funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

One thing that's important to note is that UK equivalents of vocal house, esp. in the post-speed garage tradition, have never been interested in lyrical profundity or vocal power in the way that the US tradition has been. There's very few stirring diva performances - most of it is more focused on how very simple vocal phrases are situated in the mix. So people looking for good "songs" from this genre will inevitably be disappointed. But, you know, Dem 2's "Destiny" didn't need to be a "good song" to be fabulous, and nor does this stuff.

Blackdown had a great little bit on the lyrics to this track on his blog.

But Dem 2's "Destiny" was indeed fabulous whereas this...just isn't.

"good" point

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Yamaha_DJX.jpg/800px-Yamaha_DJX.jpg

I'm hoping it becomes even more syncopated

and in addition to that overly obnoxious gear snob post I just made can I just throw in another old jackoff opinion that if this track is what counts for "syncopated" in dance music in 2008 then I would also LOVE to hear what "more syncopated" means

perhaps it will include a BASS DURMP on the OFFBEATIES

Tombot did you want a serious answer?

I'm honestly a little surprised the snare on the offbeat of 2 still counts for anything, I guess. I've always thought it was just obnoxious outside of jungle/dnb

I would go into my usual spiel about that particular rhythm, but even I'm bored of it.

Anyway, fuck the hataz, this is hot.

Well it's not like "wow this is the most syncopated music ever", but it's more syncopated than mainstream house, speed garage or bassline, let's put it that way. Given the hyper-stiffness of bassline in particular, it's interesting to see the syncopation/carribean vibe of this stuff emerging as its point of distinction from "funky house" in the broad sense.

When I say "more syncopated" I'm thinking of 2001-era soca-beat 2-step basically - see stuff like TJ Cases's "One By One", or Bump & Flex dub mixes from that period.

Not so much this track, but other Crazy Cousinz tracks strike me as verging on broken beat - esp. the broken beat-like vocal housey tracks Zed Bias was making circa 2002.

Actually there's a kind of back-to-early-2002 feel across the whole post-UK Garage spectrum, e.g.

- "Wearing My Rolex" sounds a bit like "Rush The DJ", "Standard Flow" etc.

- Tectonic/Punch Drunk dubstep reviving the first Horsepower Productions album, 2562 reviving Zed Bias (in a different, "deeper", and more substantially syncopated way than funky house does).

- Bassline sounding like "Dutty", and also like El-Tuff remixes.

Of course early 2002 (as 2-step was losing its grip as the reigning sound, but before the fully-fledged emergence of grime) was the last time this cluster of styles was really not quite clear as to where it was going, so a return to this temporary impasse makes sense.

you don't find that kind of different and kind of essentially london-ish somehow?

Apart from the vocals this tune sound more like something coming out of the Spanish scene. Like this maybe.

you guys know a lot of stuff.

The Marcus Nasty funky house DJ set on DejaVu FM that Martin Clark talks about and links to here is sick.

There's a track in the first section that actually sounds 95% of the way to my dreams for the genre, halfway between TJ Cases' "One By One" and Davinche's old 'R&G' productions ("Leave Me Alone", "Mr. DJ" etc.). But the whole thing is really exciting and vibey feeling.

Martin's right as well when he says that this stuff sounds more exciting with MCs chatting over the top.

I cannot stop listening to this Marcus Nasty set. If you've wondering how on earth "funky house" can form it's own distinct genre you've gotta check it, I've never heard a house set that captures this specific vibe. It's really making me flash back to 2-step in the best possible way (i.e. the feel rather than the specific sound).

this is great but is there a reason it starts with track 2 instead of track 1? why was the mix divided into trax anyway?

also can anyone find this kyla rmx on vinyl??

Finding any of this stuff for love or money seems impossible.

I guess the best way to get the tracks would to be get at the producer's individual Myspace accounts.

I really wish Apple would get something out I could buy.

"Bongo Jam" - song of the year???

"SOMETIMES I WAKE UP EARLY IN THE MORNING, TO PLAY MY CON-CON-CONGO!"

BTW Deej I think Marcus Nasty just uploaded enough of his set to fit onto a CD, hence the missing part one and the way it cuts off suddenly. No idea why it's split into parts.

I got to say that I think I prefer the kyla to "bongo jam" but anyways...

Re: buying records - Rinse are putting out a Supa D mix CD and the blurb that comes with it says this is the first time any of these are getting a release of any sort. The Kyla original (prod by paleface) is getting a rerelease on Ministry this year so they might put the Crazy Cousinz mix on that...

Jacob "Bongo Jam" sounds fairly pasty on myspace, on marcus nasty's mix it sounds awesome. Mind you the Kyra track improves from myspace to mix by roughly the same margin.

Yeah I heard both on his mix too - and I completely agree. I just like the sexualness of the Kyla track which makes it the kind of song people will really get into in that leather shoes and designer shirts garage type environment. Every time I hear it I can really picture that scene, although the picture in my head probably has way too much moschino for it to be relevant to 2008. Bongo Jam straddles a line between goofiness, seriousness and Manu Chao that makes it totally dependent on mix context to work. No bad thing that, but I can see it sounding horribly cheesy 90% of the time, especially on radio.

Ha that's true but, y'know, go goofiness!

I'm hoping to start seeing proper Caribbean crossover stuff soon. I wonder if the ragga-ish version of "Calabria" is big in this scene.

stelfox tipped me to "bongo man," and it's currently blowing my mind. i do think it's hilarious how close it comes in sound and feel to villalobos' remix of the horrorist's "one night in nyc"!

Two more recommendations:

1) Sticky - How Very Dare You
Yes, that Sticky! And this isn't too far from what he was doing circa 2002, great ridiculous diva vocals, huge bass drop, clattering breakbeaty rhythms. Not 4X4 at all but definitely "funky house". Love it.

1) Seany B - Stomper
This reminds me a bit of my beloved "Are You Really From The Ends (VIP Remix)" - stomping and insatiable as the title suggests. Very big 4X4 kick but with all these awesome bongo flutters and counter-rhythms.

myspace rip of 'bongo jam', if anyone's interested. produced by flukes of wifey riddim fame btw!

not really relevant to this thread but i'm liking sticky's 'i'm in love'. first song on his myspace. 'mr dj' was another one of his tunes more in the funky vein.

whoa "whole night" w/ shantie = A+++++++++++++++++++

oops i think it's called "do you mind"

"Who's gonna be that dancing king???"

Shantie is pretty amazing. He's so nimble and prissy!

"Too much war/Everywhere you go what you fightin' for?/I don't know/Back in the day man raves fi look wife/nowadays man a come rave fi take life/can't deal with it, the trouble and strife/formation that, left to the right!"

I would totally start using "formation that" myself if I didn't know I would sound ridiculous.

STICKY????????!!!!!!!!!!!
fucking finally!

now jamming: bongo jam

This flukes kid = big things

I think the last time an area of music so suddenly and completely emotionally/intellectually monopolized me was dancehall in 2003 and before that 2-step in 1999. (grime not so much only because it was harder to find totally hypnotic DJ sets etc.)

Tim, do you have the Supa D cd? Also been checking the Crazy cousinz sets on rinse? Surprisingly dull actually...

Agree re Supa D CD. Disagree re Crazi Cousinz mixes, at least the one I have heard which is great!

Increasingly hearing tracks that totally abandon 4X4, very much taking a leaf from Apple's books in terms of sounding more like soca X grime X old skool rave than actual house, highly syncopated but more uptempo and danceable than grime usually was. Some of the key producers here being Apple, Roska, Footloose, Fuzzy Logic...

Fingaprint's "Take Over" rides a straight syncopated dancehall rhythm, a move I can just feel is gonna become devastatingly popular.

A rather ostentatious example of the grime/funky crossover would be Skepta's "The Rolex Sweep" - there's really nothing about it that on paper would say it was funky more than grime - it just feels like grime.

There's a tune by Chunky Bizzle (formerly a grime producer) that sounds like Gant's "Sound Bwoy Burial" meets Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era's "Far Out". Awesome stuff.

Apart from that, Tim's Funky Essentialz:

Crazi Cousinz - Bongo Jam
Geeneus - Yellow Tail
DJ NG ft. MC Versatile & Baby Katy - Tell Me
Apple - Mr Bean (and all the Bean related tunes)
Roska - Feeline (and the other tunes on his forthcoming 'The Climate Change' EP are massive)
Footloose - Hurry Up
Sticky - How Very Dare You
Seany B (formerly of More Fire Crew!) - Stomper
Kyla - Do You Mind (Crazi Cousinz Mix)
DJ Naughty - Quicktime
Benga & Coki - Night (Geeneus Remix)
Crazi Cousinz - Keep On Dancing
Fingaprint - The Print
Seany B - Make Your Move

so so happy about the return of sticky! i always thought "golly gosh" was practically a house track. his drums and synths always sound so much richer than other uk producers. it seems donaeo is also back, i know he was somewhat hated on ilm but i always had a soft spot for mr. fidgit. "devil in a blue dress" is excellent

i can't be the only one who would prefer an instrumental of "bongo jam" though? the vocal annoys the hell out of me!

can anyone tell me some recent non uk tracks that are getting played by funky house djs? "automatic" from the in the barbershop ep on ibadan seems tailor made to uk radio, it samples "1, 2 step"!

It should be noted that Tim has a great piece up on Idolator today:

http://idolator.com/391655/peering-through-the-front-door-of-funky-house

funky house sounds to me like what photek would have come up with if he'd continued the lines of the "solaris" album

thanks for the hyping Ned.

I came back onto this thread to say that I finally ID'd that bouncy track with the squiggy descending synth riff and organ interludes that comes after the (equally great) Marcus Nasty dubplate that begins the third section (called Track Four) of the main Marcus Nasty set:

Fuzzy Logik - Leader

yeah tim f that piece on idolator was great. i would've left a comment if i could.

http://www.myspace.com/youngoffendazuk

I'm not even sure if this funky house, there is a lot of 2-step, dubstep and grime in this.

Check out Young Offedaz ft MC Shocks - Excuse Me.

Its like one of those tidy 2-step MCs got all aggro, without losing the funk to some extent.

Theirs a chunk of breaks in this too, I've not heard so much crossover in awhile.

This Marcus Nasty mix is good. Really diverse sounds and beats, too. And this -- "this stuff sounds more exciting with MCs chatting over the top" -- is OTM (and Jamaican toasters have never been of much interest to me, but this MC chatting works, somehow). Thanks, Tim.

On one of the Marcus Nasty shows with Rankin and Shantie there's an amazing section where they're trading lines back and forth (I'll upload the individual section when I get a chance) and it sounds like the most exciting thing in the world.

Nice to hear Rankin again soon. I always loved his rap on the Dreem Teem remix of Amar's "Sometimes It Snows In April" - "There's no question of a doubt / I've checked all the ladies out / You're the finest thing that i've seen / sexy lady come be my dream" (not sure if that last line is correct). In the show he reuses it but makes it "There's no question of a doubt / I've checked all the DJs out / Marcus Nasty the finest I've heard / spread the gospel, gotta spread the word..." This kind of thing pleases me disproportionately.

Unfortunately (and frustratingly) all the Rinse FM show downloads (by Geeneus, Perempay, Supa D) seem to still be dominated by US and even Euro house (one of Geeneus's show included Villalobos and Ame) - which is nice enough but not really what I need more of.

I wonder if this is what it would have been like trying to find good 2-step shows after hearing "Destiny" or "My Desire (Dreem Teem Mix)" way back in 1997, and instead getting conservative Tuff Jam sets. Except at least Tuff Jam were playing lots of UK tracks!

Tim, it's exactly the same as far as I recall!

...but maybe even worse. I can't help but feel that because of the bottom falling out of the market for dance singles there aren't any labels jumping on the sound and trying to put out product. Suspect it's going the same way as Jamaica what with everyone doing all those special versions of their songs for radio DJs ("sometimes I wake up so early, so Marcus Nasty can play for me") in order to pay the rent.

Also, it'd probably be like hearing Bobbi and Steve or Grant Nelson on Kiss... Lots of US-aping brit garage on Azuli and 4liberty mixed up with Kerri Chandler etc (so not much change there).

i personally really dig the "us-aping brit garage". for example, "twilight flight" by baby face jay does the prescription sound far better than mountain people could ever dream of!

DJ Seany B feat Monique - Make your move

So, standard "funky" beat here, but what's so great about this track to me is the tension between the somewhat aggressive, definitely urban sounding bassline, and the sonically fluffy sounding vocals. Of course when you listen to the lyrics they're not actually that fluffy. The thing I like about a lot of these funky house songs is that for the first time in ages (outside of the really pop stuff) dance music lyrics are dealing with 'younger' topics - there's lots of stuff about instant sexual attraction etc. and it's a big contrast with the US scene which tends to produce more 'mature' sounding vocals...

Yeah that's a great track. Seany B used to be an MC in More Fire Crew I think! This, "Stomper" and another track whose name I forget are all fire.

Stomper is a weird one for me - it has that awkward, fruity-loops feel that makes it sound a lot more like grime than most funky... I like that as an ingredient, but when it dominates the recipe I'm not so sure. Tracks that balance this sound with sexier stuff appeal more to me...

https://beta.mixcloud.com/RadarRadioLDN/ahadadream-w-crazy-cousinz-17th-december-2016/

here be flukes, back solo under the crazy cousinz moniker with a half hour guest mix and short interview at 45mins in which he reflects on his "captivating year" having pound notes pouring from every pocket enjoying the patronage of a nice group of teenagers that are currently proudly purveying a super ultra new global bass type post-funky zzz (you may have seen it around being enticingly referred to as 130bpm). (all the yuppies lex stabbed in the back in that final episode of funky house of cards revenged themselves upon him by having kids i guess). "people are taking it more seriously than the scene we had before".

the mix is not unpleasant with the old riddims to begin with but swiftly nosedives into a dog's breakfast of irrelevant semi-modern solecisms. the usual.

brother tim will now join me in donning the old ceremonial robes and gravely chanting "i'm a wise old yoot and i know what's what."

10 years' time let's see what we got.

God knows I might hate it, God knows I might not.

http://i.imgur.com/u8J3nQI.gif

^^^ otm

crying @ funky house of cards

that ahadadream set was so tedious i've decided to share the gift of xmas with some liquidated stock

https://soundcloud.com/iambru/bru-c-x-tc4-marimba-freestyle-1
https://soundcloud.com/tc4wolves/bambo
https://soundcloud.com/tc4wolves/tc4-x-moad-corona-1

these frootloopy tc4 2016 treetz should actually really be filed in the old PVC thread i guess, except the chocolate puma student whiteboy grimey bigbeat basshouse scene never reveals itself to me whenever i delve. maybe because it doesnt exist!!! oh well enjoy

https://soundcloud.com/rinsefm/marcusnasty211216

OI.

actually everything after vapour arrives at 50mins is a towering garbage inferno, don't even bother. but that first half!!!

^^^^^

This is tremendous.

I don't even recognise most of the tracks from about 23 minutes (other than the obvious like "Rass Out" and "Seasons").

grateful not to have been commuting when 'crackish' crept in. woulda done a madness.

i love the whole bit where coldsteps is like 'alright let me give them a conscious one' and you just hear shants in the background going YES. YES. YES. YES.

also funny cos coldsteps has only ever had one conscious one and it is his horrible apocalyptic "bodies burning ending up in bins" piece. which still sounded fucking incredible because somehow, impossibly, only marcus-ly, warm queasy synth pads suddenly bloomed from the tune out of nowhere at the very exact moment he says "take a look things just got worse", just like a poisoned 4hero 'loveless'. incredible scenes

Sad to think that some people don't get that this music is the nicest vibes of all time.

I tried to write "biggest vibes" but my phone changed it to "nicest vibes", my phone otm tbh.

jam with the usual "shout out to jack poppy olivia and gabriel in halls" beeb biz. [actual transcript, no golby]. least he got tadow horns in there i spose

― r|t|c, Thursday, 9 June 2016 01:38 Bookmark

https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/exclusive-mistajam-response-independent-drake-top-boy-working-class-culture
https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/exclusive-mistajam-response-independent-drake-top-boy-working-class-culture
https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/exclusive-mistajam-response-independent-drake-top-boy-working-class-culture

EEDIAT

Just to let you all know about my new mixcloud where I'm uploading all the classic era uk funky sets I can find, 60 sets so far.

https://www.mixcloud.com/Classic_UK_Funky_Sets/

You'll find most of the sets that got raved about and discussed in this thread - Marcus Nasty 2008> on Deja/Rinse, formative 2007 sets from Supa D, Taffa, Kismet, Hardhouse Banton & Dubplate Wonder, funkystepz, Ill Blu, loads of my own recordings of live FM from Petchy, Devine Recordings and whatever else I could gather together.

I've already gone a bit mad on this and don't have much more to upload but I'd like to keep it going, so if any of you lot have got classic material that I haven't got, please share and I'll upload it.

OMG Benny.

I lost so many of my favourite funky sets when my computer died last year, this is a godsend.

This is my favorite ilx thread of all time. Thanx Benny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy5T7gl2j08

Baby J - I Wanna Tell You Something ^

didn't know where else to put this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsaXoYa9pL0

Done a zip of some old funkystepz tunes. If you want it you have 7 days to ask me for it.

— Funkystepz (@Funkystepz) May 6, 2020

I got mine this morning and it is the best. Pastor Lucas! The Whitney refix! All the Rihanna versions!

Damn! missed it

i asked twice :(

hint taken, keep an eye on your DMs

:)

could you send it to me too, please?

thx <3

bj - 😌

thx a lot boxedjoy!

A little history lesson on why UK Funky was actually called UK Funky..... Because so many people have asked me this.

— N:Fostell (@nfostellmusic) June 11, 2022

Thanks for sharing!

I miss uk funky

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/SPxzVZLrDatFm1rN9

Burt Cope - Let U Go