Funky/London/UK House

Shit like this Redlight tune

and Caski mix of El B

Sound quite post-funky to me? Or at the very least a very appealing turn for UK house. They sounds much less post-everything than a lot of 'UK Bass' - in that they're still very locally defined, UK sounding. That 808 shit which could be from anywhere, and the more emo side of bass/house (Midland's stuff, which i LOVE as headphone music but just doesn't seem at all future to me) just seem too atemporal, nothing about it says 2k12. Whereas those two tracks I posted seem like - yeah that's what funky should sound like in 2012.

Edit - added:
For me Jackin's got the early funky vibe anyway. Perfect balance of light and dark, songs/tracks, female/male, very very much a local sound. London's always been about mutating the riddim section, the northerners love a good 4x4 and work on innovating the bass sound.

NATO said:

I recognise none of the things that first drew me to uk funky in any of those tracks, rhythmically they feel quite stale. It's all a little too well thought out and boring. Finding the token Grime MC samples really flaccid as well, especially on top of the 'grime you could take to meet ya nan' aesthetic.

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what NATO said

that Caski tune has quite a Jackin vibe too it no?

datwun said:

Shit like this Redlight tune

and Caski mix of El B

Sound quite post-funky to me? Or at the very least a very appealing turn for UK house. They sounds much less post-everything than a lot of 'UK Bass' - in that they're still very locally defined, UK sounding. That 808 shit which could be from anywhere, and the more emo side of bass/house (Midland's stuff, which i LOVE as headphone music but just doesn't seem at all future to me) just seem too atemporal, nothing about it says 2k12. Whereas those two tracks I posted seem like - yeah that's what funky should sound like in 2012.

Edit - added:
For me Jackin's got the early funky vibe anyway. Perfect balance of light and dark, songs/tracks, female/male, very very much a local sound. London's always been about mutating the riddim section, the northerners love a good 4x4 and work on innovating the bass sound.

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Early funky as in early Geeneus, Roska or Apple? Underproduced tribal weirdness vs Jackin? I don't think that's an apt comparison...

I do love some jackin' tracks (so much destructive energy) but at the same time I'm totally addicted to syncopated beats and percussion which is one of the main reasons why I love funky...

denoir said:

Early funky as in early Geeneus, Roska or Apple? Underproduced tribal weirdness vs Jackin? I don't think that's an apt comparison...

I do love some jackin' tracks (so much destructive energy) but at the same time I'm totally addicted to syncopated beats and percussion which is one of the main reasons why I love funky...

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My bad, rather than early funky I more mean funky at its peak. The stuff we're listening to now isn't /early/ Jackin, it's been around like 2 years now! What I mean is that Jackin ATM feels like prime funky or garage, with all the elements held in perfect (in)balance.

I love love love syncopation and percussion as much as anyone else. 2-step is my idea of perfect music and until maybe June of this year Funky was UK dance music for me.

What Jackin's made me realise is that their are other elements of the track that can be innovated apart from the rhythm secion. Where you can see a London continuum going through 2-step, Grime, dubstep, Funky and the UK-Bass infatuation with footwork - where innovation manifests itself in the drum patterns, Jackin's part of an equally fertile continuum running through Speed Garage, Bassline, UKB (the DJ Pantha screech-bass being as significant a break with the bassline wobble and Funky's snares were with 2-step) and now Jackin with its warp-donk, of innovation in the bass line.

I still think Funky died too quickly, it wouldn't seem retro to me to have another 2/3 years of producers experimenting within the rhythmic parameters of Funky, because it feels there's still so much possibility there that hasn't been explored.

On the flip side, I'd love to hear a rhythmic innovation so starkly new that you'd see producers coalescing around it and have the vibe of a proper scenius, rather than the kind of lonely individualism of UK Bass. In the abscence of that, Jackin - which is a scene based on a sound- its soundscape tethered around the warp-donk innovation - is the most exhilarating scene in the UK for me~

Marcus Nasty's playing some pretty fresh funky with the Newham Generals on top at Rinse ATM :O

Blackdown said:

It's here. bigup.

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Cheers Blackdown.

that redlight tune is sick

Though I don't consider it funky my damn self

datwun said:

I still think Funky died too quickly, it wouldn't seem retro to me to have another 2/3 years of producers experimenting within the rhythmic parameters of Funky, because it feels there's still so much possibility there that hasn't been explored.

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I actually think there has been enough experimentation in funky within the last few years which could have been strechted for 2-3 more years if there was enough attention/interest from labels, radio listeners, club audiences...I mean...there were quite a few producers with unique sound (Fuzzy Logik, Naughty, Mad One, Mista Bee, Greyman...) who could have easily become the next Funkystepz/Roska/Champion - imho, the scene needed 10 more producers, as succesful as these are, to keep others motivated to further develop the funky sound (and all the potential substyles, which you could hear on 2010/11 radio shows)...lack of commitment/luck? Maybe, but they were also overshadowed by all the marketing friendly blog-bass music (e.g. Club Cheval) at the time...

I really like some of those Beneath tunes but I'd prefer it if UK funky wasn't even brought into it as a comparison point. Honestly this article on Fact talking about how UK Funky had died and it needed to become more dark and atmospheric etc. really put me off Beneath to start with. It just makes you think its some neurofunk nerd taking all the fun out of things. Which is sort of what some of those tunes might sound like if you think of UK funky when you're listening to them.

I wish funky had blown up a couple of years ago and I really thought it would - not cos the rhythms were groundbreaking, it was because it was FUN (as WELL as grimey). I'm painting this retroactively though cos I remember wanting more dark tunes myself at the time... But yeah, it was such fun bouncy party music... a lot of party music you hear strains so hard for that effect (''EPIC'' dubstep/trance-derived pop/RNB tunes etc.)

datwun said:

On the flip side, I'd love to hear a rhythmic innovation so starkly new that you'd see producers coalescing around it and have the vibe of a proper scenius, rather than the kind of lonely individualism of UK Bass.

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Dunno even about the rhythmic innovation but yeah an exciting scene.

This was a huge part of what I loved about dubstep, I think divorced from that I wouldn't have found those tunes so exciting.

Corpsey said:

I wish funky had blown up a couple of years ago and I really thought it would - not cos the rhythms were groundbreaking, it was because it was FUN (as WELL as grimey).

...

Dunno even about the rhythmic innovation but yeah an exciting scene.

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Well if that's what your after than Jackin's for you!

For me dark's a great aesthetic, and the best of UK genre's have always had darkness in them. To be honest I don't even mind when it becomes unbalanced - the dark garage of El-B didn't need any poppy elements and it was necessary to explore those extremes. But obviously there's something great about like jungle circa 1994, garage circa 2000, and funky circa 2009 where you could play a set from just one genre and still have an incredible range of moods and vibes.

...

Have you seen the videos of Jackin raves though? and even stuff like Tom Zanetti posted something like "Comment on this status to get a copy of Eargasm on your wall" and something like 300 people commented on it, producers, DJs and loads of 17 year old girls. You watch the videos of the raves and everyone's singing along! I go to a lot of raves in London and you just don't see that kind of engagement /ever/. So yeah, very exciting scene!

There is very little rhythmic innovation in jackin, struggle to see how you could try and draw parallels with it to funky. Everything's surrounded by those tired drum patterns you could have heard any time in the last 5-10 years in Northern clubs. If it had funky style syncopation and big rude basslines then it'd be a different proposition but it doesn't. Tbh most of the bass sounds are quite hollow in jackin as well. But that's just my perspective, not trying to tell you what to like and what not to.

*

The MCs killed off funky really, all those skank tunes. It's a shame because it was great- and probably the last proper London scene- but it's gone now.

I don't think there's anything wrong with someone like Beneath making a darker side of funky in his tunes because his stuff really sounds great in a club- lots of weight and some good swing to it too. Most of the uk whatever stuff that's followed funky doesn't though.

And that's a bit weird really, for me. When you think that it was funky that got all these people into house from dubstep/whatever, why did everyone start making tunes that were completely stripped of the stuff that made funky sound fresh in the first place.

Anyway

The MCs killed off funky really, all those skank tunes. It's a shame because it was great- and probably the last proper London scene- but it's gone now.

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disagree with this - there were still plenty of great instrumentals coming out after all the big mc tunes died out. funky vocal tunes were always more miss than hit, esp compared to old uk garage songs.

And that's a bit weird really, for me. When you think that it was funky that got all these people into house from dubstep/whatever, why did everyone start making tunes that were completely stripped of the stuff that made funky sound fresh in the first place.

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cos most of them werent able to keep the 'fun' or 'bouncier' side of funky most likely. they could only do it as something colder/stiffer due to their (often comical) preference for all things 'dark'. and maybe there were more opportunities to do that in house and techno. funky was just a pitstop for most post-dubstep guys - dubstep was already incorporating things like techno into itself so it was natural theyd end up going the whole hog with it. plus post-dubstep's aversion to funky is prob out of respect or a slight awkwardness at interfering with something still new/happening-right-now and not several decades ago and also just generally at odds with most of dubstep's ideals.

anyway, i wish there had been more bassline and funky crossver. all those bassboy tracks were sick imo.

As a casual music consumer, funky around 2009 was the last time I got excited about going out in London (which in turn makes living in London better/more worth it as a whole, imo). I thought it was at its very best when it was still gestating, when there'd always be some US vocal house tracks mixed in with the brand-new UK stuff. The sheer hit-to-miss ratio was phenomenal in any given set.

Whatever its innovations or non-innovations, at least jackin sounds like it's inherited the 'scenius' aspects of funky that made it so fun for a while

rubberdingyrapids said:

disagree with this - there were still plenty of great instrumentals coming out after all the big mc tunes died out. funky vocal tunes were always more miss than hit, esp compared to old uk garage songs.

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Yeah there were, and you could argue that the era where Petchy was killing it on Live- before he went tasteful- was a great one with MCs involved too. But that huge rush of truly awful skank tunes was the tipping point I think.

Either way I miss it. Was talking about it last weekend actually, that little spell where Uptown had new funky vinyls every week- I remember getting the Lil Silva Seasons test press and going mad- that was the last period where there felt like there was an actual community/scene to this London music still.

You could probably argue that it was there when Road Rap was peaking too but that's a different thing.

fair point.

while we are comisserating, i think the golden age for marcus' show was largely pre-shantie, though the best marcus shows ever were those with jme and everyone and then the one with heartless and donaeo.

It was all downhill from Marcus Nasty B2B Mak10 number one mate let's be honest.

(It wasn't).

just saying that shantie's loveable cockney geezer routine can get a bit boring after a while.