The DC duo Protect-U—Aaron Leitko and Mike Petillo—will release their first full length LP record Free USA on May 13 via DC label Future Times. An album release party is set for this Saturday, May 10th at Comet Ping Pong with Peaking Lights Sound System (CA) and Maxmillion Dunbar (DC).
The nine-track double album Free USA is only the second full-length release on the Future Times label. Free USA captures what was going on during the year the duo was making the record. Leitko explains to TVD, “The words ‘Free’ and ‘USA’ are both words that are very loaded, but when you pair them up side by side, they don’t make a lot of sense. That really appealed to me, because I felt like I was constantly hearing those words throughout the year we spent making the record—usually from people who were using them for foolish reasons.
In a sense, I guess sticking them together stripped them of a bit of their inherent patriotism. On the other hand, throughout the time we’ve been doing Protect-U, we’ve met so many cool people who make music that we really love. There’s all this really great stuff going on. So, in that sense, we thought maybe Free USA could refer to this ideal, cooler, alternative universe that we’re all kinda unconsciously trying to generate just by participating in this music—a place that’s culturally in opposition to all the genuinely terrible things that are going on in our country/the world at the moment.”
Free USA was written, recorded, and mixed throughout 2013 at Protect-U’s home studio and mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy Mastering. On their two Future Times EPs, “Double Rainbow” and “World Music,” “Leitko and Petillo poured layers of ambient drift onto nearly-steady house foundations, creating long and propulsive zone-outs.” Free USA however harkens back to the old school hip hop beat making with such songs as “Needs” and “Top Hat, ” a genre credited to legend DJ Kool Herc who introduced a new approach to mixing records. Protect-U brings out a fresh yet familiar funk beat to their sound attracting an eclectic audience on Free USA.
If you are familiar with the ’80s break dancing movie Beat Street you might imagine Leitko and Petillo fitting right in, surprising the breakers with unexpected insertions of pure electronic imagination. What takes the duo to the next level is Protect-U’s play on funk with a loose psychedelic sound-scape distinguishing Protect-U from most current electronic groups. Free USA is a diverse album, giving the electronic music lover a cooler ride in “Dit Floss,” but also feeding the natural need to get funky with the rest of the album.
Head out to the Protect-U LP release this Saturday to protect yourself from missing out on being electrified. If you feel so inclined, break out your b-boy and b-girl moves on the Comet floors. Stay funky. Stay fresh.
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