The Future Sound - The Whole Shabang Vol. 1 LP

Eastwest (1992)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

When you talk about forgotten classics, I'm not sure you can find too many that tick the 'forgotten' box more than The Future Sound.  Until the past year or so, I had never even heard of them, despite their only album coming out on Eastwest (home of Das Efx) in 1992, the height of the golden era.  It was only while diving into some 'overlooked records of the 90s' type lists did I see someone make mention of The Future sound.

I listened to the record online and was immediately drawn to the opening track (well, the first real song after the intro) "This Is A Game."  The horn riff that this track is built on is so great and the production sort of has a similar vibe as Lords of the Underground's "Funky Child."  But the song is a bit more laid back, but at the same time more upbeat than that LOTUG.  The Future Sound is not coming at you aggressively.  They're a group that's making music that's more concerned about being fun than it is about fitting into any sort of specific sub-genre of hip hop.

The entire record is great, with killer beats and solid rhymes.  It reminds of groups like UMCs, De La Soul (though not as hippified) or maybe Freestyle Fellowship (but with less complicated rhyme schemes).  Regardless of how I'm stretching to provide a point of reference comparison, this is a killer record.  I'm so glad I managed to stumble across it.  If I'm going to point to the best records I've found while doing deep dives into the forgotten recesses of the golden era, this is easily a top three find.  Sadly, this was the groups only album, so we never got The Whole Shabang Vol. 2.

The Future Sound - The Whole Shabang Vol. 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCVnasKw3Us&ab_