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Mike Huckaby – Phuture (Orginal Mix) [DEEP HOUSE]

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’.

Released in 2016 on his own label S Y N T H , ‘Phuture’ was the A2 to his four tracker ‘My Life With The Wave 2‘. Mike had an innate ability to cross smooth deep house pads and jazz samples with techno drums and bass. Mike was also a pro at the Waldorf Wave synthesizer, which you can hear feature all over this track. A blunted sub bass hits in its usual 4/4 fashion underneath a 5/4 crashing cymbal. Percussive bongos strike between the two notes back and forth at a ferocious pace. An echoing ‘Phuture’ lyric adds panache to the track as the signature Waldorf Wave deep house chords splay across the tracks. Speaking with Meoko, Mike stated ‘My primary influence is Jazz. Jazz is the umbrella that house music resides under’. In the way that the piano stabs, futuristic swirls and chimes are brought halfway through, it ain’t hard to see that at all. There’s so much going on in the track with so much intensity you cannot help but think that the future will be bright for those who are hearing to this track on the dance floor.

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.

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