When a musician describes a bold new direction by protesting too loudly about the prison of genre conventions, it usually feels like a reaction to a commercial reality rather than an artistic one.
The self-titled debut from production group Future Brown (Fatima Al Qadiri, J-Cush, and Asma Maroof and Daniel Pineda of Nguzunguzu) is brilliant not just because its spacey, shuddering rhythms experiment with a bunch of niche club music sub-genres, but because the foursome’s mixing of reggaeton, UK grime, R&B and so forth sounds less like a postmodern mindfuck and more like solid rap and R&B music.
Just as Kelela’s Cut 4 Me mixtape caused a disruption in the R&B space-time continuum by placing experimental beats in a pop context, Future Brown unabashedly push the needle forward on stark “post-Timberland” production values by ceding the floor to a worldwide underground of vocalists (Tink, Shawna, Kelela, Sicko Mobb, Maluca, Timberlee, 3D Na’Tee) whose hooks, melodies and attitude give the music a familiar shape.
Sometimes the best music happens when experimentalists indulge their inner pop music fan.
Top track: Room 302, featuring Tink