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 culled from early house and funk. The terms “new-age disco” and “aquatic techno” have been used to describe their polychromatic approach. With interest from media outlets such as Resident Advisor and the Fader and a growing roster that includes non-D.C. artists like Brooklyn’s Slava, Future Times has had a pretty big year. Protect-U and Beautiful Swimmers (pictured) toured Europe, and the label brought eclecticism and buoyancy to a ton of local live events, including the monthly Whale shindig at U Street Music Hall. Tonight, the gang takes stock of a banner 2011 with a holiday party at the same venue, featuring DJ sets from Beautiful Swimmers, Mondo and C Rob (Petillo and Chris Robinson of the Vitamin C party at Dodge City), and up-and-comer Jay Simon. The Whale is free and usually not too packed, offering plenty of room to let the trippy, tropical-infused vibes thaw your winter bones. 10 p.m. at U Street Music Hall. Free. (Joe Colly)

MORE LOCAL MUSIC

Locals Chain & The Gang (Ian Svenonius et al.) and Heavy Breathing (former members of The Apes) hit the Black Cat Backstage tonight. Let the primo stage banter begin! 8 p.m. $10.

Also tonight, Christylez Bacon plays the newly launched Clyde's establishment, The Hamilton. If you haven't scoped the new 24-hour eatery and venue yet, now is your opportunity. 8 p.m. $15.

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 indie-rock scene's most reliable clearing house. Moombahton got bigger, both locally and all over the globe. DIY spaces came and went. And for some reason my bosses decided to send me on a garage-rock cruise.

And the music: Well, it was pretty good. I had a lot of trouble picking just 10 songs—and I was pleased I didn't overlap with Ryan Little's and Marcus J. Moore's picks too much. (Ramon Ramirez's and Michael J. West's lists will be on Arts Desk tomorrow.)

My selections are below. I also dug songs, albums, and mixtapes by X.O., Wild Flag, Title Tracks, Protect-U, More Humans, Meredith Bragg, Macaw, Hume, L&T&W, Kid Congo Powers, Joe Lally, RA the MC, Gods'Illa, Lenorable, Screen Vinyl Image, SPRCSS, The Plums, Mittenfields, Oddisee, America Hearts, Blue Sausage Infant, The Cassettes, Black Telephone, Black Cobain, Fat Trel, Volta Bureau, Edie Sedgwick, Authorization, The Cheniers, Tereu Tereu, Fell Swoops, Fell Types, Office of Future Plans, yU, Pro'Verb, Bluebrain, Chain & the Gang, Regents, Carol Bui, Pygmy Lush, Pree, Laughing Man, Outputmessage, and Noon:30. There are probably some I'm forgetting.

Not bad, D.C.

The Caribbean, "Discontinued Perfume" (Discontinued Perfume)

This was the most romantic song I heard all year, not too mention the most paranoid and tragic. The title track from The Caribbean's excellent 2011 album was inspired by two real-life artists with ties to D.C.'s punk scene—Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake—who committed suicide within a week of each other. Every Caribbean song matches frontman Michael Kentoff's short-story sensibility and deadpan delivery with the band's creepy, otherworldly, but unmistakably pop instrumentals. But nothing they've done slays me like the moment in "Discontinued Perfume" when Kentoff sings, "I was unhappy for 17 years/when I met you at that Christmas bash/out on Sherman Avenue/Remember?" And then a ghostly female voice coos, "I do, I do."

Wugazi, "Sleep Rules Everything Around Me" (13 Chambers)

It didn't take long for this project from Minneapolis' Doomtree collective to cause the Internet to lose its shit. In the end, the overall product wasn't amazing, but this first song out of the gate—matching Wu-Tang's "C.R.E.A.M." with Fugazi's out-of-character "I'm So Tired"—justified the initial hype. Maybe it's because Fugazi's simple, piano-driven melody isn't so many degrees removed from a left-field head-nodder circa 1993.

Phonic Riot, "Run Nikki Run" (demo)

I think this band is defunct now? If so, that's really too bad: Between Phonic Riot and Lenorable and Screen Vinyl Image and lots of music released by Fan Death, there seemed to be a lot of gothy art abuse going on in D.C. indie rock this year. This explosive first song on the band's demo cassette swims in early-'80s Sonic Youth space, veering in the direction of Swans; Angela Morrish's vocals are strained and spectral but massive. If I'd had the courage the one time I saw the group play this song—there were like 12 people there—I would've head-banged.

Benoit & Sergio, "Walk and Talk" (Where the Freaks Have No Name)

This D.C./Berlin duo got lots of attention when it released an EP through much-vaunted label DFA, but I prefered Benoit & Sergio's earlier EP from 2011, on Visionquest. Where the Freaks Have No Name's best song was "Walk and Talk," a clackety slow-burner that sort of did to the pop side of house music what late-night mopers like Frank Ocean and The Weeknd did to R&B this year: That is, it got druggy, disaffected, and sad. Take the only lyrics, repeated again and again in deadpan: "My baby does K all day/She doesn’t wash her hair, doesn’t wash her clothes/She just sits on the couch watching television shows." Damn.

Deleted Scenes, "The Days of Adderall" (Young People's Church of the Air)

I wish Deleted Scenes' sophomore album was as consistently good as its best moments—and frankly, that's because the group has given us lots of reasons to expect great things—but I'll say this: No D.C. band has defined its voice so clearly. The second song on Young People's Church of the Air, "The Days of Adderall," works pretty well as a mission statement: It's got 1) those lovely echo-box vocals; 2) impressionistic ruminations on the uncertainty of young adulthood and/or light drug abuse and/or treating yourself like shit; 3) tons of sonic doodads; 4) a melody you can move to; and 5) a lulling, gauzy cast. For a band that sings frequently about getting comfortable with discomfort, that feels perfect.

Tabi Bonney, "Sudan Groove" (Postcard From Abroad)

I love that Tabi finally embraced mixtapes. Fine, so his Postcard From Abroad, released in January, was total hipster bait. And the beats he cribbed from Aeroplane, The Knife, Phoenix, and Cults were cool, but nothing moved like "Sudan Groove," which borrowed music from the Sudanese rapper and pop star Emmanuel Jal.

Beautiful Swimmers ft. John Davis, "Open Shadow" ("Open Shadow" single)

This collaboration between the woozy disco-production duo and the Title Tracks singer was straight-up yacht rock, but it wasn't too much of a stretch for either party. The real joy is how it takes the whole Loggins & Messina idiom and makes it both hazier and more acute. Theirs is a deliberate glaze.

Cigarette, "100 Tears" (the weather is here wish you were beautiful/total nag)

The prettiest song from D.C.'s quietest band. It turns out slowcore still has things to say. Who knew?

Birdlips, "One in Seven" (One Tongue)

This duo formed in Charlottesville, Va., logged time in D.C., and these days is more or less nomadic. Their "Drift" series has yielded a host of strong LPs written and recorded in short periods in far-flung locals, and for my money, One Tongue is the best. It was recorded in Destin, Fla., and does have something of a tropical cast. It's also gloomy and menacing, like there's a murderous breeze blowing through its idyllic setting.

Wale, "Bait"

Wale concocts—finally!—the perfect hip-hop/go-go blend. ("Dig Dug" and "Pretty Girls" came pretty close.) Too bad it didn't make the album.

MUSIC

R Street NW DIY space Subterranean A hosts even more exciting homegrown electronic dance music: Shimmery house-music trio Volta Bureau and Future Times universe-skimmers Protect-U and Beautiful Swimmers perform. Get ready to get glazed. 8-11 p.m. Friday.

Also Friday: Mike West says you should see Benny Golson at Bohemian Caverns. Empressarios at Rock & Roll Hotel. Pietasters and The Slackers at 9:30 Club.

Saturday: Weirdo folkers Woods at Rock & Roll Hotel (with Purling Hiss)—for some reason, this show inspired a Krautrock primer in Express. 9:30 Club hosts Penguin Prison and Big/Bright at U Street Music Hall. Exit Clov opens up for JC Brooks at Black Cat.

Sunday: Rapper Fat Trel's "Nightmare Before Christmas." Ruh-roh. John Davis (Title Tracks, ex-Q and Not U) performs acoustically at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

FILM

Stay home. Tricia Olszewski is unimpressed by Young Adult and A Dangerous Method. I am similarly bummed out by Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

COMEDY

DIY standup! James Adomian, interviewed yesterday on Arts Desk, headlines at Subterranean A Saturday. 7:30 p.m. $5.

Dot Dash

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 soon tell people that Dot Dash refers to the first Morse code message, sent between D.C. and Baltimore in 1844, but then he’d be stretching the truth. At least good indie pop, like good code, keeps things simple. “I don’t like to make it some sort of device or gimmick; that’s as bad as having 10-minute songs,” says Banks. “But I do love short songs.”

The song we featured, "I'm Going Home," is the jam. Dot Dash performs at 9 p.m. with Adam Franklin and the Bolts of Melody tonight at DC9. $10.

MUSIC

The Whale, the semi-regular residency of local nu-disco label Future Times, returns to U Street Music Hall, with locals Beautiful Swimmers and Germany's DJ Kaos spinning. 10 p.m. Free.

Felice Brothers are at the Black Cat, and while their last album was something of an overwrought mess, they Catskills-hailing folk-rockers are known for their rough-and-tumble live act. 8 p.m. $18.

For a few years, Brightest Young Gays has been trying to put on gay nightlife events that draw lots of straight people. Here's what BYGays' Bradley Portnoy says of his new party Heart 2 Heart, which takes place tonight at 10 p.m. at Lost Society:

It's free, too.

FILM

In Surviving Hitler: A Love Story, a teenager in Nazi Germany learns she is Jewish, joins the resistance, falls in love, and plots to assassinate Hitler. Spoiler alert: This is a documentary. 8 p.m. at Artisphere. $6.

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. Let's just call this Swimmers & Davis.

It's a pretty honest, if somewhat downcast, homage. "Step after step I've got the currents below me/trying to dance but all the rhythms have thrown me," Davis sings over a slick, sun-baked instrumental. The bass is slinky. The keys are woozy. Late in the song, a guitar solo is menacing and seductive. Do not listen to this song after Labor Day. Do wear white pants.

The 7-inch, which also features a dub mix of "Open Shadow" by Soft Rocks, is out now via Future Times. There are 500 copies, and no digital release. Buy it here; listen to samples of both sides here.

Washington City Paper: How long have you been making music as Beautiful Swimmers?

Andrew Field-Pickering: I guess you're official when your first release comes out. So, I guess it was April of last year when our first LP came out. Before that, our bands toured together. I was and am in Food For Animals, and Ari [Goldman] was in Manhunter.

WCP: What drew you to electronic music?

AF-P: I've been messing around with this kind of stuff since high school. In Food For Animals, it was like brutal, unusual electronics, but there were some samples, too. Beautiful Swimmers is electronic, but we also draw from disco, funk, and cosmic rock, too. My parents were into Talking Heads, which definitely had an influence, but getting hardcore in house and techno has been more my thing. You know, when that wave of British electronica hit the states in the mid-'90s and it was on MTV, I was 13 and I thought that was really cool. That was pretty bad stuff initially, like that Prodigy album, but finding more awesome things with that as a reference point was pretty cool.

Washington City Paper: What's with the recent disco revival?

AF-P: People ask us what's the new thing with disco, but I was reading stuff four years ago where people were asking the same thing. I think it's getting more popular now—I guess more people are using that as a cornerstone of what they produce, with indie bands getting disco and house influences in their songs. There are more bands where certain members also DJ. Back in the early '90s, British bands especially started having drum machines and the bassist would also be DJ. It switched gears at one point, but it's switching back. Ari and I have spent so many years of looking for disco and house records, it doesn't seem super new to us. I think new people are latching onto it.

Actually, D.C. is super sick for finding crazy disco and house records. We've traveled around and gone record shopping different places, and D.C. is definitely one of the sweetest. We were just finding random records and not knowing what they were in the beginning.

WCP: What does the electronic music scene look like in DC?

AF-P: D.C. is cool because it's super tiny. A lot of people even who don't have crossing interests end up playing shows together in D.C. I feel like we fit in in DC amongst other things. In New York and L.A. there are enough bands for people to get in to super specific stuff—not just genres but subgenres and sub-subgenres. In D.C. there's not enough of it to get into super specific stuff, so a lot of different people end up in the same spot. We all came from punk bands in high school—I didn't start making house when I was 12 or anything.

We did parties at the Black Cat in 2004 and 2005, and I think there's a core group of maybe a couple hundred people who have latched on to our vibe, and that's really cool. I think we might've helped get certain people into that stuff around here—not everybody, but certain people—and that's another way we fit it. So, if you like that kind of music, you can come see Swimmers and we've got ridiculous examples of whatever you're into. If you like house, we've got crazy house. If you like techno, we've got some weird techno records. We like when people get into it and they didn't know about it before. Maybe someone heard about Lindstrøm on Pitchfork, then they find out there are so many more layers to that onion.

WCP: What does the process of making a record like this look like? Is it largely sample-based?

AF-P: There's definitely a lot of samples mixed with stuff we play. The first and last song on the new 12-inch have like four or five samples and us messing with keyboards on it. The second track is a straight disco edit. We try to make actual songs from start to finish, but they're also DJ tools. So, [the second track] "Give It All You Got" might not always match with the first song, but with us, you buy something you can DJ with.

We try not to use samples from anything good—we try to DJ records that are good as opposed to sampling them. Mostly we're trying to save parts from bad songs. Maybe we find a house record that starts playing and sounds like it's gonna be awesome, but then it goes into a weird sax part, so we say, "Whatever, let's take the drums from it." Sometimes you find yourself hoping when you hear a weird house song that it goes bad so you can use the drums, otherwise you just end up DJing with it.

You can catch Beautiful Swimmers' DJ night, The Whale, at U Street Music Hall tomorrow night, and on the third Wednesday of every month. Free.

For the local dance-party scene, the 300-capacity space is undoubtedly a big deal. Some popular dance nights are moving to the music hall. Other DJs say they're pumped. Blogger Marcus Dowling checked out the space last night, and was impressed:

U Street Music Hall will be an experience. It resets the order for the non-big room underground dance scene in DC. As much as it's obviously a great venue to see bands, it's more THE BEST place to appreciate electronic dance music in the city. Sad to say but true, if you're really going to see anything EDM related on an underground level anywhere else in the city, it had better be a quality event with incredible promotion and a killer lineup, or, you just need somewhere small and local to hang out with friends. Otherwise, you could be at the U-Hall, having an out of body sonic experience.

After tomorrow's opening: On Thursday, Bluebrain performs at the music hall following DJ sets by Empath and Ponytail's Molly Siegel. And the venue finally launched its Web site, which lists a few more gigs.

The physical object can be obtained from Clone, Rush Hour, Bookmat, while mp3s can be purchased via iTunes. If you're not ready to plunk down any change, the whole thing is streaming here.

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, and all things in between, that will run bi-weekly on Fader's website. You can check out the first post–a mission statement, but also a thorough lab session on the work of teenage techno-genius Kyle Hall–here.

Dam Funk will perform Thursday, May 7, at 930 Club with Peanut Butter Wolf, James Pants, and Mayer Hawthorne.

Washington City Paper: What appealed to you about this type of music, late '70s and early '80s boogie and funk? What about it inspired you to make music?

Dam Funk: You mean, where does my music come from? I just want to give people music that feels good, certain types of chords. Stuff from the early 80s had that type of sound. It's still funky, but not cornball. When I DJ, boogie is what I play out. But modern funk is what I record.

WCP: Is this a DJ tour, or are you performing your music?

DF: Both. The set will consist of me dropping some of the rare wax stuff that I have, you know, to give the audience a treat. Then I'll be sharing some of the songs from album and singing on top of the tracks. I wanted to do something different than a DJ spinning records.

WCP: Your music is almost all programmed into synthesizer and drum machines. Is it hard to coax machines into being funky?

DF: Oh, no. It just depends on the chord that you hit. That’s why I liked synths instead of keyboards with patch sounds. You can change the sound, allow the sound to be created. It’s the analog equipment.

WCP: You keep mentioning certain types of chords. What kind of chords are you talking about, what kind of chord are you trying to get?

DF: The best chord that I’ve ever heard in my life. It can hit your heart strings. Not that Lil Jon effect–those are the devil chords. I’m trying to get the beautiful chords, to get to something inside. But, I mean, it's something you can still roll to, something that's still urban. I keep the bottom hard, that’s the key.

WCP: You recently posted a bunch of songs on your Myspace that you made when you were still a teenager. What made you want to share those early recordings with everybody?

DF: I posted that just to show other people that you can start off a certain way, but you can come to a level where you feel confident about making music. Back then I was messing around and making tapes for my friends.

WCP: How has the way you make music changed since then?

DF: I was using the same stuff that I’m using now. All that stuff that you hear right now, it’s all part of the equipment from back in the day. Nothing has changed, it's all coming from the same place. It’s just that now it got, like, straight and narrowed out. I know what I’m doing now, I have a more confident approach. There’s a direction I have in my head that I’m going to try to will out for the people to enjoy. I want them to feel how they felt when they rolled in their cars at certain time. It's not just about the past, though. It's more like memories from future. You're moving toward the future, but you don’t forget about the genuine times you had with your family and friends, or anything you want to keep inside when you get older and find out about what a harsh world this is. I wand people to know that it's not just a strip-bar stuff out there. There’s another kind of urban music. It’s there. I’m just trying to crack the cement and let the flower.

WCP: When you say another kind of urban music, what are you in opposition to? What's the other side?

DF: Like, a lot of the autotune strip-bar music, that type of stuff. It’s fun, but there’s more than that. What’s wrong with making a 10-minute instrumental? What’s wrong with having that on an album?

WCP: Not a lot of people are still making funk music, at least not in the same sense as they used to. Do you feel like funk and boogie were abandoned when hiphop arrived?

DF: Some people did [continue making funk]. It was the major labels that kind of did it in as well, because they jumped on the cardboard boxes. They were like, "Let’s go strictly hiphop." People did it too, though. I was one of those cats. I loved Run DMC. The golden-era of hiphop was one of the best times ever. Tons of records you can’t deny. Then the avalanche of new jack swing came and really rung it in. I think that over the years funk did get abandoned. The mind state, not just music. I mean, funk was a mind state. It was about freedom. There were no baby-oiled-pecs-in-the-mirror, like 50 cent.

You could be anything you wanted to be. Everybody is so stuffed in a box now–you gotta be hard. But you don’t have to always represent that part of urban experience. I mean, when I saw Prince–idiots now would probably say that he looked like a bitch–but it was a fantasy. People like that gave you an escape from things. I want to give people a fantasy, not the guy down the street. Other genres of music are doing that, so why can't this?

That’s what makes the whole boogie thing great, record collectors are involved. It’s almost like collecting baseball cards. It's like, "You got that one, well what about that one?" I know hip hop has some of those aspects left too, but everybody's so serious. The boogie and funk scene, I hope it never gets to that.

WCP: Do you communicate with any of the DC boogie and funk collectors?

DF: Oh yeah, Andrew Morgan (founder of Peoples Potential Unlimited and Earcave), Max Dunbar, a few other cats. We’re all down with each other. We talk about the music. I can’t wait to meet these cats face to face finally. Andrew Morgan, I'm actually releasing a side-project of mine on his label. It's called Wavelength. But Beautiful Swimmers and those cats, they’re doing some good work.

I mean, it’s just a great time. People don’t realize what’s happening and what’s about to happening. It’s like you’re on a road and it gives people a chance to get off at this exit. And there’s all kinds of carnival rides there. And people, they can stay long time, if they want to. I know I’ll be at the carnival for a while. But if they want, they can get back on the road. Funk is not a fad, it’s a way of life. Get off the freeway for a minute and check out this incredible scene that’s going on and try to nurture it and grow it.