Funky/London/UK House

yeaaa that tune is me, 'citizens dub' ft Bubbz
forthcoming on Blunted Robots glad use lot are feeling it

Ha I was expecting that A Little Bit Funky tune "Funkstep" to be ostentatiously horrible but... it's actually not too far off the stuff that Scratcha played in his September funkstep set. Possibly a bit too light for that sound? Possibly would sound less draggy pitched up a bit?

"Merry Go Round" on the other hand is a tune and a bona fide anthem. No problems with funkstep of that sort. Needs to be pitched up a bit to work properly though.

Really the only problem is mixing all of these hyper-spare tunes together with no colour, moisture or cheese.

hang on, reading that xlr8r interview, funkstep was a joke name that only scratcha takes seriously no?
and it's not actually a genre that's quantifable anyway?

i dont even think scratcha takes it seriously.

All the above is true, and yet... sometimes received wisdom is just old jokes people no longer recognize as such.

The thing what smacks it is, in that review when they say "we were discussing it & gee said funkstep blah blah blah" surely Gee & all the crew wasnt the only people to be talking about it? I mean literally, me & unknown soulja were talking about it & he said funkstep. We laughed, then went, "But seriously...." and carried on our conversation. Im sure countless members of this forum, have said the exact same thing when discussing it "err, sounds like dubstep a bit dont it!?", "yea, lol, funkstep", "haha!, nah but true-say thats a shit name" end of conversation & back to discussing the music.

That's it. That is literally how far you could of taken that. But why Xlr8tr have decided to include that in the article, I have no idea? I mean surely when the editor picked that up he must of said "haha, that part about funkstep, its jokes & that, but dont put that in" I cant even take the fact that people are seriously using it as a term to describe this sound? It is only going to derive the (already) negative aspects/preconceptions/sterotypes from dubstep. Maybe I am making a fuss over nothing? I just dont want to see "funkstep" being used to describe this sound. In the next 2 weeks, I hope it is long long long forgotten & we are all again scratching our heads saying "what do yu call it?"

Yea, so I probably am taking this too seriously & loking to deep into it./rant

Blackdown said:

i dont really care what people call it but there's definitely an interaction going on between funky and anti-wobble-dubsteppers that's distinct from the main thrust of funky, i wrote about it here and here.

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I don't really think either of these articles deal with the issue. They are more about the 2step revival/future garage thing - thing is none of this joy orbison stuff sounds like its got anything to do with funky at all. Some of Ramandanman mans stuff on the other is at least has related tempo and rhythm pattern. There was a guardian piece at the beginning of the year dealing with the crossover

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/feb/23/scene-and-heard-funky-dubstep

everything joy orbison has written since the material on the hot flush 12 has been around 130bpm

there is more to it than those two guys anyway. blunted robots, night slugs, dress 2 sweat/wireblock/numbers.. and there are a lot more people writing stuff around 134-136 which doesn't sound like house, but frees them and other people up to play stuff in their sets

Maybe a case of the post-dubstep crowd that likes (some?) funky also likes Joy Orbison. It's a venn diagram.

I found it interesting (though not sure what to conclude) that the 2 big funky tunes on Ben's Fabric promo mix - apart from "Wad" obv - were from Danny Native and Aphrodisiax - i.e. arguably broken beat tunes not funky tunes (arguably - they're totally funky tunes as far as I'm concerned).

^indeed, i mean you only have to look at the funky forum on dsf, awash with good producers, to find that alot of it isnt funky in the traditional sense atall!!

if marcus nasty started playing them would they then become funky in the traditional sense?

mms said:

hang on, reading that xlr8r interview, funkstep was a joke name that only scratcha takes seriously no?
and it's not actually a genre that's quantifable anyway?

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yes.

geenues coined it and has said on twitter just now:

"i would just like to state that when i said funkstep that i was actually joking and it was a cuss to people that think they are making funky"

UFO over easy said:

if marcus nasty started playing them would they then become funky in the traditional sense?

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dunno, people would probably be saying "wtf is this shit, sounds like techno, play do you mind already"

edit* and people dont 'think' they are making anything, they are just making beats surely?

sorry, i feel like I am being really condesending today, i apologise if people think i am cuntish.

okay so like, what would you group karizma's "nightmare drumz" under?

alex said:

okay so like, what would you group karizma's "nightmare drumz" under?

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I keep it in my "Post B-More Arpeggi Step" crate.

hint said:

I keep it in my "Post B-More Arpeggi Step" crate.

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gonna d/L that mix aswell g, looks tasty!

Tim F said:

I found it interesting (though not sure what to conclude) that the 2 big funky tunes on Ben's Fabric promo mix - apart from "Wad" obv - were from Danny Native and Aphrodisiax - i.e. arguably broken beat tunes not funky tunes (arguably - they're totally funky tunes as far as I'm concerned).

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Interesting. This may be a question that's already cropped up - but do you have any recommendations for (ex) broken-beat artists making funky/funky-like house tunes at the mo, other than Aphrodisiax and Altered Natives? What I've heard by those two artists has really impressed me, but I don't know where to go beyond that (it should be noted I don't really know much about broken-beat 'proper' either).


Edit: oh, and more inter-genre tunes at 135 bpm or thereabouts please, it's that magic number right now. We could maybe even just call that style '135', like how apparently some people call reaggeaton '110'. Acutally, prob best to scratch that....