- In production terms, Future Times boss Max D has had a remarkably fertile couple of years. It's almost as if he's working with different materials to everyone else: not synths and drums but their Play-Doh substitutes, soft and malleable and primary-coloured. On the Shaping EP, for Jordan GCZ's Off Minor label, his sculptures reach new heights of gooey sophistication.
"Circles Bubbles" might be named for the synth tones that periodically scurry out from behind its robust house groove. Its melodies curve and bend weirdly, as if peered at in shallow water. "Flex Cathedral" is more melancholy but no less seductive; its groove flexes wonderfully between halftime swing and stuttering percussive pile-up. Elsewhere, things get more extreme. "Immunity" might once have been a muscular drum track, but it's been gently warmed until it's half-melted into rubbery puddles. "She," by contrast, tones down the percussion, all the better to show off Max's melodies. As usual for him, they seem to be 10% melody and 90% fidgety improv; when you can't decide which shape is best, why not throw them all into the mix?
TracklistA1 Circles Bubbles
A2 Flex Cathedral
B1 Immunity
B2 She