The concentrated joy of this set by Future Death Toll is its own reward. Fresh off of tour, the band sounded a-frickin'-mazing, and I was immediately confronted with a familiar feeling, of "O, Lucky Man!" ...I dig deep into the underground, bobbing for those most-artistic of apples, and this time came up with the outstanding sounds of FUTURE DEATH TOLL. Indeed, I am fortunate, to have this incredible outlet wherein I can extend invitations to artists such as these, and they just show up and play! ...Sit in that Studio B chair sometime, and you'll begin to understand how good the years of MCoQ weekly broadcasts have been to me, and in general to my colleagues at the station, and to WFMU's devoted listeners of course. The kiss of WFMU is golden, and I need to remember to utilize this opportunity at every possible turn, in order to bestow upon all who care the rareified talents of artists of similarly high caliber.
Based on a barely labeled cassette tape I had received a long time ago, different from this set (more "home studio," obviously), I knew Future Death Toll would make good use of the opportunity for a live radio set, and I was not disappointed. Though the tape is generally "lighter," as might be expected, as well as more song-oriented, F-DT do a lot of different things, and as with Slasher Risk before them (see this set from 2010), the variety of their capabilities just meant that playing live on the radio revealed another layer. They were noisy, dense and intense, but not entirely free-form, with themes that arose, dominated and then dissipated, as you will hear.
Though I did not have a pile of hard releases to muse over and absorb, there's quite a lot posted online, both at the band's Web site, and their YouTube page, and I've been at this long enough that I knew for certain that F-DT's radio set would not disappoint, and it went far beyond that, into dazzling territory, rousing a hearty, enthusiastic response from Castleheads via the playlist comments.
So sit back, listen and enjoy. Massive props to engineer Juan Aboites for applying his considerable and diverse talents to making Future Death Toll radio-ready; whatever I throw at him, he makes the very best of it, rising to every challenge. Thanks also to Tracy Widdess for again making excellent, memorable photo art from my on-the-quick iPhone band captures.
Future Death Toll on bandcamp, including this set, broken down into two parts.
