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2LP
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RSTM 002LP
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Almost ten years after his last solo album (2009), Matthew Puffett aka Future Beat Alliance makes a long-overdue return with new album Beginner's Mind. The deeply immersive nine-track album is an invitation to "slow down, think mindfully, and see more clearly." Over the course of a career that started in 1996, Matthew Puffett has taken great inspiration from Detroit futurism, mixed it up with his own UK perspective and become synonymous with soulful techno and electro that gazes off into the cosmos. His always emotive, melodic sounds have made for electrifying EPs and absorbing long players on esteemed labels like Tresor, Delsin, Versatile, and Rush Hour, as well as self-releasing on his own Reward System imprint. The last ten years have seen Puffett working closely and collaborating on James Lavelle's UNKLE project. The resulting body of work includes co-writing and programming UNKLE`s fifth studio album, The Road: Part 1 (2017), various film projects and advertising campaigns, and remixing a list of high-profile artists. During this period, UNKLE were winners of the "MPG Remixer Of The Year" award in 2016, 2018, and 2020. In the background, Matthew continued to make his own music and always looked to grow, evolve, and infuse his sounds with new techniques and understanding. It was a collection of this music that eventually got crafted and shaped into new album Beginner's Mind. Puffett's most cohesive record to date is a soothing, escapist listen in these uncertain times and will slow the minds and swell the hearts of all who hear it.
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12"
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RSTM 001EP
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Matthew Puffett, also known as Future Beat Alliance, launches a series of EPs on his new Reward System imprint. The new label will explore and dive deep into the mind of Puffett's eclectic and unpredictable musical archives. Showcasing everything from lost and found DAT tapes from the FBA vault to brand new productions. The six-track Reward System.1 EP features all of this and more and is another exciting chapter in the Future Beat Alliance catalog.
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12"
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FBA 021R-EP
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Following Collected Works 1996-2017 (FBA 021LP), Future Beat Alliance present a set of remixes. Crystal Solutions, an enigmatic Berlin duo, reimagine "Endless Blue" as a trippy, psychedelic experience. Kirk Degiorgio reimagines "Cross Dissolve" in full machine mode, serving up a slab of driving techno. Steven Rutter also reworks "Cross Dissolve", bringing out an almost abstracted, ambient mood. Hardway Bros (Sean Johnston) tackles "Mourning", slowing it down and bringing it to a mid-tempo Balearic vibe. Lee Grainge remixes "Diagram" in a manner reminiscent of classic dub techno. Terrace reinvent "Machines Can Help" taking it into a spaced-out disco direction.
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3LP
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FBA 021LP
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Matthew Puffett, most commonly known as Future Beat Alliance, presents a retrospective of selected works under his most lauded moniker. The name -- taken from an Afrika Bambaataa sleeve -- may have been a nod to the early-80s hip-hop, but the music bore the unmistakable influence of the Detroit techno that had become his obsession. Collected Works 1996-2017 maps an illustrious discography over two decades and is released on the artist's own imprint -- FBA Recordings. The realization of this project follows a three-year period of co-writing, programming, and engineering on UNKLE's album The Road: Part 1 (2017). Pairing impeccable sound design with a penchant for expansive textures, Future Beat Alliance's productions incorporate traces of hip hop, but arrive at a uniquely soulful take on electro and Detroit techno, replete with ecstatic harmonies, mesmeric tones, and sci-fi aesthetics. Collected Works 1996-2017 opens with one of his earliest productions on Void Records: "Intruder" is a utopic dose of abstract electro that hints toward the uplifting, meditative sentiment he was to explore over the next two decades. Early gems, like the broken beat dreamscape of "Eon Link 500" and the otherworldly melancholia of "Almost Human", are offset with stranger still productions, like the blissfully tense "Head Ways" and positively surreal "Lumiere". "Fake Love" takes sun-drenched grooves and contrasts them with animated synth leads, arriving at a transcendent, unearthly state; "Something To Hold" explores this further with glistening scales and nostalgic chords. "Calculated Notes" distorts his positive sentiment with unnerving melodies and stripped back percussion whilst "Without Words" carries his familiarly rapturous sound through new structures. "Dark Passenger" delves into deeper, more ambiguous terrain and is to be featured in an upcoming Hollywood film, All I See Is You, to be released in late 2017. Three 2010 tracks on Tresor remain as bold and diverse as ever, with the hypnotic arpeggios of "Machines Can Help", main room expanse of "Cross Dissolve", and bass-led mysticism of "Endless Blue". "Radio.Seti.Org" embarks on a strange, illusory journey through smooth pads and immersive synths. "Chemical Cloud" is a new production which features swirling reverberations and emphatic melodies. Collected Works 1996-2017 champions an oft overlooked aesthetic in contemporary techno, opting for radiant bliss over darkness and placing the listener in enveloping soundscapes, admirable for their sheer detail whilst never losing sight of the dancefloor. Includes download card.
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12"
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TRESOR 242EP
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Future Beat Alliance's 3rd EP for Tresor sees Matthew Puffet in a much more uncompromising frame of mind. Having spent some time playing a residency at Tresor alongside Vince Watson, Redshape and Psycatron, you can feel the dancefloor has made an impact on his musical direction "I guess it's more of a darker approach to my sound, while still maintaining a certain amount of soul within the music; a little bit of light towards the end of the tunnel!"
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12"
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TRESOR 238EP
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Tresor has three tracks on offer from Future Beat Alliance's Mourning EP -- deeply-rooted in Detroit ethereal techno, but born in the industrial bunker of the Tresor Club. "Endless Blue" features a driving rhythm section surrounded in ethereal strings and melodies. "Discordant" has a Giorgio Moroder influence and picks up a sound similar to Luciano's "Orange Mistake" halfway through. "Mourning"closes with its arpeggio rhythm and a bass line destined to interrupt your heartbeat on any worthy club system.
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12"
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TRESOR 237EP
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Future Beat Alliance, aka Matthew Puffett, is the latest signing to Berlin's Tresor Records; label mate to Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Drexciya, Surgeon, Cristian Vogel, and many more legendary names of techno. With a modest but mighty discography, FBA should feel right at home at the techno institute, bringing a lost aesthetic that utilizes keen production and a pursuit for progressing music with visions of the future.
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CD
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DELSIN 021CD
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"After being in musical action for almost ten years, Future Beat Alliance now comes up with his debut album: Disconnected. The album brings ten gorgeous warm funky tracks, with techno as main element, shifting towards deeper house and jazzy grooves as well. The album sums up what his music has been all about until now: futuristic, haunting for beauty, deep funkiness, groovy and there always seems a link with the original Detroit techno vibe. Future Beat Alliance (FBA) is Matthew Puffett and most of his releases came through his own fine Void label. After quitting the label and putting out two more releases on the Archive & Ferox labels, FBA find a new home at Amsterdam's Delsin Records. This album brings very soulful, funky techno tracks, in style of Ian O'Brien, Kirk Degiorgio and others, proving deep romantic techno still exist."
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