HOT GIG ALERT: Future Generations @ Middle East in Cambridge, MA – 10.24.18
Future Generations’ latest LP Landscape, is the kind of record that comes from a playful creativity only possible among the closest collaborators and true friends. The group brought Landscape to life by balancing their pop-minded songcraft with bursts of free-form experimentation: recording guitar riffs from the receiving end of a phone call, messing with a vintage synthesizer called the “Fun Machine,” building percussion tracks by sampling a batch of drum-circle recordings. So while the album’s abundance of hooky melodies makes each song immediately catchy, Landscape unfolds with an intricacy of detail that reveals more nuance and depth with every new listen.
The follow-up to their 2016 self-titled LP, Landscape finds Future Generations matching that sonic exploration with a greater emotional intensity. “The title partly came from ending the first significant relationship of my life, and with the band’s move to Brooklyn, we were all put into this world we’d never experienced—living on our own and navigating the landscape of being in New York City,” the band’s singer Eddie Gore explains.
Throughout the album, the band proves the power of their chemistry in songs like lead single “All the Same,” a track that builds a brilliant tension between its nostalgia-soaked synth lines and lyrics that perfectly channel pre-breakup disillusionment. A bravely honest look at longing for connection—and rejecting the emptiness of one-night stands—“Suddenly” draws inspiration from hip-hop in its sampled beats, an element offset by the song’s shimmering synth and acoustic guitar. That hip-hop influence also informs the hypnotic rhythms of “Out Loud,” while “Landscape” mines its frenzied urgency from the unchecked fury of punk. And on “I Never Knew I Was Lonely,” Future Generations deliver one of the album’s most chilling moments, shifting between stripped-bare vocals and brutal guitar work to beautifully unsettling effect.
Above all, Future Generations are unified by a passion for endless discovery in every element of the artistic process. “Making this album was the most creative time we’d ever experienced together,” says Gore. “I remember after the ninth day of recording, we were all walking to the subway together to go home, and we just stopped and looked at each other like, ‘This is crazy, what’s happening here.’ It was this euphoric experience; the energy in the studio was completely palpable.” In reflecting on their chosen name, Gore points to the band’s mission of transmitting that energy to others. “We’re all very optimistic people who are really grateful to get to do what we love together,” he says. “Our hope is for future generations to also have that—to get to do what they love, and be with who they love. It’s a little idealistic, but I think that’s what really encapsulates the whole spirit of the band.”
Future Generations play The Middle East – Upstairs in Cambridge, MA on Wednesday, October 24th at 7pm. Tickets start at $10 and are available for purchase online by clicking HERE.
