Eww: It's the Ill Blu Hype Thread

Honestly at some point midway through my first play of that Mistajam mix it occurred to me that Ill Blu are making pretty much the most exciting music in the world right now. Everything they touch is an absolute beast.

Also I would very much like a definitive list of everything that's out there in standalone MP3 format, remixes included.

r|t|c was right to note that "Warp Speed" is the secret gem on their Mistajam mix.

nee nee nee, nee nee naw
nee nee nee, nee nee nee naw
nee nee nee, nee nee naw
nee nee nee, nee nee nee naw
WUM-WUM-W-W-WUM-WUM-WUM-W-W-WUM-WUM-WUM-W-W-WUM-WUM-W-W-

Missed opportunity to subtitle this thread 'Bass in the city, hype in the place' in honour of the Shystie remix which is still my favourite of their remixes, although Cheryl Cole, Sabrina Washington and the Green Light remix run it close.

although ill blu's radio mixes can often be perfunctory i have missed def-1's fantastically weird glottal elocution and weak liverpool supporter chestbeating so will stick on this 290311 mix shortly

Makes me smile to see this thread...

When did they start playing on Rinse??

Good stuff, this.

Honestly at some point midway through my first play of that Mistajam mix it occurred to me that Ill Blu are making pretty much the most exciting music in the world right now. Everything they touch is an absolute beast.

Seriously Matt you need to hear the track from 88 min in the 29 March set.

Honestly at some point midway through my first play of that Mistajam mix it occurred to me that Ill Blu are making pretty much the most exciting music in the world right now. Everything they touch is an absolute beast.

Seriously Matt you need to hear the track from 88 min in the 29 March set.

― Tim F, Monday, April 4, 2011 4:02 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

can any of you wizards tell me what the track is that starts around 42/43 mins after a few shout outs? only seems to last 2-3 mins but it's a belter.

that is 'room 101' by dj mystery, out now on this essential thing:

http://www.junodownload.com/products/the-underground-collective-presents-the-5-star-ep/1713633-02/

the 88min track was not what i was expecting from the descrip at all somehow -- yet the controlled sternness of it makes it EVEN MORE awesomely dominating than the abandontraxx!!

can i has grace jones vocal plz?

abandontraxx?

can i has grace jones vocal plz?

Yes this would be good!

also listeners be sure to revel in your best opportunity yet to hear the rarely-played 'monsta' breakdown at 74:30, a shamanic orgy of sirens explosions and everything ever all at once - YOU DON'T KNOW THE TUNE TIL YOU'VE HEARD IT

at 67mins (the bmore-swallowing "get freaky with you") is a another recentish one that is best not overlooked

It all makes for a pleasingly masochistic listening experience. I even love the A1 Bassline tune.

i don't really know who they are but this seems as good an opportunity as ever to voice my total bafflement seldom previously felt regarding whatever that "i'm the information" tune is the blogs seem to be nuts for. jesus people are lame.

Oh yeah everything else they do is weak.

major

ill blu top 3 (in no particular order) :

frontline
pull it, wheel it rmx
time to get nasty

^^ tough call tho (come to think of it and the 'parachute' rmx was prob the ill blu track i listened most last year. and 'meltdown' is just huge)

"get freaky with you" has gotta be them, right? The underlying dancehall stabs are similar to "meltdown". I totally love the incorporation of breakbeats and especially

... What they do with vocals on this one. Massive massive massive tune!

I have listened to "get freaky with you" about seven times today.

love these guys! has anybody seen the 'i wonder' instrumental around? i know i've heard it on their show, ill blu at their symphonic best

Also I would very much like a definitive list of everything that's out there in standalone MP3 format, remixes included.

maybe a few missing?:

remixes:
3-2-1 - bring it back
aaliyah - rock the boat
cheryl cole - parachute
craig david - one more lie
donae'o - watching her move (& instrumental)
dj sava - i like the trumpet
funky dee - are you gonna bang doe?
h two o ft. zoe - pink love
hot chip - i feel better & instrumental
kc - r.a.v.e.
kris bayer - heartbreaker (& instrumental)
lloyd - all around the world
mj cole - gotta have it
mpho - boxes n locks
platnum - trippin
roll deep - good times
roll deep - green light
sabrina washington - OMG
shontelle - battle cry
shystie - pull it (& instrumental)
steve hoang - no coming back
suncycle ft. movado - no more
young nate - i wonder

solo productions:
meltdown ep
bellion / dragon pop
time to get nasty
blu magic
dotstar - stick up (& instrumental)
hoodzee - rider
princess nyah - big boys (& instrumental)
princess nyah - frontline (& remix ft coldsteps & instrumental)
princess nyah - hooligans (& remix ft griminal & ghetts)
princess nyah - i will be there remix ft coldsteps
shanique - take it low

+

Ill Blu - Say Yes
Ill Blu - Roll With Me ft. SpeShill
Dotstar - Stick Up (Remix)

love ill blu but some of those new tracks are a bit too heavy on the attitude. sounds like theyre trying to get the dubstep crowd on board. i dont mean this in a cruel way, but its like funky that caspa might play (and caspa used to be good, before anyone says anything).

when you and jimitheexploder go on your honeymoon can it please be somewhere far away and for a very long time? thanks in advance.

maybe jimi and i and you and tim can make it a couples weekend? only if you promise not to be a cunt though. thanks in advance.

lol

Ill Blu are ace always thought it.

http://www.sonicrouter.com/2011/03/recommended-ill-blu-meltdown-ep-numbers/

p.s. I'll happily go on a hunny moon, if anyone is paying I'm skint and need a holiday. Thanx.

thanx for the shout out rtc I fee lat home now ilm goons are calling me out yay!

ooh, as if i could afford that little minx.

seriously titch i really don't understand how you can be so wrong and bad about the new stuff, it is plainly some of the most exciting music in donkeys. i'm struggling thinking what else to say here!

The only thing I'd say about the new bits is that sometimes its a bit ott and dramatic. Not really in a bad way, I'm splitting hairs really. I've just got to be in the mood for it, they've always had that dramatic edge to them but they're really pushing it to the extream at times now and its a bit much and doesn't get the killer raw rolling groove I dig from funky going as much as older bits. They push more and more epic moments into tracks and its cool but I miss that groove a bit unless I'm in turbo drama mode. They still kill it and are some of the best producers around in the scene right now.

erm where did i say it wasnt good? of course its exciting. just think a few of them were surprisingly 'tudey. and i stand by what i said that if caspa (or d1 even) was playing funky, i can imagine this would be *totally* up their street. its got a lot of shared qualities. i know you guys think that ill blu must live in a bubble and wouldnt pay dubstep guys any mind but hello, theyve been on numbers, hyperdub... its not out of the question to think that they might be thinking it might be cool/nice to do something a bit outside their usual box. or that gasp, it might have just rubbed off on them a bit. yes i know it could of course be inadvertent influence from old house tracks but i dunno, dubstep is so unignorable these days, eg - when they did that mix on 1xtra, it was on (unless im mistaken) of all things mistajams 'daily dose of dubstep'!

jimi, life is all downhill once you fail to get rtcs stamp of approval.

ps - that deep teknologi track around 80 mins on that recent rinse show is stupidly good.

jimi, OTM

if they ramp up this angle too far, itll be close to funky in the wobble zone

or at the very least, they will be doing a roska

i still don't know what there is to bitch about - you're prattling on about dubstep as if invoking it however vaguely has any bearing to anyone on the material's excellence. i've already said a few times actually that ill blu are outgrowing the scene to an extent, but that isn't to say that their tracks have become indigestible in funky terms either; there's never not been a space for this kind of tuffness in the "genre" and if anything the issue as far as there is one currently is whether dj's are articulating it as fully as they could be doing. otherwise you could chide a million funky classics for not singularly encapsulating funky's groove as it were - that's not how it's ever worked.

i suspect the fact that these new tunes have only cropped up in their own barnstormer sets so far has put a distorting emphasis on you lads' view of the bigger picture.

The categorical error here is thinking that ott drama and a rolling groove are somehow mutually exclusive. I can't see how the new material can be faulted from the second perspective. The caspa comparison might make sense if the kineticism of the tunes was falling away and the whole point of the tunes was the drop. In the absence of that happening the comparison is simply trying to tie negative associations around muscularity and drama. You could as easily reference hyper-on experience, total science, black strobe or Danny weed. Each of these would have misleading implications. Analogy isn't destiny.

Quite aside from the fact that their new tunes are no more ott than "time to get nasty" from late 2008 or the "bring it back remix" from 2009. If this was going to cause them to jump the shark it would have happened by now.

Everybody knows and complains about the fact that I'm sensitively attuned to funky producers straying from the one true path. Obv I'd be the first to call out Ill Blu if that actually looked likely.

But it's not as simple as "does this tune sound like dubstep yes/no", when producers fall off it's much more about a dramatic reduction in vibe and (in particular) a self-conscious distancing from their own most pleasurable and cheesy tricks and tactics. Whereas this is the precise thing that Ill Blu are so good at finding new ways to develop.

Yeah your last point is a good one rtc - "meltdown" and "chelt" make more sense as funky tunes in the context of a typical funky dj set. And everyone plays them, so I don't get a sense that people within the scene feel alienated by the duo's direction.

this is why i love ilx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsmwPFkv7ko

RIP FUNKY!!!!!!!!!!

oh wait no it's just a banger, my bad

I wouldn't say that drama and groove are exclusive no. I just don't get as much groove from the newer bits as I did before. They're still shit hot at drum programing but the tracks go off on one in other departments and distract from it a bit at times. Time To Get Nasty is pretty ott but its not reaching the hights of bits in the Master Jam set in that department, it swings back into tight hard hitting grooves pretty quick after the big builds. Its not synth rush after build after synth rush... I'm still on board with them I just woudln't be that fussed about hearing their music in one big chunk, it works better broken up and used as a massive dramatic peak. Nowt wrong with that. They pretty much only make anthems, which are always better used sparingly for me, they have more impact then.

nice! loved the mistajam mix when i downloaded it a couple months ago, ill start digging my way through their other new stuff

Building on this discussion, I'd say that arguably Ill Blu takes Caspa-esque dubstep's banger mentality and does it properly, that is: bangers that are for dancing rather than just (head)banging.

And in truth "Bhangra Knights" actually is a dubstep tune, or at any rate close to it, but again: if Caspa actually sounded like (or rather, as good as) this I could totally get on board with yobstep.

I should clarify that my statement on the funky house sceptics thread to the effect that Ill Blu's occasional similarities to dubstep felt inadvertent wasn't meant to suggest that they don't know or like or are influenced by dubstep, but rather that if I had to guess at what they were really reacting to it would be "Pon De Floor" et. al but with the raviness intensified - that is the thread that seems to unite "Bhangra Knights", "Dirty Monkey", "Warp Speed" and "Get Freaky With You". That brings them close to dubstep at times and I'm sure they're well aware of that, but it doesn't feel like an aesthetic they're making a concerted effort to embrace.

Certainly Ill Blu's weakest tracks are their sparer non-dramatic efforts (e.g. "Dragon Pop") so if it's a choice between them veering towards Caspa or them veering towards Scratcha DVA or Mala, I think I'll actually take the former.

I <3 Dragon Pop the bassline is awsome. I've had it in my head since I fist heard it. Such a quality bump to it. Plus it sounds massive on a nice club soundsystem.

ive yet to hear them going more towards mala/dva territory (mala and scratcha dont occupy the same sort of space anyway) so that seems like a false binary to me. the idea of their dramatic stuff vs dragon pop stuff is pointless, as they do both really well, without it sounding like a concession to anyone. ie dragon pop is too funky/percussive for dubstep. dubstep does bongos/percussive stuff but its never very groove-ful. its stiff. the main difference id say is just that their tracks have gotten 'bigger', 'better' produced, whereas the old tracks mostly in general were minimal rollers, and spare, more like grime. they seem to be making more complex (lots of big synth lines, more changes it seems, esp compared to something like that redlight tune posted above, which is a total banger, but a lot more stripped down compared to meltdown etc) stuff now, at the same time as theyre getting more intense and harder, almost abrasive. but then as for timelines, who knows, meltdown is about two years old.

that seems like a false binary to me. the idea of their dramatic stuff vs dragon pop stuff is pointless, as they do both really well, without it sounding like a concession to anyone.

You and jimi started this false binary in the first place by contrasting drama with rhythm. Of course it's a false binary, that was my entire fucking point.

they do both really well, without it sounding like a concession to anyone. ie dragon pop is too funky/percussive for dubstep. dubstep does bongos/percussive stuff but its never very groove-ful. its stiff.

You were the one criticising me upthread for denying that they've gone dubstep.

the binary i was talking about was the choice of them going into dmz or caspa mode. i was never talking about dragon pop being concessionary, or at least, displaying an awareness of dubstep, it was the newer tracks, and a particular sort of dubstep aesthetic which i seem to hear there, ie dominating/maximal inyerface synth blasts. i never really considered DP being a response to dubstep dominance, even though it does nail the hyperdub aesthetic pretty well.

so when it's a direction you do like it's a false binary but a direction you don't like it's a real one?

Tinchy only you could turn a thread about the most banging shit in the entire world into this kind of tedious handwringing.

had a listen to the rinse fm mix while running today (lol the only time i listen to dj mixes now, slightly older man's compartmentalised life etc) and really liked it. tho i was more into the first hour with the vocal stuff than the second hour or so. lots of it is so refreshing tho, just raw energetic dance music with no piousness going on.

Haha, in that case you should just hang out on the funky house skeptics thread ronan.

The first track, carnao's "get out", is a longtime favorite of mine - reminds me of mark bell's "woman cry" and the like.

Finally released on that EP rtc linked to upthread.

for the bird, for the geezer, introductory funky listener, wicked selecta:

ILL BLU 29th MARCH

Carnao Beats ft Teeboy & Kadey - Get Out
Dakar - I've Got That Feeling
??
Barber Bizzle ft Miss Fire - Do You Feel The Same (Remix)
Funky Twinz ft Angel J - Smile
Roska ft Nikki - Energy
Chang-Sam - Don't Hold Back
Ill Blu - Blu Magic

----- 30 mins
Ill Blu ft Shanique - Say Yes
Bassjackers & Apster - Klambu (Seany B Refix)
Miss Fire - 004FH
DJ Mystery - Room 101
Fingaprint - Night Time (DVA's Hi Emotions Remix)
LR Groove - ?
Ill Blu - Chelt
DJ Eastwood - Oh Yeah
Shay & Sinista - Big Up Yaself
DVA - Flute Tune

----- 60 mins
Ill Blu - Time To Get Nasty
A1 Bassline - Shock Headed
Ill Blu - Get Freaky With You
??
Ill Blu - Monsta
Champion -
Undisputed - Sunglasses
J Bevin - Zulu
??

----- 90 mins
Ill Blu - Funerealness
Toddska - Gal From England
Ill Blu - Good Time (Version)
Ill Blu - Alrite Mate
Bassboy & Marcus Nasty - Next Funky
Ill Blu - ?
DJ Naughty ft Miss Fire - It's You
Black Coffee ft Bucie - Superman
Teedra Moses - Be Your Girl (Perempay n Dee Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxCw31W_fj4

This is like an amazing "Flaunt It".

bloody addictive

Is no one else jumping on this? So good!

Mixmag are giving away a track called 'Turnpike':
http://www.mixmag.net/music/mp3-blog/free-mp3-ill-blu

I'm loving that Sneakbo track, that's the kind of Ill Blu production I like, fun, ott, ravey, and full of those electro/dutch house-influenced synths. Ill Blu really should be doing more vocal collaborations. I do like "Turnpike" as well, much more than when I heard it on the XLR8R mix.

I see the appeal of the tracks in the XLR8R mix now, I guess I just don't like so many of those aggro-bassy tracks in one mix without something by Sneakbo, for example, lightening it up with his talk of pagan yats, riding jet skis, and daggering women with african backs.

if by that you're suggesting sneakbo provides a counterpoint or contrast to the production then i disagree i think; he is the finer, literal point of what ill blu are already about and they have an really very unusually natural synergy

the appeal of 'zim zimma' is more in the thuggish ill blu/sneakbo mindmeld's unwitting creation of something like a muscle mary anthem

I suspect that where people struggle with recent Ill Blu is that they associate it with other boshy mersh electro-house and etc. (this is not so much of a negative for me but) - if nothing else Sneakbo offers a more attractive frame.

"Zim Zimma" really is so so so good though, that strangely lethargic synth riff like a wrecking ball accidentally knocking over a building is just brilliant.

i feel more that people are just looking at it from the wrong and boring way round cos they have the "answer" already

like the story isn't oh the guys who did 'meltdown' make mersh electro-house, it's what is up with this weirdly tuff mersh electro-house that doesnt quite fit anywhere easily

do you fancy the promo of this btw

hypothetically speaking of course

Yes I agree - but I think you need to be at least neutral on the idea of "weirdly tuff mersh electro-house" in the abstract to approach it that way.

Um... hypothetically already found it.

cos they have the "answer" already

can I say this is particularly OTM

bloody addictive
YES

http://soundcloud.com/cahill/cahill-dj-q-play-1-xtra

YASSSS

Woah.

http://images.techtree.com/ttimages/story/81817_overlord_tower_minions_final.JPG

I'm really digging these new IB tracks, and I don't think Sneakbo makes 'Zim Zimma' at all- the production on that one is massive on it's own, as an instrumental it would have fit in with the rest of the Mista Jam set of theirs just fine.

Been a bit ambivalent about the lurch towards techno seriousness that Ill Blu seem to have taken on their own stuff most recently (e.g. their new single), so it's nice to discover that "419" on this radio set is a marvelous piece of bubbly vocal house:

http://soundcloud.com/madtechrecords/ill-blu-guest-mix-bbc-radio-1

so ill blu have signed to island and have reworked a five year old uk funky track for the first single
http://soundcloud.com/illblu/blu-magic-ft-max-marshall

apparently the new stuff is influenced by “the musicality of Artful Dodger and Wookie, the bass weight of Shy FX, the sampler’s ear of people like DJ Premier, the soul of Teedra Moses and the future shock production of legendary US R&B producers like Rodney Jerkins and The Neptunes”

sounds promising...my fave recentish ill blu thing is still this though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQN_2TuK44Y

Loving these MixFresh Series DJ mixes - ploughing a really hyper furrow between DJ Q and deep tech, centred around their own current sound, oddly redolent of Tiefschwarz circa 2004:

https://soundcloud.com/illblu/illblumixfreshseries2

ha this is weirdly engrossing

i mean i kinda feel somewhat as if i'm listening more intently here than this really deserves, through the prism of past glories... but then all these relatively familiar tracks of the moment in this context make a convincing case that the world really has swung their particular, sparsely muscular way

like everyone plays shiba san 'okay' now but only ill blu were the ones deading the funky vibe with it in 2011 before it ever existed

and the tiefschwarz type thing finally works now too next to spinnin's tiptoe from edm to house n bass with tchami (whose remix of garrix 'wizard' eye-catchingly features here - everyone else will play every other tchami cut) and oliver heldens (one of the new ill blu productions here is p much a 'gecko' refix)

https://soundcloud.com/maxmarshallmusic/your-love-is-like-ill-blu-1

well ok maybe a dash overstated but still, theory goes

tchami (whose remix of garrix 'wizard' eye-catchingly features here

This one is great, yes.

Basically this mix is best when it goes all rifftacular.

new single sounds excellent

http://thump.vice.com/en_uk/words/uk-funky-duo-ill-blu-are-back-and-its-not-uk-funky

;_; at the disavowal of the uk funky scene tho

Yeah the interviewer was on some bullshit there too.

She seems a bit hung up on UK Funky being "over." It's quite an uninspiring premise for an interview. I'd rather just hear about their new material tbh.

"In the summers of 2008 and 2009, UK funky was the sound. At Numbers parties in Glasgow, I could barely finish a drink without hearing Jackmaster drop the in-your-face silliness of Piddy Py - 'Giggle Riddim..."

interviewer is clueless, that was a bassline tune, nothing like uk funky

Well if you're basing your understanding of what was going on in UK funky on what Jackmaster was dropping at parties in Glasgow...

But you know, seriously, this is the kind of take that would make sense to a lot of people.

It's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy:

"I almost view UK funky as a club tool or a series of motifs, rather than a genre or style in itself. Sort of like what Night Slugs now do with Club Constructions - that's why Lil Silva managed to grow with their camp."

People who never really viewed uk funky as a style in its own right are always gonna see it that way.

But I should stop distracting from the greatness of Ill Blu!