Circle/Yellow/Dubbage

Ory

warp drive
so has this stuff changed at all since the proto-funky days? are they actually doing anything new and exciting?
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Interesting article, thanks for posting. Pandemonium by Paul Woolford is siiick, nice to have an ID for it. African Forest is brilliant too. Will give that A-Plus set from Yellow a listen in a wee bit.

I reckon my feelings about this sound are similar to those of a lot of people here - whenever I listen to the Circle shows on Rinse (and I admit that this isn't on a week-in, week-out basis) I tend to quite enjoy them, but I sometimes have a hard time pinpointing exactly what is new and distinctive about what they are doing, in relation to a lot of tech-house and deep house stuff that is about internationally. The main things I could say is that in places their sound is darker and bassier than is common, and in places a bit more percussive; but only in places and not dramatically so.

But then I fully admit that I'm not a big house head, so therefore I'm not always great at making the fine distinctions between substyles that would be more apparent if you were fully immersed in the context. From the pov of someone who's been following this style of house closely for years it's possible that their take on it may respresent a new sort of slant. And of course what they're playing doesn't have to be either ultra-original or ultra-UK-centric in order to be good. But this does tend to be what people look for in the new London sounds, I guess it goes back to what you were saying about the strong drive towards cultural ownership. Anyway, def worth keeping an eye on.
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
yup, this is exactly why i wrote this, the contradictions within this scene are fascinating...

Yeah, 'contradictions within the scene' is def an impression I was getting from your article, but like you say, contradictions can sometimes be interesting and productive.

Kentphonik are excellent producers too btw, their stuff seems to be getting picked up by quite a few UK djs across slightly different scenes.
 
That's 5 months old though. and some of those tunes are really really old; Ultra Nate - Love's The Only Drug (Adam Rios Shelter Mix) was first dropped in 2007! (source). "Hey Hey" is basically a high street house tune at this point, Klambu was played out last year, "Sunday Showers" is 2008.

What they're doing here is playing old house in the same way you've lamented the odd old grime tune getting thrown into a set. I know they're grafting away and all credit to them for continuing on with their scene and that but it's hardly anything fresh is it;

"The immediate future for the sound is not obvious, but like dubstep, it has everything at its disposal to translate to clubs worldwide."
It's deep house. That already exists in clubs worldwide. Just because it wasn't that big in "urban london" means it doesn't happen anywhere else.
 

joe.dfx

who knows...
it's just recontextualizing really isn't it?

it's not like dubstep in the sense that a core group of producers all started writting tunes at the same bpm that were fairly similar in aesthetic either. (feel free to correct if im wrong, but aren't most of the "big" tunes not from the DJs themselves, but outsider-ish producers?)

this is basically a particular club night(s) that has gotten successful at playing house in a london context (but i imagine because some of the people are tied to grime this is somehow more meaningful?)

i tune in to their sets on rinse and like others im not hearing anything unfamiliar really (besides the MCing, which in traditional house sets NEVER happens (thank god).)

not trying to be snarky here either (i swear!) just trying to understand. :)
 

joe.dfx

who knows...
so, if the Circle nights are more "dressed up" "adult" "champagne toasting" type nights, are the more UKF focussed nights more come-as-you-are? Are they less mature, as in age & attitude?

is like the dubstep "wobble vs deep" debate? is the type of listener/clubber that different between the two?
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
so, if the Circle nights are more "dressed up" "adult" "champagne toasting" type nights, are the more UKF focussed nights more come-as-you-are? Are they less mature, as in age & attitude?

It does seem to be a younger audience for the funky end of things. Most UKF nights that I've heard of in and around London do still have dress codes of some sort, but I get the impression that the crowd might not be as self-consciously dressy/flashy as those at places like Yellow (e.g. Luka posted a vid of one of the If Bar nights and most people were dressed like they would be for a Friday night out in most places up and down the country).
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Ok so that A Plus set is mostly pretty good. Some of, but obv not all, the tunes do seem to overlap musically with UKF to my ears (not this is really a good thing or bad thing, or even that important, it's just something that occured to me). Nice hard-but-bouncy drums on lots of the tunes though, and a good coherent vibe to it overall - tracky/deep in places but with lots of hook moments to draw you in. I'd happily dance to this sort of thing if I was in London (might have to buy some new gear to get in though). But I do take Slackk's point that quite a few of the tunes weren't all that new even at the time the set was recorded.
 

joe.dfx

who knows...
hmm...

more ?s

so then if Circle is making an attempt at something more "refined." is there a backlash against them? do the non-circle supporting crew find them to be pretentious?

i do give them credit for building an audience and creating the crowd they want cuz that is not something easy to do.
 

Leo

Well-known member
Ok so that A Plus set is mostly pretty good. Some of, but obv not all, the tunes do seem to overlap musically with UKF to my ears (not this is really a good thing or bad thing, or even that important, it's just something that occured to me). Nice hard-but-bouncy drums on lots of the tunes though, and a good coherent vibe to it overall - tracky/deep in places but with lots of hook moments to draw you in. I'd happily dance to this sort of thing if I was in London (might have to buy some new gear to get in though). But I do take Slackk's point that quite a few of the tunes weren't all that new even at the time the set was recorded.

you sound, how shall i say it...tentative. ;)
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
you sound, how shall i say it...tentative. ;)

Lol! I am a little unsure of what are the best terms to assess this kind of music on. My basic impression was that the set was good but not quite great. The selection was slightly different to what I'd previously heard from Kismet and the other Circle guys though.
 
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