maybe part of the problem is the issue tim outlined on ILX, where the tracks only seem good in the mix... thing is i just find that a bit lazy, because outside of (wonderful) radio sets, the actual tracks dont often stand up after about 2 mins because the producer hasnt bothered with an arrangement past 2 mins... it's all a bit sad that the tracks cant be listened fully on their own.
"Lazy" only if the standard is "music that can be treated as discrete artistic artifacts." But heaps and heaps of dance music styles follow this pattern, it's probably the rule rather than the exception. The average amount of variation or internal development in a funky production is greater than most dancehall - again, by far the music's closest direct point of comparison - or traditional dubstep for that matter.
In the radio sets you'll get certain tracks extended for maybe 7 minutes via rewinds as various MCs have a go over the top, again much like dancehall. This has an obvious ancestor closer to home in the form of grime of course, but the
feel of it in funky sets is closer to dancehall. In that context the tunes don't get tiresome because of course many of them have been designed to cater for the warp and weft of track vs mc's voice. (similarly, who really wanted to listen to Jammer or Wiley 8-bars play out as five minute instrumentals back in 2002/2003?)
In truth, as much as dance music verges on being my listening (to say nothing of critical) raison d'etre, there's precious little of it that I actually
want to listen to as isolated tracks.
The "in-between" stuff, taken as a whole, represents dance music at its most Black Dog-like (much of which is due to the crucial though understated influence of minimal), but that doesn't mean that everything should be judged by that standard.
Re Ill Blu and Funkystepz I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, a tune like "Dragon Pop" sounds tenuous to me, but their Roll Deep remixes seem to me to be the ultimate in dance-pop generally, to say nothing of being the ultimate in Ill Blu productions. But I can see where people with an aversion to shiny pop maneuvers would disagree (of course I don't check for the originals!). Funkystepz are a different case because their best tunes are a task to actually track down.
oh and tim, are you gonna do your second half of the year youtube roundup?
Yeah, got a massive backlog of official articles to clear first, itself usually relegated behind, y'know fulltime work... Will get to it though.