Yesterday, Futurebound’s Instagram posted the album art for his upcoming album Mystery Machine with production partner Matrix with the caption, “in two days time, me and Matrix will give you two years of work.” Now it’s less than an hour’s time and as much as fans have been itching for the album’s release, it’s likely been so much more for the duo.
Putting an LP together is always a Herculean feat, both emotionally and physically for producers, especially if you’re talking drum and bass. From concept to completion there are so many details and technical bits to get right and they toil away in dark rooms for ages knowing that the fruits of their labor won’t even be appreciated by others for months or years in the future.
While Viper is known for teasing the hell out of its fans with album singles months in advance (in this case the title tracks of Mystery Machine was released a full year ago) but when one thinks about that process one can hardly blame artists for wanting to push tracks out before the big reveal; they’re just excited and want to show what they’ve been working on. Two years is a long time to go completely radio silent. 
Given the fact that Mystery Machine is Matrix and Futurebound’s first LP release in over a decade, it makes even more sens why they’ve released so many singles before the album’s drop. Now, in the eleventh hour before Mystery Machine releases worldwide, they’ve got one more single to profile, and Your EDM is lucky enough to intro it. “Ear Drum” seems to be the culmination of all this work for the legendary duo; it’s both solid Matrix & Futurebound and new and innovative at the same time.
A chunky roller at its core, “Ear Drum” is stripped-down, no-nonsense drum and bass. It’s far from minimal, however, as the track moves and sort of tells a story in its four minutes and 27 seconds. This is largely achieved through the synths, with which it’s obvious that M&F experimented a lot for this track. They’re of a timbre that the duo made standard in the mid-00s but they’ve got an extra twang to them. There’s an echo there and a resonance that takes “Ear Drum” to a whole new level. Ravey, danceable, mixable and technically more complex than it seems, “Ear Drum” is a great period on the end of the pre-releases for Mystery Machine.
Now it’s time to experience the full Matrix & Futurebound magic for the first time in quite a while as Mystery Machine is now available to stream in full on Spotify and to purchase in full on multiple platforms. Two years’ hard work all paid off in one moment: get your eardrums ready.
Mystery Machine is out today on Viper/Metro Recordings. Click here to stream or purchase on multiple platforms.
