Funky/London/UK House

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viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Tim F said:
The most extreme scenario I can imagine would be an MC takeover of funky which turned it into a UK equivalent of dancehall rather than a UK equivalent of hip hop - in this scenario, the MC and MC-based tracks would become ubiquitous, but the focus would still be on the music as club music for dancing to.

Such a takeover wouldn't bother me in the slightest - the "danger" of the grime route is the deprioritisation of the danceable grooves as the focus of the tracks, which doesn't really happen in dancehall (where the riddim and the voicing have a sort of covalent mix'n'match relationship of equal status).
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Very interesting point here, thankyou.
 
E

elgato

I just dont know
Tim F said:
The most extreme scenario I can imagine would be an MC takeover of funky which turned it into a UK equivalent of dancehall rather than a UK equivalent of hip hop - in this scenario, the MC and MC-based tracks would become ubiquitous, but the focus would still be on the music as club music for dancing to.

Such a takeover wouldn't bother me in the slightest - the "danger" of the grime route is the deprioritisation of the danceable grooves as the focus of the tracks, which doesn't really happen in dancehall (where the riddim and the voicing have a sort of covalent mix'n'match relationship of equal status).
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this is a very good distinction
 
slackk

slackk

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Let me ask around for that Elgato, I got it off someone who knows him in the first place so maybe. No guarantees, mind.
 
B

Blackdown

nexKeysound
Tim F said:
I'd put Swift Jay's "Toppa 5" in the same category as "Twiss" - it's the one with all the Elephant Man samples and the voice saying "Dubplate style" over and over again. The rhythm programming on it is totally sick.
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i got quite excited at the prospect of these but "Toppa5" sounds like Apple and "Twiss" has no where near enough momentum to be compared to speed garage. god i wish it was like that though!
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
not had a proper chance to read the Blackdown QoS interview but its seems appropiate to post this. listening to some of the interviews in the link below
theres seems to the same sort of tensions mentioned in the uk funky callitwhatchoowill variations with various producers and mc at loggerheads.

just found it interesting that a similar debate seems to have taken place almost 20 years ago with hip-house where mcs decided to chat on dance beats. interestingly hip house died a death and house continued mc-less. i wonder if the same would take place here in the uk.

 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
i dont think funky will be taken over by mcs. basically echoing what tim f said, i think most mcs now know that taking the uk hip hop redux route is basically pointless and a commercial dead end (not many people want to hear uk rap whether its jehst/low life or grime mcs - its always gonna be very niche, unless it stays dancey, hence why so much grime got dull). so even if there still are mc-led tunes, itll still be about the track/music rather than the mc. but i wouldnt want the vocal tunes to take a backseat, esp not with stuff like in the morning out there.
 
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Tim F

Well-known member
Martin if you're not into "Twiss" and "Toppa 5" I... don't know what to say. Those tunes strike me as being at the very heart of what I like about funky!

Though I do find it interesting that you refer to the lack of momentum of "Twiss" as compared to speed garage.

You could say the same thing about a lot of 2-step vis a vis speed garage as well - the shift from say "Find The Path" to "Madness on the Streets" (both two of my favourite tunes ever, and in some ways similar in their construction) entails a shift from hurtling momentum to a kind of darkside cruise control.

Tunes like "Twiss" are too lopsided to have that sense of cruise control (which is the grime heritage coming through), but in some way the appeal of the tune rests in its inability to achieve momentum, that staggering groove is very arresting.

(actually I would have thought "Twiss" would go down well with dubstep types)

Whereas yr more 4x4 funky tunes generate a lot more momentum. Esp the piano stompers (Seany B's "Stompa", Funkystepz's "Trinity Hill", Fuzzy Logic's "The Way You Move", D-Malice's "Visions", Wookie's "Gallium") - but these don't have much of any of a ragga-ish vibe to them.

I agree that "Toppa 5" sounds like Apple, but I like it more than any Apple tune, if only because it's better put together (also I should note that it's unlikely to be a belated Apple rip-off, it's been floating around since early last year at least).
 
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Tim F

Well-known member
Moreover I think both tunes are closer to actual dancehall than they are to speed garage.

My favourite example of that actually is Tadow's "Rising Sun", which is a bit repetitive and spare on its own, but with a good MC becomes absolutely hypnotic.

In fact Rankin' and Shantie trading back and forth over it on a Marcus Nasty set from about April/May last year is probably my favourite funky moment ever.
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
toppa 5 sounds not so much LIKE apple as if it actually samples apple. and not all that well either. do like twiss tho.
 
E

elgato

I just dont know
Tim F said:
Though I do find it interesting that you refer to the lack of momentum of "Twiss" as compared to speed garage.

You could say the same thing about a lot of 2-step vis a vis speed garage as well - the shift from say "Find The Path" to "Madness on the Streets" (both two of my favourite tunes ever, and in some ways similar in their construction) entails a shift from hurtling momentum to a kind of darkside cruise control.

Tunes like "Twiss" are too lopsided to have that sense of cruise control (which is the grime heritage coming through), but in some way the appeal of the tune rests in its inability to achieve momentum, that staggering groove is very arresting.
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exactly... one of the distinct things about much funky is that it rejects that forward-motion, instead dealing in a sort of bubbling or staggering hypnosis. there are loads of tunes in fact that take the first beat as the axis around which the rest of the groove is slung. in the context of much house and garage thats one of the interesting rhythmic things about it

also groove is only one part of the picture, i don't know whether the post upthread was strictly referring to that
 
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