Funky/London/UK House
i only really listen to cooly's sets for her tracks, they're the real highlight. everything else is anyhouse, which has this odd effect of going from next level to mediocre/generic within a relatively small range of the sonic possibilities available to funky.
Ha, well needless to say I disagree. I think she's got great taste in both UK funky stuff ("Night Time In July" / "Domino Effect (OB Remix)" / "Badman Riddim" / "What" / "Hard House") and non-UK funky deep house/euro material - DJ Yellow's "Vasefa (Argy Remix)" - classic! It makes me like her own stuff more.
Lol at "anyhouse".
Lol at "anyhouse".
regardless of whether you or i like or dont like deep house/euro material, surely you see the pointlessness of looking to london pirate djs for non-UK funky deep house/euro material, just it would be pointless to look to berlin minimal djs for an up to date picture on the state of uk funky...?
it's the combination that makes it interesting surely?
it's all to do with the sort of people who are looking as well.
a lot of people have had their ears opened up to the euro/us stuff by london uk funky people.
it's great when djs select outside of their scene and the way the uk funky movement has sucked up certain other house tracks and the filters in place for doing so, i find very interesting.
we had something similar when villalobos started dropping Shackleton and ramadanman beats and i would be very keen to know if and when you have big name house guys playing new london people's beats.
it's all to do with the sort of people who are looking as well.
a lot of people have had their ears opened up to the euro/us stuff by london uk funky people.
it's great when djs select outside of their scene and the way the uk funky movement has sucked up certain other house tracks and the filters in place for doing so, i find very interesting.
we had something similar when villalobos started dropping Shackleton and ramadanman beats and i would be very keen to know if and when you have big name house guys playing new london people's beats.
UFO over easy
online mahjong
prosumer is playing out, or at least has played out, uk stuff
i don't see that there's anything strange about looking to DJs and producers that you like for tunes from elsewhere.. tunes being played in different contexts is great, it can make you look at stuff you'd written off in a different light
i don't see that there's anything strange about looking to DJs and producers that you like for tunes from elsewhere.. tunes being played in different contexts is great, it can make you look at stuff you'd written off in a different light
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Not to mention Hardsoul's "Self Religion"! x-post
^^ the above being a great example a US tune that is actually totally a UK funky anthem (rather like Suges' "We Belong To The Night", or, obv, "Don't Panic").
I'm not looking to Cooly G to provide me an update on US or european house - anyway everything she plays is rather old.
If anything it's more like you playing old garage or dubstep tunes alongside the new stuff you think is good, it's looking to particular versions of the past (albeit recent past) to provide context and contrast to yr present and future.
You can say "yeah but I'm playing stuff from within a pirate tradition" but I think UK funky really breaks from that kind of linearity (even assuming it was true before). UK funky DJs have played non UK Funky stuff since the scene existed, and playing just pirate material is a new and still not widespread phenomenon.
As a "pirate DJ" Cooly doesn't stand up to Marcus or Mak 10 at their best but it's pretty obviously not what she's doing.
Cooly G just playing her own tracks would be... not oppressive... but there's a sparseness and dryness to her productions that works better if it's got other stuff to bounce off against. There's no reason that she couldn't balance her material out with just other UK funky I guess, but the logic of her sets seems to really hinge around those deeper house anthems, as if she actually had those tunes in mind (even if oppositionally) when making her own productions. I'm pretty certain that, because of the itchy abstraction of her own material, the sets would not work as well without that element.
(Anyway I thought I'm supposed to be Mr "Border Police" around here!)
^^ the above being a great example a US tune that is actually totally a UK funky anthem (rather like Suges' "We Belong To The Night", or, obv, "Don't Panic").
I'm not looking to Cooly G to provide me an update on US or european house - anyway everything she plays is rather old.
If anything it's more like you playing old garage or dubstep tunes alongside the new stuff you think is good, it's looking to particular versions of the past (albeit recent past) to provide context and contrast to yr present and future.
You can say "yeah but I'm playing stuff from within a pirate tradition" but I think UK funky really breaks from that kind of linearity (even assuming it was true before). UK funky DJs have played non UK Funky stuff since the scene existed, and playing just pirate material is a new and still not widespread phenomenon.
As a "pirate DJ" Cooly doesn't stand up to Marcus or Mak 10 at their best but it's pretty obviously not what she's doing.
Cooly G just playing her own tracks would be... not oppressive... but there's a sparseness and dryness to her productions that works better if it's got other stuff to bounce off against. There's no reason that she couldn't balance her material out with just other UK funky I guess, but the logic of her sets seems to really hinge around those deeper house anthems, as if she actually had those tunes in mind (even if oppositionally) when making her own productions. I'm pretty certain that, because of the itchy abstraction of her own material, the sets would not work as well without that element.
(Anyway I thought I'm supposed to be Mr "Border Police" around here!)
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Yeah I pretty much agree with Boomnoise and Tim here, except maybe not quite as strongly. Cooly G playing a whole set of international deep house (or minimal techno or anything else really) would be pretty pointless, but her playing a few carefully selected deep house tunes alongside her productions plus some more straightahead uk funky is something that can work really well. I was listening to here Producer's House mix from a while back last night, and what she's very good at doing is highlighting funky/broken-like elements in what otherwise might seem like more traditional house material. The Bruk Radio guys are another crew who I rate very highly for doing this, as well as mixing funky with bits of old garage that foreshadow it in certain ways.
I'm not really "for" eclectic sets generally, and I disagree massively with the argument that UK funky doesn't have enough great tunes or vibe whatever to stand up on its own and needs to be played in the mix with other stuff (be it dubstep or bassline or house or whatever).
To some extent the difference with Cooly G is her difference as a producer. If she made tunes like Funk Factory or Ill Blu (two production teams I actually rate higher) I don't think the combination would work nearly so well.
To some extent the difference with Cooly G is her difference as a producer. If she made tunes like Funk Factory or Ill Blu (two production teams I actually rate higher) I don't think the combination would work nearly so well.
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Cheers for clarifying but I wasn't too worried.
I dunno, I don't think eclecticism should be compulsory, and obv I really rate people Mak 10 and Marcus Nasty who make themselves distinctive by consistently mining the core funky vein. I also think it's important that a certain number of people keep doing that sort of thing, to encourage enough good new funky productions to keep getting made (I think a similar way with grime).
But on the other hand, I understand why it's very tempting to do a mixed set, and I think they often can work very well, because there are real musical links and similarities between the styles. I also think there's a difference between someone doing a set that's half dubstep and half funky, or half grime and funky, or 1/3 each garage, dubstep and funky (etc etc), and an otherwise straightforward UKF dj dropping something like Badman Riddim or Kickdrum or Sunglasses. Even though I don't much like that latter two tunes, they're all obviously mainstream/international house tunes that happen to sound a lot like UKF ideas.
Martin's right that some people still do the 'anyhouse' thing and it does sound like a bit of an annoying mish-mash, but there's a slight difference between 'anyhouse' and, erm, 'any house that sounds a bit like funky'. The latter approach I quite like because on the one hand it gives people freedom to range across different styles and periods of house, and on the other the fact that there has to be some connection, esp in the beats, helps narrow down the choice and make it more specific. The fact that some of the djs involved don't seem to be long-term experts on house in general is also quite healthy because it means that they're liberated from any historical reverence.
Right, that's enough hair-splitting from me for one afternoon.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Certainly true for the US stuff in my case, and i'm eternally grateful for it.
The thing I notice about funky from a very detached perspective is the number of big tunes in the scene that aren't from the UK - obviously the US stuff, but then there are a couple of Dutch-made anthems referenced in this thread, Black Coffee from SA, Alison Hinds refix, etc etc. Seems a bit like the relationship that 2-step had with American RnB, but with a wider set of global reference points it's bouncing off?
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Oh, and just to live up to my role as resident suck-up merchant, I should also say that Slackk, 4linehaiku and Hint are all quite good at doing those sort of mixes which combine UKF and non-UKF house styles.
is there a concerted dialog with dutch producers do you think or is this a slight coincidence?
thought it was more US producers tbh, tho Scratchas been playing something from Israel of all places. that said it ties into this thing about a lot of new funky converts having no background of trad.house, so i think it's a bit random what they're reaching out and grabbing at the moment, because without pre-conceptions, it's all newness.
There are definitely synergies with some of the stripped down Marcel Detman stuff or the kind of tracky thing Cassy might play in Panoramabar with some funky, especially the less obvious stuff/more repetative stuff around. I wouldn't be surprised if Roaska (etc) tunes started to appear in places you might not immediately expect.
I just have this thing about DJs skipping across in to genres they don't really know in depth and drawing for obvious stuff, not contextualising it properly and ingnoring the treasures on their own hard drives or record collections. Cooly G isn't even a particularly bad example and fair play, she is allowed to play what she wants. The worst example I have ever heard is DJ Pete, who I saw play possibly the best ever set of Basic Channel/Scion Versions axis techno I've ever heard in a strip club on Hackney Road (no joke), turning up at Plastic People two years later playing nothing but year-old Benga and Skream tunes to a rapidly diminishing crowd.
I just have this thing about DJs skipping across in to genres they don't really know in depth and drawing for obvious stuff, not contextualising it properly and ingnoring the treasures on their own hard drives or record collections. Cooly G isn't even a particularly bad example and fair play, she is allowed to play what she wants. The worst example I have ever heard is DJ Pete, who I saw play possibly the best ever set of Basic Channel/Scion Versions axis techno I've ever heard in a strip club on Hackney Road (no joke), turning up at Plastic People two years later playing nothing but year-old Benga and Skream tunes to a rapidly diminishing crowd.