Funky/London/UK House

Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Journalists and a lot of music fans too are quite lazy these days, they want it all on a plate or they're not interested.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
gumdrops said:
would of course prefer if they just released their records themselves rather than have to wait for someone with more of a link to the wider 'bass' scene to pick them up (its diff when you view a funky release through hyperdub or night slugs or numbers than when its just some basic white label thing).
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More and more producers are actually doing this, just not on vinyl white labels. There's been plenty of stuff put out over the last few months on Juno, Amazon and itunes among others. They just don't get written about anywhere apart from on here and ILX/Tim's blog, maybe a couple of other specialist blogs.
 
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Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
^ Well worth getting on to Carnao for those tunes, he's a gent as well and processes your purchase without any b.s or hold-ups.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Yep.

He's starting a show on Deja Vu too, midnight on saturdays.

edit: soz andy, I keep repeating what you've already said! (increasingly find I'm repeating myself on here too lol)
 
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Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Benny B said:
new aramac on vinyl: http://boomkat.com/vinyl/375244-aramac-a-journey-through-time-vol-1
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Woah nice one, he seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth there for a bit. Sounding pretty good, 1st & 3rd tunes especially. I've got the decks/Serato setup that I'd been slowly saving up for and putting together on the go now, so can see myself buying lots more vinyl in the near future.
I played Hurt Inside on my Top 5 mix for PR btw, you can listen to it here:


..PLUG (you can feel free to throw rocks at me or whatever now).
 
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Big Nose

-
Elijah said:
http://bit.ly/h6Nvbs
A1) Motherboard. B1) Loose Control. B2) Tribal Affair VIP Test Presses in now. Its on Terror Danjah Hardrive label not Butterz by the way.
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How are they sounding cus Ive got the white that came out last year and the quality is pretty shit, that might be my needles when I think about it though. And is there any audio of Loose Control about cus thats what Id be buying it for really.

Interesting release by Terror, never saw it coming on Hardrive.
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Big Nose said:
How are they sounding cus Ive got the white that came out last year and the quality is pretty shit, that might be my needles when I think about it though. And is there any audio of Loose Control about cus thats what Id be buying it for really.

Interesting release by Terror, never saw it coming on Hardrive.
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Loose Control is near the end of the mix by Champion that was posted 2 or 3 pages back. He plays quite a long stretch of it, it's a pretty solid tune. Think I'm going to pick this up 'cause I missed out on getting those previous whites. This will at least double the number of Champion tunes that I'm able to play. :) Big up Terror Danjah for this.
 
Elijah

Elijah

Butterz
Big Nose said:
How are they sounding cus Ive got the white that came out last year and the quality is pretty shit, that might be my needles when I think about it though. And is there any audio of Loose Control about cus thats what Id be buying it for really.

Interesting release by Terror, never saw it coming on Hardrive.
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Remastered by Terror Danjah & Leon @ Music House. Vinyl sounds like a million dollars. I haven't heard the white label of the original.
 
T

tom lea

Well-known member
Benny B said:
Thats not much coverage really though is it? No great shakes...
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what do you want, a piece in the guardian? the stuff you're discussing is incredibly niche and localised, that cant be emphasized enough. hyperdub or whatever is already niche, and it's not like that gets a huge amount of coverage in mainstream press. bassline is bigger than the stuff you're covering in this thread and has had more chart success - that's not getting coverage. i mean what press do you expect this stuff to get? you have to be realistic.

i'm not saying this as a diss to this scene/sound - i like it a lot, and i listen to live fm and deja way more than i do rinse, but to get big, sometimes you have to put some effort in, you know? i've tried to make contact with 10-15 ppl on live/deja, from both the perspective of a journalist and a guy with a label, and i think the only ones who even replied were mad one (with sales patter), and g smalls. smoove kriminal, shay & sinister and champion have all got in touch themselves - i doubt it's a coincidence that their music seems to be slowly reaching audiences beyond that of many of their peers.

Plus I'm not surprised that Mad One turned you down as they have their own label already and have had quite a few releases on itunes and amazon. They are doing things on their own terms and its just a shame that someone should have to get a release on Hyperdub or whatever before anyone will bother writing about them.
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well it's not like there was a defined proposal, he just clearly wasn't interested and that's fine - but you're still never gonna reach the same audience shotting 30 quid dubplates and then doing an itunes release off the back of that than you will having a vinyl and digital release that's properly distributed and flagged up on boomkat, beatport, hardwax et al. that's not down to bias against live fm and towards hyperdub or whatever sort of versus situation some of you like to dream up, it's just how things work.
 
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Tim F

Well-known member
I was really pleased to see "House Girls 1" get a write up in the FACT list but it was weird seeing it treated liked an anthem of 2010, including in the blurb.

Which is at least in part because you couldn't buy a non-dubplate version until 2010, obv, but it underlined the weird disconnect between what actually goes on within the scene and what the wider world (even of generally clued in music critics) can pick up on.
 
Elijah

Elijah

Butterz
Sounds like Grime part 2 really. Attitudes of the people involved stink, they end up making no money, then quitting. Kinda what helps constant change of this underground music.

Blaming journalists to cover music that isnt serviced to them nor distributed or manufactured properly, is silly, and slating Local Action, Numbers, Night Slugs etc is dumb, they are the same as you just enthusiastic people who dont mind going bald and or grey and possibly broke to let the world hear it.

Seems like your making excuses for people that are keeping the scene from growing.
 
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Tim F

Well-known member
To keep this in perspective, people like Funkystepz obviously have made great strides of late in terms of making their music accessible via digital download, but it's not like that has resulted in a tidal wave of media support (though Tom it was great that you profiled them for your 2011 feature).

The lack of availability of particular tunes is a red herring, there's heaps of amazing funky tunes that have been released but still get zero attention.

And that's not because music critics are awful, they're just more busy responding to stuff they actually like. Most people who I try to pimp this stuff onto remain nonplussed, they don't see what they're supposed to be getting excited about.

Even stuff like Lil' Silva on Night Slugs or Ill Blu on Hyperdub ends up with a relatively low profile vis a vis other stuff released on those labels, and it's not because the labels themselves stop trying when they release something from a funky producer.

I'm not sure why this is a controversial point. It seems like a lot of people are reluctant to admit that they're just not into funky that much relative to other stuff (as if this will make them lose their continuum visa or something), so they blame the lack of releases or scene politics or etc, or (more recently) say that funky fell off in 2010 (which is obv not true, though I have concerns about 2011).

Truth is, ultimately, funky just isn't a sound that pushes many people's critical buttons (though obv it does mine, nearly all of them).

Also, because 2-step was commercially more successful, it's easy to overlook that the same dynamic applied there to some extent: obv. there was critical treatment of The Artful Dodgers and other stuff that actually charted, and then (circa Hyperdub the website) lots of stuff on Wookie, Zed Bias, El-B etc. but the larger part of the producers somewhere between these two poles got zero critical attention - only this was obscured because their tunes were also ending up on regular Ministry of Sound comps etc.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Benny B said:
its true there is a lack of foresight/going in for the quick buck rather than long term investment. And yes, producers want commercial success. But I'm starting to wonder how realistic this chance of commercial success is. For all its poppiness and inventiveness, most people just don't seem that interested outside of the fairly small and localised diehard following. Its also failed to inspire much interest from critics and journalists either. For example the House Girls album didn't get any reviews anywhere AFAIK. That's criminal!

There's been plenty of tunes that I thought could have made the charts but for some reason something within this music seems to prevent it from having the mass appeal that UKG enjoyed in its day.

This sounds defeatist but none of it actually bothers me at all, as long as the music is still good. I suppose I'm not a struggling producer though!
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before you all get so defensive, can i just post this again to clarify my position a little bit. Yes, I occasionally get frustrated with journalists, but I'm definitely not slagging off labels like Hyperdub, Numbers etc. I get frustrated just the same as all you, but I still think the exclusive/localised elements are keeping this music healthy on an underground level, so I'm willing to accept it.

I do feel that its quite patronising to blame producers for having a negative attitude, just because they don't play the game. They want to do things their own way, whether their hopes of success are realistic or not. I find this attitude refreshing personally.

Like Tim's just said, people outside just aren't that interested...fine (but I'm not as articulate as Tim unfortunately!)
 
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Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Elijah said:
. Kinda what helps constant change of this underground music.

Seems like your making excuses for people that are keeping the scene from growing.
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There's a contradiction there surely. Who are the people that are keeping the scene from growing? The very producers that are making all this great music vital and cutting edge, thats who! long may it last
 
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