149. Single Review of Extraordinary Future by Jonathan Tanksley
Originally Published on June 19th, 2025
About the Artist
There are many places that are regarded for producing the best electronic music, with Berlin often being listed as the electronic music capital of the world. Here in the states, LA, Vegas, New York lead the way in production and popularity, but in the Southeast, in Atlanta, Georgia, Electronic Music is a genre that is on the rise. Primarily known for hip hop, artists like lil jon have begun to incorporate electronic music into their own, and mainstay names like Skrillex and Diplo have collaborated with Atlanta-based musicians, bringing an awareness to a growing scene.
Among these emerging talents is Jonathan Tanksley, a producer out of nearby Augusta, Georgia. A graduate of Georgia State University, with a focus on Music Technology, Tanksley has been playing music since he took his first piano lesson at the age of 6. Throughout middle school and high school, he was a member of chorus and he started producing electronic music at the age of 16.
As a recording artist, Tanksley debuted in June of 2021 with the instrumental track On the Mark. This was immediately followed by To the Groove, which released that same month, two weeks later. Then, in August, he would release his third single of 2021, Threat.
In 2022, Tanksley would release his forth single, The Streets in March, followed by the June release of Determination.
Up to this point, Tanksley’s work has purely been instrumental. However, in September of 2022, he would experiment with vocal work for the first time with the release of Calling. He would release one more instrumental track, Vision, in 2022.
In June of 2023, Tanksley released his seventh single, the summertime beat, Ocean View. The following month, he released another summer inspired instrumental jam, in Summertime.
In October, Tanksley would release Darkness Looms, just 4 days before Halloween. This eerie jam is a perfect seasonal track for one of the most popular holidays of the year. Keeping with the holiday trend, he would release a Christmas track two months later, 3 days before Christmas, Holiday Spirit.
In 2024, Tanksley would make the switch from mostly instrumental to producing music with vocals. Shining Light, his first vocal performance in two years, released on May 31st of 2024. Throughout the rest of 2024, he released 5 more singles, including another Halloween track, Nightmare, and Rivalry Ignites.
To date, Tanksley has released 2 singles in 2025; Road to Recovery and Pounce into Tomorrow.
About the Song
Extraordinary Future is the third single by Augusta independent electronic recording artist, Jonathan Tanksley. It released on June 4th. Extraordinary Future has a run time of around three and a half minutes and features Tanksley on vocals and production.
About the Music
Extraordinary Future is instrumentally and vocally motivational in intent and execution. It features melodic and dynamic builds and features lyrics that are meant to encourage listeners to not give up as chasing dreams will lead to an extraordinary future.
Extraordinary Future is mid tempo, but features strong builds, percussionally. Instrumentally, synth provides bass, progression, and lead for the track. There are layers of synth that provide anchoring chord progressions, as well as arpeggiated parts providing ambience. Lead synths provide melodic subtext to back the vocals.
Tanksley’s vocal performance is a mid to upper-range, where he generally performs within the octave of that range. He has a very pure tone, a clear and crisp diction, and is precise with his tonal performance.
The message of the song is very positive and uplifting. As is most of his music. I feel encouraged by his overall messaging. I find Tanksley’s work with Extraordinary Future to be very technical and good. He is a smart musician who knows how to execute in performance.
Final Thoughts
I hear a lot of potential in Jonathan Tanksley’s work. He is producing a lot of music and he stays on point thematically. He knows how to produce and his music certainly took a dynamic shift as he has begun to perform more vocally.
I think an area of opportunity for Tanksley is in the messaging of his work. It is generally positive, which is great to hear. We could all use a boost. What I would be more interested in is to hear him get more personal with his songwriting. His messaging really is uplifting and it doesn’t at all seem disingenuous, but I would love to hear him take an opportunity to be more vulnerable with his work.
A great way accomplish this is to decide on a story to tell and to make an album from it. To date, we have only heard singles from Jonathan Tanksley. As good as they are, I would bet money that he would make a stellar album. Jonathan Tanksley is a rule follower, musically speaking. Hearing how he would apply that to a full length album would be interesting. I would like to see how he did it. Would it tie together, epically? Would it change dynamically, and be diversified through chapter-style play, track by track? I would pay to hear that. I think the best way for him to do that is to get personal.
Jonathan Tanksley is talented, technical, and he is motivated. He is driven by positivity and passion, as he uses those motivators to work towards his ultimate dream of breaking into the electronic scene. As he says, he is “rising up from the ground,” and he’s getting better with every release; making a big leap with his production value after incorporating vocal work. Tanksley is bought into his mission, ready to prove he is capable of crafting a legacy for himself. One might call it an “extraordinary future.”
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