Minimal Wave Records

NOW SHIPP­ING.

Minim­al Wave is proud to pre­sent ‘Re­cord­ings 1980-1982’ (MW077), a tri­ple 7” box set by pioneer­ing south Florida synth-punk band Futurisk, in honor of their 40th an­niver­sa­ry. Foun­ded by Jeremy Kolosine in 1978, Futurisk re­cor­ded many songs and per­for­med live throug­hout the early 1980s. Though they had re­leased two 7”s that sold out, had a legen­da­ry live show, and even some videos, by 1984 Futurisk was his­to­ry. Even­tual­ly, the main core of Futurisk would be the Jeremy Kolosine, Ric­hard Hess, and Jack Howard line-up though much hap­pened lead­ing up to this point.

In 1979, the teenage Jeremy Kolosine won studio time and money in a com­peti­tion with his drum-machine-triggered guitar-synth act cal­led ‘Clark Humphrey & Futurisk’. He de­cided to form a band around the name to re­cord a more punk re­lease tit­led The Sound of Futur­ism 1980 / Army Now. It was an am­bivalent anti-war an­them with Jack Howard on drums, Frank Lar­dino on synth, and Kolosine on voc­als and guitar synth. Many live shows en­sued with the line-up which in­cluded Jeff Mar­cus on bass and Vin­nie Scrimen­ti on drums but in 1981 a rift bet­ween the band caused them to part ways. They con­tinued for a bit as ‘Radio Be­rlin’ (no re­la­tion to the Van­couv­er act) and Kolosine, who had gott­en ab­sor­bed in a new an­alog syn­thesiz­er with sequenc­er con­tinued as Futurisk.

He re­cruited syn­thes­ist and re­cord­ing en­gine­er Ric­hard Hess who had a myriad col­lec­tion of Moogs, Ob­er­hieims, and CATs. Jack Howard re­tur­ned on drums and syn-drums and the li­neup for the Play­er Piano EP was cast. The EP, like the live show, was a stran­ge blend of punk, minimal­ist, and disco-influenced electro-pop, with drum mac­hine tri­ggered syn­ths and often fran­tic real drums all led by Kolosine’s schizophrenic Bowie / Ferry / Foxx adula­tions. It was re­cor­ded by Ric­hard Hess and the band in the rooms of a friend’s house. The drum sound, re­cor­ded in a bathroom, rocks, even today. Re­por­ted­ly, Futurisk may have been the first synth-punk band in the American South, and their 1981 track ‘Push Me Pull You (Pt. 2)’ was an early pre- ‘Roc­kit’ ex­curs­ion into electro-funk.

The ‘Re­cord­ings 1980-1982’ box set in­cludes three 7”s, an Army Now (1982) 7” Flexi, and a 16-page full-color book­let featur­ing un­pub­lished photog­raphs of the band, the his­to­ry of the band, and an in­ter­view with found­er Jeremy Kolosine. The three 7”s are The Sound of Futur­ism 1980 / Army Now which in­cludes an un­released track from the same sess­ion, the Play­er Piano five-song 7” EP from 1982, and the Ocean Sound 7”, which has not been re­leased in this for­mat until now. All three 7”s are re­mas­tered, pre­ssed on heavyweight 70-gram vinyl, and housed in heavy color prin­ted matte sleeves featur­ing the band’s origin­al artwork. The box is case wrap­ped and de­picts an early il­lustra­tion of the band prin­ted in black on white with a spot gloss. Li­mited edi­tion of 600 co­p­ies. Pre-order is now avail­able. Ord­ers will ship May 3rd 2021. Limit one per cus­tom­er, please (ex­cep­tions made for those or­der­ing for a friend).