Futurians (band)

Did You Know?

• Stefan Neville of Pumice was an interim member, and Antony Milton played a space-y game onstage once.
• The Futurians have covered artists including The Rolling Stones, Joy Division, Grace Jones, and Billy Joel.

Style

The Futurians are known for a retro-futuristic look. Their single Power / Reactor came inside a full-color 16-page book of the band’s own artworks and collages, packaged with a DVD of their music videos from 2003 to 2013. Their sound pulls from digital rock, funk, minimalism, no wave, new wave, Brian Wilson, krautrock, noise music, disco, lo-fi, art rock, punk rock, dirges, riot grrrl, doom rock, and drone rock. Lyrics and music explore retro-futuristic sci-fi themes. Critics have called it “torn-down semi-punk skiffle,” “the sound of gay robots disco dancing and crushing everything underfoot,” and a “lo-fi art rock nightmare.” Recordings are deliberately low fidelity; one reviewer noted that getting less fidelity would mean switching to punch-cards and faxing.

Other activities

Rocko Mandroid has been part of a long list of bands, including Near Death Experience, Elixir in Flux, Dickthephone, Invisible Axe, Rampage, Double Date, Good Bugs Bad Bugs, Wolfskull, and Voodoo Gangster. He also helped start the Lttl Paisly label in Dunedin, which focuses on handmade small-run music releases, fashion, graphic design, and screen printing. Ducklingmonster wears many hats: DJ, cartoonist, fashion designer, curator, visual artist, zine maker, cultural engineer, video artist, fine artist, and radio show host. For her solo performances, she uses beats, lights, vocals, good manners, and homemade electronics from the Musical Electronics Library. Critics have called her shows authoritative, with precise and fearless dancing. She created the "No Venues" concept, staging shows in unconventional spots like public parks, back yards, and church stoops. This came from frustration with stages creating a barrier between performer and audience, as well as barriers between art practice and commercial or institutional venues. Her Society for Cutting Up Venues Manifesto explains the philosophy behind it. She is a core member of the Uniform Collective, a central Auckland women's art collective that puts on art shows, parties, and a magazine, aiming to boost community interaction and explore ideas of place, community, and feminism in their neighborhood. Ducklingmonster also plays in File Folder and the Maltese Falcons, and has been in It Hurts, Bugz on Film, Uniform, Octopus, the Ghastlies, Rise of the City Cat Cult, Panda Battle Battle Panda, LD50, the Shutups, Static, Zombie!Fuck?, 5 Satans, Richard and the Hadlees, Vulcan Steel, the Windups, the Murdering Monsters, and Evidence X.