Funky/London/UK House

[David_M]

Hey, sorry Tom, I know you do, and didn't mean to undermine Fact or anything like that. I meant the perspective of someone who only listen to the kind of stuff that's mostly written about on Fact, be it because that's the stuff whith more records out or whatever other reason, didn't mean it to be judgemental...
you could also say there's a lot of different funky on Rinse, even shows very similar to other Live FM shows, but I guess I didn't find another way to put my point across.

 

[Damien]

I find that whenever I play post-funky stuff, loads of guys come up and stare at the record and ask where the track's released etc. and whenever I play a Funky track all the girls start getting down and bubblin, says it all for me tbh

 

[Benny Bunter]

sure but the difference being dance music since the dawn of time had a club infrastructure, which outside the greek/cypriot islands over the summer, uk funky doesn't. there's the odd thing like If bar or fonti's recent bash in southend but where are the roadblock raves a-la garage? if indeed there aren't any this puts youtube as it's centre, not 320-playing DJs...

I doubt we'd ever see anything blow up as big as garage ever again though, not really fair to compare them really. Dance music in general was much more popular back then and it dominated the charts at a time when people still bought lots of records. But surely funky does have a solid infrastucture as a scene, even it is scaled down from back then. It was the same with Grime and even dubstep really wasn't it?

 

[Tentative Andy]

I'm going to politely but strongly disagree with you on this one, Martin - although I'm not sure I can add much more to the debate than Tim, Benny and David have already done.
You're closer to the ground than me and if funky is dying out at a scene level then, well, that's what's happening, but to me that's a great shame because funky absolutely hasn't started to stagnate musically. (If anything I think that why some clubs and djs in East London are moving away from it is because it's mutuating too much and too quickly, they don't recognise it as house anymore so they're going back to 4x4 stuff - but y'know, their loss).
3 quick main reasons why funky has excited me so much in 2010 -
1) The vocal side of things has developed greatly - there's just so much more variety in style, mood and voices on tunes, and it fits much more neatly with the instrumental end too.
2) The MC direction too has come on leaps and bounds - they're not just hosts or 1-track novelty guys anymore, they're often the centre of attention, and what's more they've developed a style of doing this which is distinct from either grime or road rap.
3) The fuckin drums - the rhythms on funky tunes just now, especially when heard alongside each other in a set by a good dj, are just so precise, dynamic and exciting. A good funky set now reminds me of jungle in its early days around 93-94 (my favourite era), just the way these complex but forward-moving beats interlock and it's like the hypest thing ever.

I can't compare funky this year to previous years fairly because I wasn't listening as closely in previous years, and I'm not interested in comparing it to other UK sounds because each operate according to different principles. But I will say that funky has easily been my favourite kind of music through this year.

 

[Corpsey]

I really like all that dubstep/funky stuff but nothing I've heard from that area has been as exciting to me as those Petchy sets really. Having said that, I think that the genre(?) that seems to have emerged to cater for Oneman, Brackles etc. - Breach - Fatherless etc., all those dubstep tunes erring towards broken house- is a lot stronger this year. But those Petchy sets (helped enormously by the MCs, obviously) have a raw energy that seems to be lacking (for me) in most dubstep nowadays.

I don't really keep up with funky in all honesty as I'm listening to mostly hip-hop, house and techno nowadays. I should try harder.

I don't think it's a contest between those two genres except in terms of media coverage, though. Brackles certainly plays tunes by Funkystepz, Ill Blue, Crazy Cousinz etc.

 

[Blackdown]

hey i didnt say it's "dying out" i suggested it had reached a plateau... and yes, it's got drums, love 'em, except a) you cant actually buy most of them and b) you can't easily hear them out and c) the drums are only good for 2 mins until the DJ reloads/mixes out lol...

... i only give funky a hard time because i want it to be better, the best in fact but you cant escape some of these issues right now.

 

[Tentative Andy]

Fair enough. I'm not going to pretend things are perfect in terms of releases because clearly they're not, we can all agree that, but I honestly think that things have got somewhat better in the last few months. I've been buying loads of good tunes lately.
I think they penny has dropped with a lot of producers that nothing availabe to the public = no hype outside of a small handful of radio shows. I know the fact that most releases are digital-only rather than vinyl isn't ideal for a lot of people, but this is basically an economic issue and representative of the way music is heading as a whole, don't think you can say funky is uniquely at fault on this count.
The tracky, DJ-set orientated tunes vs long, complex, stand-alone-listening tunes thing is really a matter of taste I think, or rather a matter of what you want to get out of music. I don't think it's a subject I can go too deep into but I can respect that if your preference is for the latter then funky isn't the best place to go.

 

[Corpsey]

I like both those kinds of sets, depending on the music being played.

 

[Tentative Andy]

I like both those kinds of sets, depending on the music being played.

Yeah, so do I. The post was mainly in reply to Blackdown. Actually, I don't think all funky is that tracky and minimalist - there's a fair bit of detail in some productions, and nice switch-ups and developments too - but I can appreciate that it would sound that way compared to, say, recent Night Slugs stuff.

 

[mrfaucet]

The releases situation is what has stopped me getting into funky in the way I would like to. I've been following things a bit more recently though - the release lists Andy has been doing have been really helpful - and there is often good stuff on live. Given that the releases situation is a bit of an issue, what can be done about it?

 

[tom lea]

i sent mad one a message telling him i had a label and really liked his stuff, but he didnt seem interested. fair enough, it's a small label and i didn't really persue it, but it's not like any of these guys are massive.

maybe someone needs to take a risk and go for a bunch of it like mu have done for juke, but it is a risk, and so you need someone who can afford to take it. it's great hyperdub are putting out some funkystepz, maxsin told me that a while ago but i think it was just a remix at that point- it's great if it's blossomed into a full release.

 

[tom lea]

btw this is probably a bait question but what's the name of that tune on live that gets played a lot with topsee on vocals? the 'mc tops inside the venue' one.

 

[Tim F]

That's Mad One's "House Girls Part One", unless they've done a new version recently that I haven't heard of.

Martin, I think I am saying 2010 beats 2009, though not by any substantial margin. I think I've just heard many more super amazing radio sets this year, whereas last year I was more likely to return to a very small handful of "classic sets". So my

experience

of funky has been even more intense this year... which is not much of an objective guide, but at the same time the idea that funky is less interesting than it was runs counter to what it feels like checking in each week.

Andy is right though that what is noticeable from a developmental perspective is the increasing ferocity of the rhythms (by and large) especially as mixed into interlocking patterns. There is simply nothing like it in music elsewhere IMO, and for me it actually exploits the creative possibilities of mixing even better than jungle did. Maybe it's because of funky's continually vexed and vexing relationship with the house groove: when you get two percussive cuts overlaid with one another, it's like two pens tracing a complex double-spirogram around an absent centre in a weird, spontaneous balance of intricacy and symmetry.

The fact that it does that one thing so amazingly well means it's almost inevitable that it's not gonna focus on internal track narrative arcs so much - given the two are nearly mutually exclusive (certainly likely to be inversely proportional).

At any rate I'd be interested to switch this around and ask what you would have wanted to see from funky this year in order to avoid being underwhelmed by it Martin? Musically, I mean, rather than extramusical irritants like the unavailability of official releases etc.

 

[tom lea]

That's Mad One's "House Girls Part One", unless they've done a new version recently that I haven't heard of.

for real? i always thought house girls was a total other tune to be honest. no wonder he parred my message

 

[Tim F]

If it's Topsee over a tune with a ratatat military snare pattern and timestretched vocals and organ stabs, then it's "House Girls Part One". From memory doesn't the Topsee version switch briefly to Hardhouse Banton's "Reign" as well?

As I said, maybe they've switched it up.

 

[tom lea]

Just googled it, the only 'house girls pt 1' i can find online is instrumental, but it seems to be the same beat yeah.

so weird, I remember deliberately seeking out house girls ages ago, and hearing a total other tune on one of the only mixes i could find on mixcloud. which i then always thought was house girls when I heard it. oh well, got there eventually.

they don't really tell you what the tunes are when I listen to Live, which i quite like about it to be honest. that and the shocking jingles on dj neon's show.

 

[Webstarr]

I would love so much for House Girls part 1 to get released, I think its a lost cause though. Shame as its one of my favourite funky tunes ever

 

[Tentative Andy]

*Due out soon
Smooth Kriminal - 24 Hours EP, 18th October
Major Notes - Ashanti Spear EP, 18th October
Addictive - Bad Girl (Champion remix), 24th October
Funkystepz and Lily Mckenzie - For You, 24th OctoberFunkystepz also have a 5-track EP in the pipeline.
#funkystreetteam

Fresh bump.

 

[tom lea]

For U has been pushed back I think, not 100% tho.

as has heartbeat, ahem.

 

[Tentative Andy]

Ahh crapsticks...

Edit: yeah, 7th November apparently, and Bad Girl is now back to this coming Sunday.
Serves me right for speaking too soon about releases coming through better, lols.