Futurisk (stylized as FUTURISK) was an American electronic

electropunk Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...

group based out of

Lighthouse Point, Florida Lighthouse Point is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale located in Broward County, Florida, United States. The suburb was named for the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse, which is located in nearby Hillsboro Beach. As of the 2020 census, the population of Light ...

, United States that recorded and performed live in the late 1970s and early 1980s in

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

, and are believed to be the first

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

/electropunk band in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. They initially had two 7" vinyl releases on Clark Humphrey Records: ''The Sound of Futurism 1980/Army Now'' (1980) and ''Player Piano EP'' (1982), the latter of which was rediscovered in 2002 by

LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002 by James Murphy, co-founder of DFA Records. The band comprises Murphy (vocals, various instruments), Nancy Whang (synthesizer, keyboards, vocals), Pat Mahoney (dr ...

frontman and

DFA Records DFA Records is an American independent record label founded in 2001 by Mo' Wax co-founder Tim Goldsworthy, musician James Murphy, and manager Jonathan Galkin. They previously had a production team called The DFA, consisting of Goldsworthy and ...

co-founder/producer James Murphy when he happened across it in a NYC record store. Murphy subsequently released a Futurisk track, ''Push Me Pull You, Part 2'' on a DFA mix CD through the Paris fashion-house Colette in 2003, titled ''Collette No. 5'', sparking a renewed interest in Futurisk's music. In 2010, the New York City-based label

Minimal Wave Minimal wave is a broad classification of music that comprises obscure, atypical examples of genres such as new wave, stripped-down electronic or synthesizer music, synth-pop, post-punk, and coldwave. Most of the music tends to focus on elect ...

released a 30th anniversary retrospective full length vinyl of Futurisk's works titled ''Player Piano LP'' and received positive reviews in the press. On May 17, 2011, Minimal Wave/Cititrax Records released the ''Lonely Streets Remixes'' 12" EP which includes remixes by artists such as Chris Carter (a founding member of the bands

Throbbing Gristle Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...

and

Chris & Cosey Chris & Cosey, sometimes known as Carter Tutti, are a musical duo formed in 1981, consisting of couple Chris Carter (electronics) and Cosey Fanni Tutti (electronics, guitar, cornet), both previously (and currently the sole surviving) members o ...

Tom Furse Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in '' Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

(a founding member of the band

The Horrors The Horrors are an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea in 2005, consisting of lead vocalist Faris Badwan, guitarist Joshua Hayward, keyboardist and synthesizer player Tom Furse, bassist Rhys Webb, and drummer and percussionist Joe Spurg ...

), Complexxion, and Prince Language (DFA Records). Futurisk was founded by British expatriate

Jeremy Kolosine Jeremy Kolosine, born Emin Jeremy Kolosine on November 12, 1960 in Hackney, England, and currently residing in Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, ...

who in 2007 executive produced the album '' 8-Bit Operators: The Music of Kraftwerk'' on

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

's US homelabel

Astralwerks Astralwerks is an American record label primarily focused on electronic music owned by Universal Music Group. Its material is distributed via Capitol Music Group in the United States. The label was founded in 1993 and, in its early years, featur ...

and

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

Records worldwide, for which Kraftwerk founding member

Ralf Hütter Ralf Hütter (born 20 August 1946) is a German musician and composer best known as the lead singer and keyboardist of Kraftwerk, which he founded with Florian Schneider in 1969. On May 12, 2021, Kraftwerk was announced as one of the inductees of ...

personally selected the tracks.

Band members

*Jeremy Kolosine - vocals, synthesizer, sequencer, vocoder, guitar-synth, drum-machine, bass guitar, electric mandolin (1979–1984). *Richard Hess - synthesizer, drum-machine, sequencer, vocoder (1981–1984). *Jack Howard - drums, syndrums (1980–1984). *Vinny Scrimenti - drums (1981-1982). *Jeff Marcus - bass (1980-1982). *Frank Lardino - synthesizer (1980–1981).

References

{{Authority control American synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1979 Electronic music groups from Florida Punk rock groups from Florida People from Lighthouse Point, Florida