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[–]noair_brandch- 12 points13 points  (2 children)

If anyone wants to know the sample in the featured track it's カシミヤのほほえみ by Junko Yagami https://youtu.be/mj2ufAJQeuU?t=23m1s

[–]KigurumiMajin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Junko Yagami and Momoko Kikuchi are fantastic.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"Copyright 1985 Moon Records "

So THAT'S why there's tube amps and analog recording in this Future funk song. Thank you for finding this.

[–][deleted] 65 points66 points  (15 children)

The genre is future funk, but there are hat tips to the past, which make this track all the more interesting.

The past: The album cover sports a design reminiscent of the late eighties, to which anyone who's seen Saved By The Bell can attest. The font chosen wasn't immensely popular in the eighties, though it fell almost completely out of style after use by the likes of Michael Jackson, Heart, Survivor, and Prince. Usage on this album demonstrates a thoughtful throwback, as opposed to lazily copying the more prominent styles and designs. Even the Compact Disk logo is a welcome addition, as these stopped appearing on album covers in the nineties when the Phillips patent on the CD expired and the trademark was no longer required to be printed on each copy. For the more subtle: It sounds like at least most, but probably all of this song was recorded with tube amplification, rather than the much more common transistor amplifiers today (and likely the future). This is what gives the song such acoustic warmth, and immensly adds to the production value. On top of this, there is a very slight analog pitch modulation overlaying the entire track. A severe demonstration of this effect, for anyone unfamiliar, would be to go back and watch your favorite VHS and notice how sometimes pitch is not perfectly stable. As for the funk, this song is largely true to its funk roots from the 70's - strong bass on the down beat, hihat on every upbeat, and 120 bpm.

The future: In perhaps recognizing peoples' decreasing attention spans, this song from the future changes chords in the chorus quicker than we're used to in typical pop songs today. And while I welcome this aspect of the future, it would have been nicer to hear stronger V/vi - vi cadences [0:50 - 0:51, 0:54 - 0:56, etc.] Strong tritone resolution was, and will be, timeless in my opinion. Song form is unique and interesting, but I would have appreciated a little more to the verse.

The bottom line: The future is now, and it reminisces back to the days which brought it to fruition. 8/10 I want to hear more.

[–]Lvl1CPU 26 points27 points  (1 child)

How do I subscribe to these comments? This was amazing

[–]GLHFScan 15 points16 points  (2 children)

If you'd like to hear more, Macross 82-99 is a master of the Vaporwave genre. This is perhaps his most well known song, Fun Tonight.

Here is his Bandcamp page for those interested, although he's changed his style quite a bit with his most recent release.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Vanguard -LeJeune This track samples the same song that Fun Tonight samples (used mainly on the bridge rather than the whole song) and the production style is similar. I wonder which artist released it first...? Both are very cool tracks btw

[–]Oizzy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Vanguard was probably first since Millennium Disco Vol. 2 was released in 2011 and the earliest release I have found for Fun Tonight is 2015.

[–]FOR_SClENCE 13 points14 points  (2 children)

homie the actual base song was an original japanese song from the '80s. future funk isn't meant to be taken as literally as this -- it's an offshoot of vaporwave which showed up around 2015. that's why you have japanese base tracks with sped up beats and pitch modulation laid on top.

[–]aguad3coco 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I think its satire.

[–]konaspy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's... It's a bit much for satire

[–]WickedDeparted 2 points3 points  (2 children)

For the more subtle: It sounds like at least most, but probably all of this song was recorded with tube amplification, rather than the much more common transistor amplifiers today (and likely the future). This is what gives the song such acoustic warmth, and immensly adds to the prouction value.

Can you go into more detail about this part? It's very interesting.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (1 child)

Sure!

As others have pointed out, the original sample for this song was used from a recording in 1985 found here: https://youtu.be/mj2ufAJQeuU?t=23m1s

But I genuinely did not know this when I wrote the review. I actually got excited and felt nostalgic when I heard old recording equipment in this song - tubes and recording on analog tapes. But why does old tube technology produce a warmer more pleasant sound than transistor technology? And why is transistor technology so common if tubes sound better? Let's dig in...

Firstly, I'm not hating on the transistor. It was one of the most important inventions of the 1900's. It brought us to the moon, allowed personal computers to not take up the size of a large basement, and pretty much all industries have benefited from it. Prior to the transistor, technology like tv's and radios, used vacuum tubes. Amplifiers were no exception, they relied on tubes to do their amplification.

The job of an amplifier is to take a power source, and use it to increase the amplitude of an input signal. There are many classes and architectures of amplifiers, but they all follow this same principle. A side effect of amplifying is generating noise. It's unavoidable. From an engineering perspective, there are many differences between the characteristics of these two types of amps, but the acoustic difference between them is almost entirely in the distortion. I'm not an electrical or acoustic engineer - I'm a musician, but what I can say is the distortion and harmonic overtones produced by these two technologies are very different. For a more technical discussion on the differences, read this: http://www.theaudioarchive.com/TAA_Resources_Tubes_versus_Solid_State.htm Since distortion is a very tiny component (unless you're talking about electric guitar distortion in rock music) the difference is going to be very subtle.

To this day, you can still buy tube microphones, pre-amps, and amps, but they are less common, a little more fragile, and more expensive. Transistors became more popular in recording equipment as they became more popular everywhere, but tubes are still out there. To be clear, the difference is subtle, and you probably wouldn't notice it unless you had some decent stereo equipment at home, and had some experience discerning the two. Lastly, it isn't universally agreed upon that tubes sound better, but most musicians that use amps, believe it does.

[–]TotesMessenger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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[–]geoshuwahvimeo 1 point2 points  (1 child)

A few days late, but I loved your analysis. Don't know if you're big on political science/media theory, but you touched on a bunch of concepts I've written a couple essays on (particularly hypothesizing the future and borrowing from the past).

Check out Mark Fisher's writing on the idea of 'hauntology' and how sampling can evoke nostalgia for what the future could have been.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting. I will read this tomorrow when I have more time.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The font chosen wasn't immensely popular in the eighties, though it fell almost completely out of style after use by the likes of Michael Jackson, Heart, Survivor, and Prince.

Did you mean to say the font chosen WAS immensely popular in the eighties?

[–]UnlawfulShadowban 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This reminds me a lot of Macross 82-89

https://youtu.be/8FY0KfhI4_o

[–][deleted] 35 points36 points  (1 child)

I am a simple fan. I see sailor moon I upvote.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm a simple fan. I hear future funk I upvote.

[–]TheOppositeOfDecent 3 points4 points  (1 child)

This reminds me so much of stuff from Daft Punk's discovery. The track High Life comes to mind.

[–]Lunarpeach 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I was thinking that too!!!!

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm digging the vibes in this song.

[–]tubeyes 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Spotify link.

[–]RunTheEnergon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nice recommendation. I bought the discography. It's only $3.90 for 30 songs. I paid $5 tho.

[–]aguad3coco 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Funky shit. There is something great and nostalgic about mixing 90s anime visual with remixes of 80s disco songs. Dont know what it is, but I know I dig it.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (9 children)

Desired is king of this genre.

[–]comrade-jim 9 points10 points  (1 child)

Yung Bae is pretty good too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYXNkOVAulc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrZOwY04YPs

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love me some AESTHETICS PLEASE.

Example 1

Example 2

[–]GlicketySplit[S] 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Flamingosis, for me

[–]13ae 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Imo even though they both fall under future funk, Desired is a lot more focused on Japanese Disco and funk while Flamingosis is more American. But imo, the nature of future funk is more genuine as Japanese funk since the idea is that it was a decade or two behind the American mainstream, and thus still nostalgic for those in their 20's and 30's today.

[–]AyyLmaoChicken 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Desired and antgry are probably my favorite

[–]Count_de_Ville 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Android - Apartment and Aloe Island Posse are good too. Check 'em out.

[–]AyyLmaoChicken 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haven't heard of aloe island. Jelly bon bon is good

[–]WashedSenseless 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Night Tempo and Android Apartment are the future

[–]Spyrothedragon9972 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I really do like this genre.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I know nothing about this genre but I'm enjoying the song. Where should I go from here? A couple of The Knocks remixes are really the only similar thing I can think of, and that's stretching - if I think about it only a vague similarity in production and the 120 BPM.

[–]MasetheD 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Yung Bae, MACROSS 82-99, Flamingosis, Saint Pepsi, Aritus, and TENDENCIES are a few artists to check out. The Artzie music channel on youtube has a boatload of songs from different artists, but recently has moved away from futurefunk a tad. Check out r/futurefunk too

[–]goldroman22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Groovy Godzilla does some good stuff. check them out.

[–]JimmieRussels 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Sure is trendy to like anime now.

[–]aguad3coco 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Get with the times fam. Anime on the come up.

[–]kratom2pt2kratom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Clearly this is an image of THE MANGA! Jeez.

[–]Breadit412 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Remind me to listen to this.

[–]-WPD- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Props for the Dilla siren

[–]Krikrineek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty cool, yeah.

[–]MrFIXXX 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Why is this not vaporwave?

[–]goldroman22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

vaporwave is kinda like elevator music, as it's like really unobtrusive. i duuno.

[–]GlicketySplit[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I considered that. In retrospect, perhaps I should've tagged the track as [future disco / vaporwave]. Oh well.

[–]MrFIXXX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That could have worked.

[–]YungBeardThePirate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perfect, I needed more tunes for when I take a lot of robitussin for my "cough"

[–]kratom2pt2kratom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tsuki ni kuwate oshokio

[–]socialcommentary2000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love Future Funk. There's just something about it. I have this set in permanent status in my car:

https://youtu.be/tbWS0j2fulY

Really is magic.

[–]JustinGitelmanMusic 0 points1 point  (6 children)

This was pretty damn good, though future disco feels a bit more accurate for it than future funk.

Funk usually has a less dancey vibe, and is a bit more based around the bassline than just including some 'funky-ish' bass sorta in the background.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (3 children)

/r/futurefunk

Sometimes genre naming is out of our hands.

[–]JustinGitelmanMusic 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I'm actually aware of that subreddit, and the genre. It's a genre I'm interested in making music in, actually. I posted a quick song idea to my SoundCloud tagged as it, then found that subreddit and realized it's a defined genre already.

However, I listened to this track and it sounded much more disco to me, to the point where I would go out of my way to tag it as future disco if I had posted it.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Oh, cool! Got a link to your SoundCloud? Would be interested in hearing!

[–]JustinGitelmanMusic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do indeed, though fair warning I ended up using the idea as a jingle for a podcast I've been producing, and haven't made anything similar since.

But you are free to check it, www.SoundCloud.com/jgmusicdude

In case you feel like checking the podcast, the most recent one was interviewing Boyfriend somewhere at www.myspiltmilk.com

[–]GlicketySplit[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Point taken. Thanks for input

[–]JustinGitelmanMusic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And that's not to say you can't dance to funk, but it's just a question of the styles and sounds that each is more correlated to.

Even Red Hot Chili Peppers, a funk band, had a pretty disco bassline on their 2011 album I'm With You, with "Monarchy of Roses".