FUTUREBOOGIE RECORD LABEL LAUNCH IN BRISTOL
Bristol’s house scene has been bubbling along nicely for a while now, albeit slightly under the radar but still regularly spawning some amazing nights. Overshadowed, perhaps, in the media by other trends (remember dubstep?), long running nights such as the mighty Just Jack, Monkey!Knife!Fight! and Bugged Out! have been consistently bringing the big dogs to Bristol’s door. More recently, new nights Housework and Boundary Object have been playing good music for FREE in Stokes Croft, bringing a lovely Berlin vibe to Bristol and making 125 bpm seem delightfully habitual in this fair city.
Step forward Futureboogie; the FB lads have been stalwarts of the Bristol nightlife scene since they began as a club night nigh on eight years ago. Since then they have expanded into the realms of artist management, clubnight promotion and Turkish radio shows (honestly). The only next logical step was to start a record imprint, and thus Futureboogie Recordings was born. The first release is from a man who has been causing a bit of a rumpus in the house scene of late: Bristol’s own Julio Bashmore, AKA’d as Matthew Walker, who is also one the label’s architects. Since his first EP dropped on Claude VonStroke’s revered Dirtybird label in 2009, the flame haired maestro has been surrounded by a cloud of hypebuzz, and this January’s ‘Battle for Middle You’ is becoming something of a dance floor anthem amongst the more discerning DJ. His first Futureboogie release (FBR001) is ‘Father Father’, featuring soul singer and MC Jaevon McCarthy. Stripping back his usual Bristol influenced deep bass slightly, Bashmore has created a soulful Chicago groove; a bit more of an afterparty or summer afternoon track than a floor stomper. The EP also features an instrumental version of the same track and the interestingly titled ‘Craboon’, possibly named after some sort of monkey/crustacean hybrid.
In honour of the release Futureboogie decided to throw a little free launch night at The Bank of Stokes Croft on Friday 15th, pre-empted by a little get together at Idle Hands independent record shop (free cider!) a couple of doors down. Another testament to Bristol’s house scene is that you can see an artist as ‘now’ as Mr. Bashmore completely gratis in an intimate little venue like this. It would probably cost you ten notes to stand 100m from the stage in the big smoke, and someone might nick your phone. The vibe was great at Idle Hands (FREE cider!), and The Bank was packed out from the get go. The strangle little dance floor and house night regulars led a real party atmosphere, and people were brocking out everywhere until the wee early hours. If you missed out (and believe me you did miss out) you can catch Julio Bashmore, once again for free, at Boundary Object in The Bell on May Day.
FBR001 was released on vinyl the 18th and has apparently almost sold out already. It will be available in digital format from the 25th, but if you want to hear a bit more of that Futureboogie stuff then check out this little mix from FB head El Harvo on Soundcloud.
Words: George Rowe
Photo: Rosa Maria Nika via Flickr
