A remastered version of Future By Design’s “Waiting for the Summer” initially released back in 1998. Summer is my favourite time of year and this track is about the optimism of the summer reason, along with its brightness, beauty and freedom.
Excuse the accompanying video, I’ll be up front about it – it’s a mix of some of my favourite photos, holiday snaps and video, but also has some generic stock video content thrown in too.
People, families, towns, nations and even the world need their own metaphorical “summer” season. The ideologies and actions that limit or kill growth, analogous to winter, need to be identified, correctly characterised and dismissed, as we embrace ideologies and actions that inspire true growth, that which is sustainable and treats people as equals.
I believe that the bible offers us indeed directs us, to strive for this kind of world, starting with our own actions, compounded with the actions of others, who together have the power to overturn systems that oppress and war for greed and pride to be perpetually seated as king.
A wisdom without weapons of war that has the power to change this world. Is it possible?
And He will judge between the nations, And will mediate [disputes] for many peoples; And they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up the sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.
A remastered version of Future By Design’s “Echoes” initially released back in 1998. Militant bass, spacey ambient pads, with a bit of a Drum & Bass “roller”.
A remastered version of Future By Design’s “No Allies” initially released back in 1998. This dark and atmospheric drum ‘n’ bass track, again features a slap bass which is unusual for this genre. I guess this track sounds like a war in the mind. I wrote it because sometimes I’ve felt that I have no allies in life. There are times when I have a point of view, an aspiration, and it seems like no one supports me in it. I’ve grown to realise that this is normal, even what makes us men. As a man, you are accountable and must have the courage to take a stand for your convictions, either for good to enjoy their fruit, or for evil and pay the consequences of your thoughts and actions.
This track is also about the mental pressure associated with modern living, the fast and unforgiving pace of life. We are often too rushed spend time building real connections, everything becomes transactional with a veneer of relationship. I end up thinking, are we becoming like machines, have we created the kind of society that forces us to work like robots, continually sacrificing our humanity for the sake of money and status?
To put it quite bluntly, I don’t think the mental pressure that work can put us under is calculable. The impact on our health, the loss of time and the draining of our humanity is a massive problem, both individually and as a society. The corporate world only knows profit, and will only pay lip-service to well-being after the damage is done to keep us poor workers in its clutches.
We need a mode of work that puts people first, we are not “human resources” to be used up, like things that are expendable, but rather, we are in the fabric of everything, we are more important than the profit, and our benefit should be the chief aim. I say this because in a world which is exclusively or even predominantly driven by profit, the needs of the people who support the system, and whom the system ultimately serves will be undermined.
This is not just my thinking, it is biblically based. Read Ezekiel 28, it speaks of a ruler who excelled in trade, grew strong and beautiful, but desecrated what is holy. Understand that the kings and principalities mentioned in the so-called “Old Testament” are not defunct, they still exist. However the battle we fight is not against physical people, but against the principalities and the rulers and authorities the front their power (Ephesians 6:12).
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12
With that in mind, “No Allies” represents my spiritual battle about being committed to my faith in a society that is growing more hostile to it, not only because of people’s attitudes to faith, and the general expectations regarding what society regards as norms of conduct; but also because even to live in this system, I am fighting against an ideology that doesn’t value me as being truly human seeing me as merely a resource.
A remastered version of Future By Design’s “New Plateau” initially released back in 1998. This is a Drum ‘n’ Bass oddity, a trippy, slightly trancey ‘old-skool’ drum ‘n’ bass track with a funky slap bass guitar in it. Soothingly warm and elevating, rinsing the urban blues away. Listen and download this release from your favourite digital music platform here: https://social.tunecore.com/linkShare?linkid=eMKxt31yvZupwQwPkcB6BA
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
Ecclesiastes 3:4
I find that listening to music can bring a kind of healing, but it is temporary. Time to figure out what heals us permanently.
This video accompanies a remastered version of Future By Design’s “Nature of the Beast” initially released back in 1998. This Drum ‘n’ Bass track has a hard, dark and edgy feel. The dystopian future, remastered. Listen and download this release from your favourite digital music platform here: https://social.tunecore.com/linkShare?linkid=vxE755a9-ppSdkV7QPvdbA
If I had the means to product a video when I initially wrote this song, and if I had been as spiritually awake back then as I am now, then this is something along the lines of the video I would have produced. I created a video to visually explore the themes in the music and offer a more intense listening experience coupled with visual learning.
Nature of the Beast offers an unconventional look at the bible, specifically Revelation chapter 13, it focuses on the nature of the economic system that subjugates the world with tyranny, yet at the same time fosters almost unquestioning obedience. The “beast system” is run by kings, rulers and authorities, which pride themselves on their power to control the minds and actions of men. The “beast” system has as its lifeblood, trade, even that of trade in human souls.
Trade causes so much of the conflict in this world, over land, resources and labour. Governments, cartels, multinational companies, families and even individuals, war by arms or by policy, to gather more and more for themselves in a cycle, they hope, of endless gain. The general populace likes it this way too, you might hear comments like “if the markets are up, my pension is doing well, and my investments will be profitable”.
What many don’t realise is, the system we have is unsustainable without coercion. To start with the coercion is subtle, mentally, by social value, status, class, but there will come a time when the coercion is universally by force.
A remastered version of Future By Design’s Smooth Groove initially released back in 1998. A trancey Drum ‘n’ Bass track with a nice Rhodes electric piano, polyrhythmic, melodic, funky and dubby. Listen and download this release from your favourite digital music platform here: https://social.tunecore.com/linkShare?linkid=xmssZhJ_gOAbUW66_x9lRg
