EVERY GENRE PROJECT - November 21 - Future Funk

Genre of the Day - Future Funk

Album of the Day - All Together Now! by Chance de la Soul (2019)

Yesterday, I contemplated astrocartography; today’s genre’s name comes back to the theme of seeking clairvoyance in a present moment full of uncertainties. Future funk is not expressly futuristic, though, nor a departure from previous musical sounds one might expect. It’s a reminder that music is a beautiful act of reiteration of past ideas, reformulated with the millions of variables of sound that makes it such a dynamic experience. The future will speak for itself; though aligning our lives towards anticipatory goals is prudent, to allow our lives to be wholly dictated by potentialities yet unspoken is a disservice to embracing the bounty of any present moment. 

But if we’re still contemplating far-off futures, if I were to have my consciousness uploaded to the digital cloud, I think my brain would probably elect to listen to a non-stop stream of music as euphoric yet hazy and hypnotic as today’s genre, suspended in an eternally funked-up trance. Future funk occupies a more propulsive, danceable corner of the vaporwave universe emerging in the mid-2010s, employing house rhythms as if the four-on-the floor beat could singlehandedly power a DeLorean—a four-on-the-Floorean? Someone get on it.

French touch’s synth-heavy mini-odysseys à la Daft Punk is future funk’s most important sonic influence, though its sample base draws from—ironically—decades-old strains of funk. While vapor’s sound has generally floated in transient ambience, future funk blends its ambient depth with non-stop collages of rhythms and vintage dancefloor release. Future funk deals in samples that not only lend it the groove and verve it needs but that aptly reflect vaporwave’s position caught between Internet futurism and nostalgia for a halcyon time one never experienced. Producers largely draw from the boogie and joy of Japanese city pop, an extension of vaporwave’s chronic case of weeabooism I touched on in dreampunk. Other producers’ purviews extend back to city pop’s predecessor in American disco and funk. 

Chance de la Soul’s 2019 All Together Now! is a veritable Studio 54 of future funk, its digital doors open for entry at any time. “Summer” layers ascendant build-ups of samples, twisting and twirling through its chrome-laden vapors. These tunes promise euphoria without push and pull, moving through waves of constant upwards motion that defies the laws of musical physics—a truly futuristic breakthrough. The scintillating, high-octane “You Will Be There” buffets you with horn hooks, bass grooves, and indulgent glissandos; hypnagogic talk show snippets are baked in, as if predicting a future in which all mass media has become one inescapable sonic entity. “Now All Together” lands the rocket gently, slowing a sample of Carol Douglas’ “Doctor’s Order” that had pioneered disco guitar and drum hallmarks, signaling that future funk’s unrestrained forward motion does not preclude a reverence for past contributions.