Furtive

f local and international labels, along with a slew of tracks on VA compilations and dozens of self-released tracks. Furtive’s body of work comprises psychedelic warphole-diving techno, quirky and muscular electro, acerbic acid tracks, crooked bass bits, moving ambient atmospheres, and drum & bass. Furtive cut their teeth as a DJ and promoter in Washington, DC’s warehouses, where they also played a turnkey role in putting on some of the District’s zaniest techno parties. As a DJ, they’ve supported internationally celebrated non-nonsense acts and held court in dingy local watering holes with eclectic selections and a steadfast focus on pacing and dynamics, regularly jumping genres to build moving, impactful sets. Beyond the fog and strobe lights, Furtive creates art in a variety of mediums, including linocuts, render art, inky drawings, and tattooing.

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Furtive grew up as a bit of a perpetual cultural outsider: born and raised somewhere in Southern California’s sun-weathered and dusty Inland Empire, but spending many formative years in Berlin, Furtive grew up between three languages and even more histories. Furtive’s musical arc zigzags wildly: from classical music, Russian pop, and a formative, fateful exposure to trance in childhood, to trashy metalcore and gabber in high school, and later to the transcendental worlds of gloomy experimental metal, Cascadian singer-songwriters, and the thrill of exploring obscure vinyl collections on sunny afternoons. Furtive’s production is fundamentally techno refracted through these aesthetic and conceptual sensibilities and some wacky studio idiosyncrasies, with these disparate influences coming together in their DJing and production via a sort of academic, tongue-in-cheek desire to connect all of the music that has moving and influenced them. As a closing note: the journey can be summarized in their own words (or, a cheeky amalgamated existential portmanteau): “I aim for the stars, but sometimes I land in a pool of mermaids.”