K and the inter-'nuum transition point

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

the focus on the drop has hampered dubstep greatly this year.

See this is what I don't get - why is giving the crowd what they want 'hampering the music'?

The toughening of dubstep and the funky house movement are both crowd-driven developments - just for very different crowds. Neither of them are breaking obvious new ground aesthetically, so I don't see how one is negative and the other is positive.

 

[Logos]

Right. So how on earth is dubstep funky again? The beat is entirely different and much more mechanical.

Erm what?

You do know 'funky' refers to a london 'house' sound right?

I don't think anyone is saying it is dubstep are they?

Oh and if you mean funky as in the groove, have you ever heard a mala tune?

 

[matt b]

See this is what I don't get - why is giving the crowd what they want 'hampering the music'?

The toughening of dubstep and the funky house movement are both crowd-driven developments - just for very different crowds. Neither of them are breaking obvious new ground aesthetically, so I don't see how one is negative and the other is positive.

because after 30 seconds you want the next one rather than savouring variation within the same pallette. it's not +/-, it's the focus that has meant i've got bored far more quickly at a dubstep dance than a uk-reggae one.

[i've bought spongebob and cockney thug, if that makes any difference and enjoy them both greatly- but it's a touch haribo, innit]

 

[DannyL]

<i>Can anyone point me to some examples of funky dubstep?</i>

I'm getting lost a little bit in the inter-genre switching and swapping, redefining against each other, but I can't stop listening to Pinch's "Get Up" (the vocal) at the moment. That's a direction I'd like to see the music embrace, rather than become bass heavy mong out music.

K = absolute shit for parties in my experience. Psychedelic special brew.

 

[nomadologist]

Erm what?

You do know 'funky' refers to a london 'house' sound right?

I don't think anyone is saying it is dubstep are they?

Oh and if you mean funky as in the groove, have you ever heard a mala tune?

Which london "house" sound?

In the U.S., "funky" refers to funk music, a certain beat or as you say "groove" that is easy to identify when heard.

I like some dubstep (have not heard Mala), but let's not pretend it's "funky"?

 

[nomadologist]

<i>Can anyone point me to some examples of funky dubstep?</i>

I'm getting lost a little bit in the inter-genre switching and swapping, redefining against each other, but I can't stop listening to Pinch's "Get Up" (the vocal) at the moment. That's a direction I'd like to see the music embrace, rather than become bass heavy mong out music.

K = absolute shit for parties in my experience. Psychedelic special brew.

I was not super impressed with that new Pinch album, but I can understand why you'd like it I guess.

 

[DJ PIMP]

the jungle-dnb cycle was too depressing to contemplate living through again and why i stopped listening to dubstep a couple of years back.

the uk 'nuum genres feel really weird to me now. hardcore, jungle, garage, dubstep... these odd little interconnected epochs that are ultimately isolated spasms of fashion.

 

[Dr Venom]

Definately looks like its going to be an exciting 2008 for the underground in London and the UK. I think Gabbas points are quite valid, because although its all happening on a smaller scale, it seems there could be a parallel drawn between the transitition from Jungle to Tech-Step (soon renamed drum and bass) and then the shift to UK Garage, to reclaim the groove/soul/girls.

Coming back to London recently and hearing Dubstep again up close it certainly feels like there is more of a techy mechanical feel to some of the sounds especially coming from many of the foreign producers from places like Holland (the home of Gabba, no?) This is of course with the exception of Burial, in who I hear the echoes of old Horsepower/2-step and the stuff I heard back in the day at fwd etc. But the shift back to the dancing/soul/girl stuff sounds like its being catered for by funky. It seems the pendulum is in mid-swing.

Whats also quite decent is when I heard the words 'funky house' I was very uninspired but listening to some of it, there is definately more to it than that tired old genre. I can hear echoes of stuff like soca in there, which will be enough for it to feel refreshing. That the top boys are calling house seems irrelevant, after all don't most of the d'n'b old boys still call it Jungle? My prediction is that there will be a very defining track that comes along with a certain beat pattern that is mimicked that will shift the scene and possibly name the genre, or even a clubnight (like niche).

 

[straight]

kets ruining nightlife for me at the minute, ive had to take a step back from it. when you actually come out of it a bit and the states evryones in is so depressing. im watching too many friends become constant wall hugging cripples. plus i enjoy fuckin on pills too much.

 

[fokse vektaire xeven]

See this is what I don't get - why is giving the crowd what they want 'hampering the music'?

The toughening of dubstep and the funky house movement are both crowd-driven developments - just for very different crowds. Neither of them are breaking obvious new ground aesthetically, so I don't see how one is negative and the other is positive.

because one is driven by a crossover and the other a more underground/grass roots crowd, one involves a move towards predictability and the other the possible start of something new...this is all about perception though

once a genre of music becomes established as a "place" drugs get taken things get boring very quickly. i certainly wouldn't claim to have been around at the inception of dubstep but as i understand it was not a drug driven thing AT ALL- unless you count pot

i've always thought there's two distinct sides to raving, a tunneled/ tranced/ inner space removal/euphoria vs an open/social/ communal /celebratory experience. the tension between opposed "poles" keeps the music moving...the best stuff hits somewhere in the middle

hardtek/jungletek

wow, it seems i've missed two entire musical subsets here. the prosaic names are a help though. i think i'm glad i've never heard any :slanted:

 

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

i've always thought there's two distinct sides to raving, a tunneled/ tranced/ inner space removal/euphoria vs an open/social/ communal /celebratory experience. the tension between opposed "poles" keeps the music moving...the best stuff hits somewhere in the middle

Just for the record, squat raves have plenty of both, at least the ones I go to do. They're also very evenly split gender-wise. But squat ravers do have a very low tolerance of 'glamour' which was why garage was such a problem - I've never heard anyone play garage at a free rave. Even though the mechanics of the 'after-party' scene that Blackdown discusses sound pretty similar to free raves.

One reason why K is popular is that people can dip into thier own inner space for a bit, but then come round after an hour and go do something else. Not like acid where you're stuck there til sunday evening

 

[UFO over easy]

I refuse to accept that all the grooveless, muddy, plodding, mechanical borestep coming out of all this is even dubstep... it's a totally different scene, and it's rubbish. ketamine and straight faced bearded men staring at squares on laptops... I don't have an issue with either in principle but in practise it tends to make me want to kill myself.

So how on earth is dubstep funky again? The beat is entirely different and much more mechanical.

Right, so there's just the one "dubstep beat". Casio keyboard preset style? Aces.

For what it's worth, it's implausible that Ammo are as indifferent to dubstep as GFC suggests. If they were unhappy in the direction the scenes taken, they wouldn't have anyone to blame but themselves... if I were them I'd be tired of talking about it though, and excited about the prospect of something new.

 

[Tactics]

I'm just

confused

 

[straight]

a bit of ket makes the wobbles quite fun, caused my brother to get his head round dubstep at the skream/kode9 night at sonar. free parties are always more fun on paper, crusties tend to opt for the most joyless musics and i cant be bothered with their smugness. sorry, i like conditioner too much, im a cog in tresemmes imperialist war machine

 

[ether]

Just read Blackdown's piece on funky and really enjoyed it. The way it came across to me was that there's a very definite sense that London's post-UKG elite are pulling away from Dubstep, and not thinking of it as 'their' music any more. Comments about the current dubstep scene in the piece were almost totally ambivalent-verging-on-negative

feeling fairly ambivalent towards dubstep myself recently but I have to disagree, with the way blackdown seems to imply that we should embrace funky because it could have the potential to be good, because it shares a similar root structure to earlier forms of dance music.

shouldn't the question be is it good?

not is it good yet...

too much LOOKING social, when LISTENING is what matters.

Ive tried to keep an open mind about Funky but it strikes me a being hugely unremarkable..

 

[ether]

K is for crusties and horses both of which smell like shit.

 

[lazybones]

yeah... its quite sad really, this whole squat/k/crustie bullshit is its own thing though as far as i care... they will take the elements they like from dubstep, in the same way they did with jungle>gabba, and turn it into their own thing hopefully... and fuck off. its funny but i do think that this whole laptop djing thing seems to go hand in hand with it, whenever i see a "laptop dubstep dj" its always in some horrible second room or shit free party... shame as there is room to do fascinating stuff with laptops and 138bpm - eg shackleton and kode 9.... its just the faceless hunched over the laptop like im actually doing something posing types that stink.


i think with dubstep , its impossible to generalize too much tho...

there are great djs like kode9 and appleblim , who have loads of swing in their sets, minimal housey influnces , grime elements , vocals and a generally positive attitude to new interesting directions. and rarely play wobblers... to me that is the direction im interested in; martyn, 2562 , headhunter, horsepower(when bi returns!), kodes, mala.... its totally the antithesis of *** ****** style rigor mortis mid range shite..... as many have already stated. its sad tho , i really remember with total clarity going onto boomkat or walking to bmsoho all the time in 2005 and finding nothing but grade A tunes.. yet day by day there is so much tripe... its really rare to find a good dstep 12"///last few months... martyn, peverelist/shackleton, globetrotting 12",spyro on the initiate pack ....are about all i've enjoyed really.

i've enjoyed forward a bit more recentley as they seem to alwasy book at least one interesting dj a week, three times out of four per month....

worst of all though is , i thought at the start of the year that the whole wobbler obssesion would blow over, but quite the opposite has happened......ugh..

* i find it very amusing to think that anyone would have beef with showers and decent trainers, but its true *

 

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

Nice bit of ignorant anti-raver bias coming to the fore here :slanted:

 

[mistersloane]

really strange anti squatter thing going on.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Nice bit of ignorant anti-raver bias coming to the fore here :slanted:

Come back when you've had a bath and put on a nice ironed Ben Sherman shirt, you dirty hippy!