The Futurist was an album issued by Shellac in 1997 to their friends only. The album was originally used as music for a performance by a Canadian dance troupe.

Friends Only

The cover of the album contains 779 names--one for each pressing of the album. At the bottom of the cover is a blank space for anyone not named on the cover to write his/her name. Each person who received the album got a copy with his/her name circled on the cover; this was possibly done for identification of a culprit should the album ever end up for sale.

For reasons unknown, The Futurist was never released commercially. There is speculation that this was because Shellac were not satisfied with the finished product. A year later, Shellac released their second commercial full-length, Terraform.

Movements

The music on The Futurist is divided into ten total movements. Versions have floated around on file-sharing communities which have divided the album into five movements, and into two sides (vinyl sides A and B--Shellac are notorious vinyl purists, and The Futurist was only issued on wax).

External links

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• a premier source of information about The Futurist, including a definitive list of who all the "friends" are.

Shellac albums | 1997 albums | Self-released albums