Let’s be honest, the Future Music Festival is really only notable for one thing: the Chemical Brothers. And fuck me if I haven’t been waiting a long time to see them. And it’s going to happen tomorrow. And I’m going to get messy. With excitement. Of course, festivals being as they are, I have any number of hours during the day to fill in with other music, so here are a few of my other choice picks. With MP3s. As we are wont to do here.
Elite Force: Dark throbbing tech breaks at the sunny mid-afternoon time of 230 pm. That is some bang up scheduling Future. While their production work can be kinda dull, I saw these guys whip out a slamming set of hard as nails breakbeat in Brighton a couple of years back, so I’ll be keen how they hold up to the summer festival vibe. ‘Used and Abused’ is one of their more recent tracks, but again, they’re probably better at bringing the party in DJ form.
Evil Nine: Following on from Elite Force, we have more driving bass and breaks madness from Adam Freeland’s favourite sons. Also mine. Although ’sons’ may be misleading, as I’m pretty sure they have no idea who I am. The Evil Nine sound tends to overlay stomping beats with forever rolling bass and guitar lines, but when they put their minds to it they can do uplifting as well as anyone - listen to the attached remix of Alex Dolby’s ‘Hazy Way’ and try not to feel better about the world. I’ve also thrown in their reasonably hard to find remix of the Gorillaz’ ‘Feel Good Inc’, as well as the gloriously dark ‘Crooked’, the opening track of their 2003 album ‘You Can Be Special Too’, which features the vocal stylings of Aesop Rock. Who is also appearing at the Future Music Festival. And if he doesn’t come out and rap over the top of ‘Crooked’, I am going to shed a single tear.
Alex Dolby - Hazy Way (Evil Nine Remix) [HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc (Evil Nine Remix)
Evil Nine feat. Aesop Rock - Crooked [RECOMMENDED]
The Black Ghosts: A guy who used to be in Simian got together with a guy who used to be in The Wiseguys and produced some electro-rock. The rest is hyper-remixed electro hipster history. Which means it’s happening right at this moment. Should be pretty cool. Now let’s all enjoy their cover of Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Let’s Get Physical’.
The Black Ghosts - Let’s Get Physical
The Chemical Brothers: Sure they’ve never again reached the lofty heights of ‘Surrender’ or ‘Dig Your Own Hole’, but The Chemical Brothers are so crucial they’re almost a genre unto themselves. I’m not going to wax too rhapsodic about their masterworks here because, fuck it, they’re The Chemical Brothers (although I am convinced that ‘Private Psychedelic Reel’, ‘The Sunshine Underground’ and ‘Electronic Battle Weapon 8′ are quite possibly the best dance tunes ever created), but for the sake of difference I am going to attach the absolutely beautiful ‘Hold Tight London’, from 2005’s ‘Push the Button’, and ‘Here To Stay’, their collaboration with New Order from the soundtrack to ‘24 Hour Party People’. Ooh, it’s going to be good.
The Chemical Brothers - Hold Tight London
New Order - Here to Stay (prod. The Chemical Brothers)
And, I’m pretty sure that’s plenty for one sitting. Enjoy!
-luke
I can’t believe Aesop Rock didn’t come out for crooked. A disappointing end to an otherwise storming set
elite force was stomping, evil nine were awesome (although the lack of aesop was a distinct disappointment… especially considering he did play crooked as his last track), the black ghosts were overly conceptual and the chemical brothers were… well, i can see why people were a little disappointed, but at the same time it was fucking awesome to finally see them. and they played the sunshine underground to finish and all was well in the world.
but the real highlight of the day? infected mushroom at the after party: insanely over-stimulating israeli psy-trance. that’s what it’s all about… apparently.
[...] an idiot, because D.I.M. is firstly very German, secondly currently touring the country with Future Music, and thirdly, (while I’d like to assert that I can contain my excitement more effectively [...]
[...] it’s been a while. As a reasonably devoted Evil Nine fanboy (check out some earlier tracks here - the Hazy Way remix and Crooked must both be jostling for a place in my top ten dance tunes of all [...]