Glaswegian Brian D'Souza's Auntie Flo project always seemed like a potentially problematic one to me, taking afrohouse and tribal tropes to a place of pseudo-ethnographic facsimile. The few tracks bearing the Auntie Flo name before this release, however, have worked in spite of their obvious gimmick, and the "problems" begin to fall away completely in the wake of Future Rhythm Machine.
Over the course of 33 minutes D'Souza plots out a course far beyond the purview of those previous tracks. Things start out predictably but promisingly with "Haven't Got Any Body," a bass-heavy rattler loaded with twangy strings that poke out from between the beats, and flow into "La Samaria," a vocal track with Mamacita that balances its UK-friendly shuffle with even-more-UK-friendly descending basslines. While there are still clubby tracks like the mellotron-heavy "He Makes the People Come Together"—which sounds like Crazy Couzins transported to the late '70s—the longer format allows D'Souza to play around, so we get gorgeous little interludes like the string-led lament of "Can I Have Him," or even better, the spiraling arpeggios of "Yllw Fllw."
Future Rhythm Machine is more inviting than your average "bass" project. The imposing squalls of sub on the percolating closer "Futurismo" are more like a friendly hug than a blow to the chest. It's that happy medium that Auntie Flo is most comfortable in: I can't decide if the highlight "Train" is dance floor dynamite or consummate headphones music, with a plaintive lope that recalls Pittsburgh Track Authority and striking string/percussion interplay, but like most of Future Rhythm Machine it's bound to tickle your pleasure centers, strike you dumb and move your feet all at the same time.
Buy Auntie Flo - Future Rhythm Machine at
  
Tracklist: Auntie Flo - Future Rhythm Machine
 01. Haven't Got Any Body
02. La Samaria feat. Mamacita
03. Yllw Fllw
04. He Makes the People Come Together
05. Can I Have Him
06. I Want to Blow Your Mind feat. Esa
07. Train
08. Futurismo
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