Well maybe I am coming across as slightly curmudgeonly (though thanks ufo) - if so it's not because I don't want Cooly G to do well, and it's not because I think badly of the people supporting her.
I guess because so much music crit hype machinery is centered around the auteur and the innovator who cuts across party lines, cooly g is just easier to make sound like an inviting proposition to people not heavily invested in the scene already. The fact that she's signed to Hyperdub obviously helps here (that's probably how the guardian reviewer became aware of the release in the first place) - and so does the fact that her music is often excellent.
(in a different but related way, L-Vis and Bok Bok are also easier to hype - in this regard being a liminal figure, far from causing one to fall through the cracks, actually becomes an effective marketing tool and selling point. And i should note that i like L-Vis and Bok Bok)
What results is the unfortunate combination of two otherwise innocent and even laudable things: media organs are profiling cooly g (without having profiled much if any other funky before - and i note she's also gotten praise in Fact Magazine and in the Observer), and they're praising her for being unique and pushing things forward.
Again, any media exposure and resulting sales Cooly G gets is all to the good. It'd be nice, though, to see any media discussions of funky that didn't immediately try to abstract away from what it is at its best, which is raw, exciting, populist but innovative dance music.
...About which there has been precious little discussion in media publications.
Anyways, a random sampling of things people say about Cooly G:
"Cooly G takes funky in new directions here by really stepping up the production values and making some really minimal forward thinking sounds all of her own."
"There is something really compelling about Cooly G’s take on funky, it strips away everything that I can find a bit annoying about the scene, which is the overly cheesey stuff with dance moves and just down right blatant rip offs of old house."
"Cooly G's productions exist in their own hinterland - abstract post-garage beats that slowly shuffle into life, and favour cut up vocal snippets to RnB ballads...Cooly G is possibly the dance producer to watch this year, not just for her own tracks but to see how Funky DJs incorporate her unique shuffling groove into their sets, what new styles could spawn from these records getting popular, and especially what hybrids could spawn if DJs from other genres - someone like TRG, for instance, you could see playing her - adopt her tunes as their own."
"When an artist gets signed to Kode 9's Hyperdub label, the world stands up and takes notice. But when a UK FUNKY artist gets signed to Hyperdub, the world's jaw hits the deck. Something groundbreaking has happened here, and Cooly G deserves every bit of credit she's getting right about now. Pushing a deep, dark, broken strain of funky house, nobody is catching her at the moment."
