The Search for Underground Club Music ‘Future Funk’

This is kind of sudden, but do you like 80s J-POP music?
I have the impression that there is a lot of brilliant music from the bubble era. There is a rich variety of music, from up-tempo brass band tunes to techno tunes reminiscent of the early days of synthesizers.
In my opinion, 80s J-pop has had a great influence on contemporary city pop and excels in so-called “chill-out” music as well.
And what's more, 80s J-Pop is once again attracting attention across time and across countries!

Future Funk, as the title suggests, is a very futuristic name.
Although it is named “Funk,” it is actually a genre similar to Filter House and Vaporwave. In fact, Future Funk is listed as a subgenre of Vaporwave on Wikipedia.
Vaporwave is a re-consumption of content created in the past and is a critique of the mass consumption of information that emerged in the web community in the early 2010s. Search the Internet and you will find strange images of statues painted in psychedelic colors and computers combined with their own bodies.

Future Funk, by comparison, is a bit more reworked into a popular genre.
Let me preface this by saying that you should actually listen to it first.

■ Wink / “Sabishii Nettai Gyo” (Lonely Tropical Fish) (Night Tempo Showa Groove Mix)

Even I, a 20-something, know this song. The original dance song has been parodied in various places.
This remix is an official re-edit of the original song, with almost all of the music ducked except for the four kicks, creating a groove that is easy to dance to. The original song was a danceable idol song, but this remix makes it even more danceable.
The remixer, Night Tempo, is also known as a leading Future Funk DJ. I’m so surprised that he’s not Japanese, but a Korean DJ!

■ Saint Pepsi / Skylar Spence

Next is this one. This song boldly uses Tatsuro Yamashita's “Love Talkin'(Honey It's You)”. This song was written when the song was still “Natsu no Tatsuro”. It was a little later that the great Christmas song was born... Although the original song is funky, the tempo has been increased to make it easier to ride, and the unique slap bass, which is also present in the original song, is re-edited in an interesting way.
Saint Pepsi, who did the remix, is one of the people who fostered Future Funk with Night Tempo. He changed the name of the song to Skylar Spence and became a leading figure in international city pop. His song “Fiona Coyne” is my personal favorite.

■ Night Tempo / Plastic Love

A bold arrangement of Mariya Takeuchi's signature song “Plastic Love”! The original song is a so-called mid-tempo ballad, but this one has a different feeling. The original song is a mid-tempo ballad, but it has a different feel to it. The sidechain is applied very strongly here, and the plucked synths on top of it preserve the original atmosphere.
plucked synths on top of it preserve the original atmosphere. “Plastic Love” is the song that sparked the 80s J-Pop boom through Future Funk overseas, and it has been remixed by many producers besides Night Tempo. “Plastic Love” is also very famous in Japan as a pioneer of city pop music, along with Tatsuro Yamashita. Night Tempo also produced a remix of Mariya Takeuchi's “Tell me, tell me”.

■ 1986 Omega Tribe / You are 1000% (Night Tempo Showa Groove Mix)

Omega Tribe is a group that cannot be missed as one of the summer hits of the 80s. The first single “Kono Kimi wa 1000%” was the first single from the group's 1986 debut as Omega Tribe, which replaced Kiyotaka Sugiyama, who had produced many hit songs such as “Kimi no Heart wa Marine Blue”, with Carlos Toshiki as the vocalist. There is not that much difference in tempo from the original song and the atmosphere changes a lot just with the four kicks. And, while it still has the same summery feel, it seems to have been reborn with a slightly more dusk-like feeling than the original.

Now that I have introduced four songs, what do you think? I hope you enjoyed them, even if you are not of this generation.
Just by listening to nostalgic music, I am continually discovering that such technical music was already available in this era! It is a continuous discovery.
Good music needs to be heard from good headphones is something I’m going to show you here!

The TMA series by AIAIAI, of which Sound House is an authorized importer, is a brand that allows you to create your own headphones. You can change the color of the cables to “my style”! It doesn't mean that you can change the color of the cables, but you can combine four types of headphones: speaker units, earpads, headbands, and cables! For example, if each part has 5 types (actually, there are many more), there are 5×5×5×5 = 625 possible combinations, which makes you wonder what kind of headphones you can make (laugh).
You can use any combination you like for different purposes, such as a headband with wireless (Bluetooth) specifications, which is also suitable for listening, or a cable with Lightning connector specifications, which can be directly connected to iOS products.
Of course, you can also rest easy if you are indecisive. There are presets available that are optimized for different music genres and usage scenarios. It might be a good idea to modify them to suit your own preferences here.
The TMA series products are listed on the following page, so please take a moment to fantasize about your dream headphones (lol). You will surely have a complete set in your cart before you know it.

→ AIAIAI TMA-2 Feature

AIAIAI also sells other earphones with simple designs, so be sure to check them out as well!

That's about it for this issue!

...I think it's time to get some flashy cables…

AIAIAI / C18 1.5m Coiled Cable Neon Yellow with Conversion Adapter