Mike Huckaby – Phuture
2020 has been a huge year of disaster and disruption to life as we’ve known it. Devastating fires in Australia. The crash of civility and global economy through the COVID-19 pandemic. Political unrest in Western nations caused by the abuse of those who’ve been entrusted to serve and protect. The death of Andrew Weatherall and Kraftwerk founder Florian Schneider. In addition, one of our beloved favourites unfortunately met the big man upstairs this year too – Mike Huckaby. ‘One of global dance music’s most widely beloved figures’ pens The New York Times. News of the untimely death of the Detroit Deep House Don reverberated deep into the underground. Credited with furthering the jazzy deep house sounds, the man was the definition of a pioneer. We take a look at one of his archetypal tracks, ‘Phuture’.
Tracks like ‘The Jazz Republic‘ and ‘Fantasy‘ are staples in the deep house pantheon. Mike’s sample CDs, as mentioned in one of our previous reviews, was his way of ‘just testing his sound design prowess‘. The end result was responsible for producing one of the most influential sample packs ever made. It’s sad to think he will not be around anymore to produce such bangers as ‘Phuture’. However, there is no doubt that dancers will be shaking a leg to his tracks for eons to come.