If there are indeed infinite possible futures from
the present on, maybe we could have figured that out a while back and not
hurtled down the present/future that we’re in, the one where everything sucks
and people are sick and dying? I’m just saying – seems like we made some pretty
bad decisions as a human race along the way to get where we are. But here’s the
good news: we don’t have to stay on
this path – we can enact a future where we get past all of this and realize
that long-sought-after “better tomorrow.”
Full Spectrum realized that a little over ten years
ago. The erstwhile North Carolina label (now based in Littlefield, Texas) run by
Andrew Weathers (who’s mastered pretty much every tape you own) started off
with no plan, just the starry-eyed mission to release cassette tapes of music
that they liked. Before anyone knew it, an entire decade had passed, and
Weathers decided to do something to commemorate it. Enter Infinite Futures, a massive double cassette set that pits artists
who have released music on the label against each other … well, more like puts
them in the same room together to see if they can coexist. Turns out they can.
(This is pre-COVID.)
I think we can safely say that Full Spectrum has
made more correct choices than not along the way, and Infinite Futures is certainly a reflection of that. These long-form
pieces all adhere to the freewheeling experimental spirit exemplified by
Weathers and cohorts, those who have blazed the trail from then till now. There’s
all kinds of great stuff here – from electronic excursions to ambient
explorations to skyrocketing guitar crescendos to jazzy whirlwinds, Infinite Futures scratches pretty much
whatever itch you happen to have at any given moment, maybe even several of
them at once! Truly, the results speak to imagining the amazing possibilities
inherent in fruitful collaboration. Some might say there are infinite possibilities … infinite futures …
Plus, most of these songs are in the ten-minute
range – I’d be surprised if the average time of all the tracks wasn’t ten
minutes. Ten minutes, ten years? Parallelism!
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