Future Islands are a post-wave dance band from North Carolina, now residing in the fertile "music capital of awesome", Baltimore. Future Islands play a terse yet passionate music wrought from a stripped back palette. Gerrit Welmers' cartwheeling synthesizer melodies tumble across the austere wilderness of William Cashion's post punk bass pulse, driven ever forward by Eric Murillo's ecstatic feel for rhythm. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the band's sound however, takes shape in the form of Sam Herring's distinctive guttural vocal, delivered as Glen Danzig if he ever found himself in a Shakespearean tragedy. At times on its knees at others belted out like it's the end of the world, Herring's vocal lends a raw emotional warmth to the group's resolute synth-punk bounce. Samuel, William and Gerrit had been writing songs together since 2003 in the guise of absurdist party project Art Lord & The Self Portraits, however it was with the arrival of Eric Murillo on drums that the band rid themselves of the mythology and masks, taking on a new motive and the name Future Islands. With the change their sound became exponentially faster and surprisingly powerful. They quickly wrote and recorded an EP entitled 'Little Advances' in time for their first tour late 2006 and haven't looked back since.