In a city that often looks backward musically (we get it, everybody loves Fugazi and The Dismemberment Plan), the Future Times crew is all about pushing things forward. Overseen by Mike Petillo and Andrew Field-Pickering (of the duos Protect-U and Beautiful Swimmers, shown above), the local imprint brings together global psychedelia with warm, throbbing beats [...]
Weird year, 2011. D.C.'s most visible band released an app, not an album. Its great rap hope released an album that was disappointing in critics' eyes, but which cemented him as a mainstream presence. Dischord returned to relevance with a handful of new albums and handsome archival releases; new labels formed; and Sockets remained the [...]
For a pair of mildly funky dudes, D.C.- and Berlin-based producers Benoit & Sergio have pretty aristocratic taste. In a recent feature for the website Magnetic, the gents behind this year’s fabulous “Principles”/“Everybody” EP take readers on a tour of Washington, keeping a little too close to the Burberry-clad sections of town: To Benoit, Dupont [...]
Dot Dash is a something of a local jangle-pop supergroup with roots in another jangle-pop supergroup, Julie Ocean. In last week's One Track Mind, I wrote:
Dot Dash is named for a song by Wire, kind of like how Julie Ocean was named for a song by The Undertones. [Leader Terry] Banks says he’d just as [...]
Beautiful Swimmers want you to start your summer off slow: Margarita slow. Captain's-hat-tilted-seaward slow. Yacht-rock slow.
The local spaced out electronica duo just released "Open Shadow," its latest 7-inch, featuring a lead vocal from Title Tracks frontman John Davis. It's beachy and syrupy in the Loggins & Messina vein. Or maybe it sounds like Seals & Crofts. [...]
With the opening of U Street Music Hall and the proliferation of forward-thinking DJ nights, you may have noticed an influx of electronic music in D.C. over the past few years. As a label owner, producer, and musician, Andrew Field-Pickering of the Future Times label has been a crucial player in much of this. He [...]
The new U Street Music Hall officially opens tomorrow with performances by the Belgian duo Aeroplane and locals Beautiful Swimmers, but it's already been taken for a test run. The venue had a mostly unpublicized soft opening last night featuring DJs and local indie-poppers Casper Bangs, and it'll open its doors for free again tonight [...]
Andrew Field-Pickering's cup is pretty much running over with smooth music these days. Between Food For Animals, Future Times Records, and Beautiful Swimmers, he's already produced a crate's worth of vinyl this year. And there's still more to come. Maxmillion Dunbar, Field-Pickering's solo project, just delivered Bare Feet on UK-based label Ramp Recordings. The minimalist [...]
You'd think that Andrew Field-Pickering–between rapping in Food For Animals, DJing in Beautiful Swimmers, and running his own record label (Future Times)–probably has enough cool urban-music-oriented-work to fill his days. But one more thing can't hurt, can it? Field-Pickering recently launched "Heal Yourself and Move," a column devoted to dance music, electronic music, deep vibes, [...]
If funk music has a Zen guru, it's probably Dam Funk. For the Los Angeles-based producer/DJ, funk isn't just a style of music, it's a higher state of being. It's an inspirational and quasi-spiritual pursuit that one might practice in order to achieve perfect harmony with the past, present, and future. Dam Funk's answering machine [...]
