It was an opportune time to have a collegiate journalism internship at a magazine published by a Chicago Jesus hippie commune...a least for a j-school student such as yours truly, who was not only interested in the Lord,. contributing to a periodical to which he'd subscribed for a few years and getting a bachelor's degree BUT also in the genre of post-disco dance club music that had been coming from the city for at least three or four years prior: house. Though I was likely doing it without approval of the leadership of the community (a word they preferred over "commune" and may, admittedly, be more apt), I'd listen often as I could to the city's AM soul station that played home to a cadre of house DJ's whose beat-mixed medleys would air most every night. One tune in one such mix so struck me that I called the Chi' 12" single specialty record shop I figured would sell it. The number featured an obviously electronically-treated bass voice speaking in the first person as cocaine, climaxing with a brief, evocative spiel with how "he" will "make. you. DIE!" The act who recorded is the Chicago trio Phuture, and the piece is entitled "Your Only Friend," as in "in the end, I'll be your only friend." Have you ever heard a tune that so captivated you that you called a third party to find out more about what you heard?

"...Friend" comes from an EP (extended play, something more than a singe but less than an album) whereupon it wasn't the selection to cause the greatest sensation n the dance music underground. That would be its titular cut, "Acid Tracks." The acidity is not a reference to LSD nor any other hallucinogen but what the Phuture guys reckoned as the "burning" sound they got out of a secondhand Roland brand TB-303 synthesizer, which was built to emulate electric bass guitar sounds. The synth' didn't come with an instructional manual, so Phuture's futzing (phutzing?!) about with the instrument set a template for a musical subgenre. Can you think of any other innovative or off-brand uses of technology that made for something that became widely appreciated, maybe even useful t human flourishing?

Though Phuture haven't exactly been prolific since their 1987 debut, their importance is assured with the Acid Tracks EP alone. An aspect of their artistry I've not seen/heard discussed much as their sonic innovations is their place in the continuum of musical Afro-futurism. That is, the imagining of an idyllic or utopian time and place to come--and working towazrd it--for black folk in the U.S. The impulse goes back to jazz bandleader/keyboardist Sun Ra's outer space outer space revelries, going through to George Clinton's Parliment and Funkadelic bands and even the birth of techno in Detroit simultaneous to the rise of house in Chicago. Paralleling the initial nucleus of techno firebrands, there seem to be a Christian/gospel undercurrent to Future's work pioneering acid house. Considering the evolution of the culture surrounding acid house to the emergence of the often decadent and debauched rave scene of the 1990's and beyond, do you Phuture's contribution to it at least a bit ironic?