History of Future

A pioneering exploration of four cities where East meets West and past becomes future: St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai. Every month, five million people move from the past to the future. Pouring into developing-world "instant cities" like Dubai and Shenzhen, these urban newcomers confront a modern world cobbled together from fragments of a West they have never seen. Do these fantastical boomtowns, where blueprints spring to life overnight on virgin land, represent the dawning of a brave new world? Or is their vaunted newness a mirage?

When Watter first appeared fully formed in 2014 as a trio featuring founding members of Grails and Slint, most assumed the mercurial group would vanish into the ether just like the foggy echoes of sound they crafted on their debut album, This World. Instead, they toured the US with their longtime friends in Om, and returned home to begin work on an ambitious new recording studio, from which their new album, History of the Future was born. As with their first album, the songs on History of the Future evolved from many long days and nights of improvisation, experimentation, and collaboration. In many ways, the guests – which include, among others, Britt Walford (Slint), Dominic Cipolla (Phantom Family Halo, Torres), Rachel Grimes (Rachel’s), Bundy K. Brown (Tortoise), and Todd Cook (Shipping News, The For Carnation) – and the gear were as vital to the creative process as the core duo of Riles and multi-instrumentalist Tyler Trotter. It is this exploratory nature that breathes life into Watter, and turns ephemeral into eternal.