Sympathies is Furtive’s eclectic series of self-published original albums, showcasing an extensive multi-genre catalog of colorful and exploratory production and deft dancefloor sorcery. The eighth installment adds some delightful new twists and novel directions to Furtive’s expansive body of work while revisiting some familiar ground with new intentions, keener ears, and a pointedly precise approach to dancefloor dynamics - the result of measured and open-minded genre-agnostic exploration and considerably more dancefloor experience dutifully won through Furtive’s residencies at off-the-books Philly DIY venue Bounce House, their radio residency at scene mainstay Great Circles, and a string of stand-out gigs.

Sympathies VIII opens with Don’t Harden Your Heart, a gentle but relentlessly whirling psychedelic drum and bass roller. Sweeping, warm pads wrap powerful bass punches and precise percussive licks like a gentle, comforting breeze, referencing important personal notes emerging from moments of thaw and solace during important, fraught, psychedelic introspection at a frigid wintry inflection point.

Kiln is a trippy, textural techno pressure cooker for keeping the floor hot, folding both chunky, pummeling drum machine percussion and the alien pointillism of psychoactive synthesis into a pounding - but not punishing - techno tool.

Up next is a novel venture for Furtive’s production, featuring meditative, grounding vocals delivered by Furtive’s partner and collaborator emme. Body and Mind is a slow, grinding, heaving bass journey, tunneling through sweaty, glowering atmospheres as emme’s voice guides one through the process of melting into slurming bubbles of low-end pressure. This is a sonic sauna with the lights turned low for shutting out the world around you and sinking into the sound system’s pulse.

Intruder is a wicked drum and bass cut that balances the psychedelia of high-tempo bass with blistering percussion and razor-sharp breaks. An aggressive, rubbery acid line delivers a venomous, vicious, and oh-so-satisfying streak of energy and sound design that propels this low-slung weapon even deeper.

Vapor Crawler is a return to form for Furtive, featuring deadly acid shrouded in sheets of fog. This is a high impact, high pressure techno weapon that’s readily playable, steeped in drama, and laced with murky, psychedelic grooves for the dancefloor. Certified rave-ready.

Somehow both menacing and somnolent, Extinguished is a propulsive and smoldering techno lullaby with a massive sliding sub-bass pattern slung under hazy pads and flickering arpeggios. Too crepuscular to be twinkling, yet too enchanting to be insidious, the glittering patterns riff off each other and the empty spaces between them like glowing embers in the dark.

In stark contrast to the nighttime atmosphere of Extinguished, Exult slams in with unbridled, sunshiney bounciness. A gentle and uplifting acidic trance track for stomping, cheery dancefloors ready for sun-splashed grins, and embracing the joy of motion and revelry.

Cloud Skein is a rippling, pounding tripped-out techno track cloaked in billowing atmospheres. Anchored by a hefty kick and bass pattern, precise percussion, and an ear for psychoacoustic phenomena, this one builds and rolls.

Filthy/Holy touches on some of Furtive’s signature cryptic approaches to techno, leaning into queasy n’ uneasy synth atmospheres of crumbling disorientation in the dimness and fog as precise and relentless technoid drum patterns keep the machine in motion.

Sympathies’ name references a body of work made during a debauched steamy summertime studio session many years ago - once a true sentimental touchstone of identity, and now a long-surpassed, beautifully, blissfully outclassed memory, a pleasant smile in the existential rear-view, a warm breeze in the gale of history.

Sympathies is a blur of emotions, experiences, sensations, relationships, and the psychedelic fragments between, given meaning through sound waves and motion, through riotous adventures, bright lights, and the unexpected plot twists that shape life.