Joyride, and Cool Disco Dan.

Listening to Son now and the hooks and melodies are lovely but the drum sounds they use are consistently horrible and give the whole thing the impression of being hackier than it maybe is.

yeah it lacked the lushness of their other stuff.

Some of the new ones are pretty '90s sounding, almost trip-hoppy

this was my first impression too and kinda put me off a bit. just a bit sloppy or something.

I agree it's a bit sloppy but that's not really due to a 90s influence or lack of it. I dunno, I've only listened on headphones but it sounded like one of those 'dance' albums produced by indie acts who don't really get the importance of things like mixing and mastering, different elements of the sound seemed to be pushing each other out of the way rather than working together.

Maybe it's deliberate and they know what they're doing, I can't work it out really.

yeah your first par i agree with too, it's not the 90s thing i have a problem with, but it definitely had a feel of someone "doing a dance album" which i'm not sure they needed. on the other hand not sure why they'd make an album full of 12 deep house tracks.

I've basically paid zero attention to them since some very early stuff appeared in 2007 or thereabouts but the sound here isn't really inconsistent with that.

haven't listened to this yet but looks interesting: http://testpressing.org/2013/07/271-beautiful-swimmers-flavorful/

i think the sound is intentional, and there is something intriguing about the album, but the clattery drums are fatiguing

Really enjoying House Of Woo, didn't realise I needed pan-pipe flavoured analogue house in my life but it sounds so good on these warm summer nights.

the newest crop of releases is pretty great

hashman deejay: https://soundcloud.com/#future-times/hashman-deejay-tangerine-12
house of doors / kinetic electronix: https://soundcloud.com/future-times/house-of-doors-max-d-mix-b-w

both of those are mood hut-related, looking forward to more good things out of vancouver now too considering the strength of the pender street steppers and aquarian foundation releases

new max d double lp is hella fun

it came with a haiku :)

i haven't really kept up very well but the general vibe and everything of this label and m4x d as an artist / dj / twitter presence is low key one of my favorite things of the past couple years.

after not logging on for a while, soundcloud decided to bless me with this mix from 6 months ago and it's just the fuckin best

https://soundcloud.com/future-times/max-d-how-many-times-a-day-do-you-smoke-right-now-be-honest-dj-mix

new one, superabundance, sounds great.

wow am i like the only one here paying attention to future times?? lol

this is 'i'm high af on weed' music at its best, to me

yes, this is great, have been looking forward to it. the mix you linked above is also great although it's the People Are Tripping mix from a few years back that I've been playing the most lately.

tbh future times' focus on fiddly idm-ish percussion has kinda lost me. weird to see seven years ago i said the drum sounds on 'son' are fatiguing, now i consider that album a classic and i haven't listened to house of woo in forever