Turkuaz, the nine-piece funk army hailing from our very own Brooklyn, will raise the roof on any given night. After a few years of regular touring and music cultivating, Turkuaz has produced a record that captures their magical energy. That record is Future 86.

With eleven tracks of “fresh Turkuaz gold,” this record will have you tapping your feet from start to finish. Well, I’m being modest. Maybe you’ll start by tapping your toes, but once you catch that scintillating groove, you’ll be full-on dancing.

Perhaps it’s the innate blending of different influences that brings Future 86 to a frenzy. The band incorporates the traditional ethos of funk, the James Brown sex appeal, with the futuristic workings of a Talking Heads-type synthesizer. Add in some female backing vocals, bright horns, and some clean bass, and the result is electrifying.

The album opens onto “Bubba Slide,” a reaffirming tune that jams on all cylinders. The verses and choruses hit you at full-force, but the band really lets loose in the breakdown section. Bouncing between solos, we hear some sexy slapped bass, followed by the cosmic keys of another dimension. Once they start singing that refrain again, you know it’s on!

Future 86 sucks you in and never lets go. Tracks like “Snap Your Fingers” rock an upbeat groove, reminiscent of a Sly and the Family Stone tune. With a “hey hey hey!” refrain and a majestic trumpet solo, this song is just one example of Turkuaz’s unrelenting groove.

Some songs, like “Electric Habitat,” have a spacier, cosmic feeling about them. Others, like the finale “Pickin’ Up (Where You Left Off),” are slower, more compassionate numbers. All in all, the album is united by the band’s desire to make a thoroughly danceable and exciting LP. Future 86 rocks.

Turkuaz is a band on a mission. Their goal: “to conquer the world… or at least shake the walls and all the booties in every room they play…” No doubt they’ll achieve that goal tonight, when they hit up their hometown Brooklyn Bowl for a celebration of Future 86 and all things funky.

-David Melamed (@DMelamz)