Future Beat Alliance
Future Beat Alliance is Matthew Puffett, a Berlin-based British electronic musician who has remained prolific since the mid-'90s, producing widescreen, emotive tracks in a variety of styles from Detroit-style techno and electro to acid and ambient house. Debuting with several EPs that often recalled the techno-soul of Kirk Degiorgio and Ian O'Brien, he released Disconnected, an album of spacy club explorations, on Delsin in 2001. Through numerous releases on labels such as Rush Hour, Versatile, Tresor, and R&S, his work has included lush dancefloor grooves as well as cerebral downtempo head-nodders. He's also received recognition as a member of James Lavelle's UNKLE project since 2012. Through his own FBA Recordings and Reward System labels, he's revisited his past with compilations like Collected Works 1996-2017 and continued surging forward with releases such as 2020's Beginner's Mind.
Originally from Oxford, Matthew Puffett was exposed to hip-hop, soul, electro, and industrial growing up, then started producing music after becoming obsessed with Detroit techno. Through local label Void Records, he released early singles as Mode-M and Soul Electrik, but ultimately stuck with Future Beat Alliance, a moniker taken from an inscription on the sleeve of Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force's "Renegades of Funk" single. In addition to his solo work, he briefly collaborated with drum'n'bass duo Total Science as Hieroglyphix, releasing a single on LTJ Bukem's Looking Good Records, and issuing material with the duo's Jason Greenhalgh as Access. Future Beat Alliance's Hidden Emotion, a set of Artificial Intelligence-style listening techno, was scheduled to be released by Void in 1997, but its distributor folded and only 50 white label promos of the record were pressed. FBA closed out the decade with EPs on Ferox Records and Archive, then surfaced on Amsterdam's Delsin with 2000's Audio Photos and his first properly released album, 2001's Disconnected.
Headways, a downtempo-leaning EP, was issued by Emoticon in 2002, while Project Recordings and Versatile Records released house singles by FBA. Suicide Recordings issued a trio of electro-techno EPs starting in 2005, and further releases appeared on Spacetalk, Recondite, and Rush Hour. Exalt Records issued Hidden Emotion on CD in 2008, and Dutch label EevoNext released the full-length Patience and Distance in 2009. Having moved to Berlin, Puffett released a trio of records on Tresor in the early 2010s.
A longtime friend of James Lavelle, Puffett became the main programmer and engineer for UNKLE in 2012, working on music for ad campaigns, films, and remixes for artists such as London Grammar, Mark Lanegan, and the Duke Spirit, in addition to co-writing much of the 2017 full-length The Road: Part I. Puffett also started FBA Recordings to release his own music. Two digital compilations, Unreleased DATs 1997-2000 and Void Archives, both appeared in 2012, along with a string of newer productions. Hidden Emotion was finally issued on vinyl by Subwax Excursions in 2016, and Puffett anthologized his back catalog with Collected Works 1996-2017. He returned to Exalt with 2018's Black Acid, and surfaced on R&S with the 2020 single "Never Forever." He started another imprint called Reward System, which issued his 2020 full-length, Beginner's Mind, as well as EPs like 2021's Primordial Sky, which included an ambient remix by Detroit's Claude Young.
© Paul Simpson & Rob Theakston /TiVo
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Lower The Anchor
Matthew Puffett, Future Beat Alliance
Electronic - Released by Reward System on Sep 1, 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Personal Data Collected: Pt. 2
Techno - Released by Future Beat Alliance on Jan 26, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beginner's Mind
Electronic - Released by Reward System on Jul 10, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Instability: Closer Than You Will Ever Be (Future Beat Alliance Remix)
Electronic - Released by Songs For The Def on Feb 22, 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Memory Sketch
Matthew Puffett, Future Beat Alliance
Electronic - Released by Reward System on Dec 9, 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
After the Storm (Sleeping at Sea)
Matthew Puffett, Future Beat Alliance
Ambient - Released by Reward System on Mar 25, 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Personal Data Collected: Pt. 3
Techno - Released by Future Beat Alliance on Feb 9, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Yesterday Maybe Our Future
Matthew Puffett, Future Beat Alliance
Electronic - Released by Reward System on May 27, 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Primordial Sky
Electronic - Released by Reward System on May 7, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
FBA21: Collected Works 1996 - 2017
Techno - Released by Future Beat Alliance on Nov 3, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Never Forever
Electronic - Released by R&S Records on Mar 13, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hidden Emotion
Techno - Released by Future Beat Alliance on Oct 27, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reward System .1
Techno - Released by Reward System on May 17, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Last Day Of Taurus
Matthew Puffett, Future Beat Alliance
Electronic - Released by Reward System on Aug 3, 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
FBA21 Remixed
Techno - Released by Future Beat Alliance on Jun 22, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Disconnected
Electronic - Released by Future Beat Alliance on Feb 22, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Birth (Radio Edit)
Electronic - Released by Reward System on May 27, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Anti Clockwise
Electronic - Released by Reward System on Jun 24, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Personal Data Collected: Pt. 1
Techno - Released by Future Beat Alliance on Jan 12, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo