Read a style magazine (or check their Instagram feed) and you’d know that global cool is now a thing. Go to Brooklyn, Hackney, Kreuzberg or Harajuku and there are as many shared characteristics as there are differences. Future Brown is the soundtrack to that similarity. An electronic “supergroup” comprising recording artists Fatima Al Qadiri and Nguzunguzu, Future Brown make, yes, futuristic R&B and hip-hop that incorporates tones and styles from all over the world. The common components are intricate, programmed percussion and echoey, decaying synths: it sounds like the sort of thing Superman might play on a lonely day in the Fortress of Solitude. Fleshing it out are a roster of collaborators including reggae and reggaeton artists and several rappers from Chicago and London. This combination highlights the project’s flaw because the guests, largely from highly localised scenes (Chicago’s drill, London’s grime), display an intensity and character that is absent from the music. Case in point is the song Big Homie – Chicago’s Sicko Mobb rap in a sing-song, Auto-Tuned style that is unsettling and menacing. In comparison, the music’s appropriated snares and steel drums sound anaemic and rootless. Every track on Future Brown is expertly constructed and polished, but rather than an exhilarating modern collaboration, it sounds like a curated exhibition.