New Music
New Music
Black Futures and their unique immersive experience
Meet the duo merging electro sounds with a hearty punk attitude.
Electro and rock share a long and celebrated history. The likes of Nine Inch Nails and Aphex Twin carried the early torch for the experimental sound, while the late ’90s and early ’00s saw a steady build for the underground genre. At the turn of the century, The Chemical Brothers and Death From Above 1979 pushed the grittier end of rock into their otherwise club-ready sound, and with it guitars fully infiltrated the now mainstream takeover of electronic music.
Black Futures, a pair of self-described “future punks”, continue the movement with a vibrant and often deliberately jarring sound. Riches, the first track to be released since their signing with Sony’s Music For Nations, plays out like altogether heavier rockers; ones that have been spinning turn of the century industrial metal on repeat. Remarkably, it treads the line between outright fury and accessibility. Most importantly, there’s very little – if anything – that sounds like Black Futures.
In late November 2018, Black Futures combined their atypical sound with an immersive experience designed to push their live performance into a whole new realm. Hosted by Music For Nations at London’s iconic RAK Studios, guests were welcomed by organisers dressed in full hazmat suits and impenetrable sunglasses. Only muted hand signals pointed the way to the ominous waiting area.
Signalled by a thunderous siren, it marked the ushering into a room lit by a single small desk lamp. A glimpse through a door, a quarantine of sorts, saw the full band setup ready to unleash their new material. What followed was a remarkably intense performance, bringing the power of a stadium show into the otherworldly confines of an intimate rehearsal space. The performance itself was completely flawless, bouncing between the band’s two primary members. As suddenly as it started, another siren marked its end. The buzz left by Black Futures was, and remains, undeniable.
Check out footage and reaction from their immersive performance at RAK Studios above, and watch the video for their latest single Trance in full below.
Black Futures are set to appear at Download Festival next year, joined on the bill by headliners Def Leppard, Slipknot and Tool, plus many more.
Catch Black Futures at Download Festival. Tickets are available now through Ticketmaster.co.uk.
