Woebot
Well-known member
Quite intrigued to come upon two genres of music recently which appear not to have been given a name at the time. The first I'd encountered before, most clearly in a selection of tracks which Afrika Bambaata put together as a list of his favourite tunes. This list was a guiding light to funk collectors for years, the likes of Patrick Forge et al, and recently got reprinted in the ego trip book of rap lists. If you'd been to one of Bambaata's early parties this is what you would have heard him play; music from the roots of rap. In Audiogalaxy's heyday I downloaded a load of these tracks, tunes like Yellow Sunshine's "Yellow Sunshine", Dennis Coffey's "Son of Scorpio" and stuff from the Willie Dynamite soundtrack. (I'll dig out the list in full and post it here) These tunes are dominated by huge congas and, perhaps surprisingly squalling guitars. They're quintessentially "Butch", with a capital B.
As I never tire of telling people, "Funk" was a teleological invention, thats to say (and I hope no-one minds me ditching the jargon) invented as a genre retrospectively. Only with the passing of years can it be pinpointed so crisply, it was almost defined by what Mid-Period Hip-Hop deemed worth sampling. In the seventies it was pretty much a mess of Soul, Rock, Jazz, Pop etc. Almost spite of this, the genre i've pinpointed seems distinct, ironically possibly even more distinct that "Funk Proper" which seems to exist nowhere outside of The Meters back catalogue and a few select James Brown records (fat drums, minimalistic interplay, guitars on a reign, vocals as instrument etc) and it's (roll of drums) "Rock Disco" (though "Dance Rock" or when it isn't so purely Rock (like Funkadelic fer instance) "Funk Rock")
What really set me on the trail of the beast, which must have filled the discos between 1971 and 1975 as the heat went out of the counter-culture (return to socio-normalcy, the heat moves off the streets, out of the fields and back to the clubs) before "Disco Proper", was the recent Nicky Siano "The Gallery" compilation. If you haven't checked this out, do. Again like the Bambaata selection it's very macho (in quite a noticably Gay manner) and strongly "rock-like", kind of a freight train out-of-control sound, rolling amplified frug music taking the lead from Sly and The Family Stone's "Stand"-era sound (less so "There's a Riot" which is more conspicuosly sinister, bloodless and synthesised.)
To explore the counter-cultural angle a little further it's fascinating to see how the forces of optimism and overthrowal embodied in the hippie avant-garde (epitomised I guess by music by Hendrix "Star Spangled Banner", the MC5 "Kick Out the Jamms", Dylan and The Beatles) end up on the dancefloor as transcendant "we gotta change the world" Rock Disco. On the one hand it's a pathetic sight, seeing how this spirit is crushed into baked-bean-tin-size, but on the other the spirit of those parties (The Loft and The Gallery especially) was supposed to be so powerful as to engulf people lives, spawning as it did a generation of nutters like Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy who went on to light the wick of our Acid House revolts in the UK. You could trace a sketchy line in chalk between Woodstock and Castlemorton through those revolting home discos of this era. Anyway I'm meandering a bit here.
The second forgotten genre I'm gonna claim (with dubious right) to discover is what I'm gonna call "3-part Harmony Avant Bossa Folk" (YEAH! Watch that one take off!) Its the, mainly American, eclectic folk trio music of the late sixties and early seventies that dwells in some marsh between Jazz, Bossa Nova (big Jobim influence permeating), the Avant Garde, and "Soft" Psych punk. And it encompasses all manner of waifs and strays like Spleen (big iueke record!), The Free Design, The Silhouettes etc. Julian House is big on this territory....
"Bubblecrunk"- always like that and why has no-one coined a good term for the Grime-y R'n'B that we're hearing from Da Vinche and Aftershock camp (or did silverdollar have a go?)
As I never tire of telling people, "Funk" was a teleological invention, thats to say (and I hope no-one minds me ditching the jargon) invented as a genre retrospectively. Only with the passing of years can it be pinpointed so crisply, it was almost defined by what Mid-Period Hip-Hop deemed worth sampling. In the seventies it was pretty much a mess of Soul, Rock, Jazz, Pop etc. Almost spite of this, the genre i've pinpointed seems distinct, ironically possibly even more distinct that "Funk Proper" which seems to exist nowhere outside of The Meters back catalogue and a few select James Brown records (fat drums, minimalistic interplay, guitars on a reign, vocals as instrument etc) and it's (roll of drums) "Rock Disco" (though "Dance Rock" or when it isn't so purely Rock (like Funkadelic fer instance) "Funk Rock")
What really set me on the trail of the beast, which must have filled the discos between 1971 and 1975 as the heat went out of the counter-culture (return to socio-normalcy, the heat moves off the streets, out of the fields and back to the clubs) before "Disco Proper", was the recent Nicky Siano "The Gallery" compilation. If you haven't checked this out, do. Again like the Bambaata selection it's very macho (in quite a noticably Gay manner) and strongly "rock-like", kind of a freight train out-of-control sound, rolling amplified frug music taking the lead from Sly and The Family Stone's "Stand"-era sound (less so "There's a Riot" which is more conspicuosly sinister, bloodless and synthesised.)
To explore the counter-cultural angle a little further it's fascinating to see how the forces of optimism and overthrowal embodied in the hippie avant-garde (epitomised I guess by music by Hendrix "Star Spangled Banner", the MC5 "Kick Out the Jamms", Dylan and The Beatles) end up on the dancefloor as transcendant "we gotta change the world" Rock Disco. On the one hand it's a pathetic sight, seeing how this spirit is crushed into baked-bean-tin-size, but on the other the spirit of those parties (The Loft and The Gallery especially) was supposed to be so powerful as to engulf people lives, spawning as it did a generation of nutters like Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy who went on to light the wick of our Acid House revolts in the UK. You could trace a sketchy line in chalk between Woodstock and Castlemorton through those revolting home discos of this era. Anyway I'm meandering a bit here.
The second forgotten genre I'm gonna claim (with dubious right) to discover is what I'm gonna call "3-part Harmony Avant Bossa Folk" (YEAH! Watch that one take off!) Its the, mainly American, eclectic folk trio music of the late sixties and early seventies that dwells in some marsh between Jazz, Bossa Nova (big Jobim influence permeating), the Avant Garde, and "Soft" Psych punk. And it encompasses all manner of waifs and strays like Spleen (big iueke record!), The Free Design, The Silhouettes etc. Julian House is big on this territory....
"Bubblecrunk"- always like that and why has no-one coined a good term for the Grime-y R'n'B that we're hearing from Da Vinche and Aftershock camp (or did silverdollar have a go?)
Last edited: