funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

ANOTHER MASSIVE ILL BLU RIDDIM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaoDP4_6hn8&feature=player_profilepage

OMG that Ill Blu track is astonishing - just the sheer shameless audacity of taking every massive bombastic banger trick in the book and laying them all on top of one another with a trowel.

BRING BACK THE ROBOT DANCE
BRING BACK THE RUNNING MAN

Haha Tim I just went for a long walk with the DJ Larizzle mix and a copy of your tracklisting and sadly you don't know any of my favourites! Namely:

- the one with the spacey Radiophonic Workshop wibble noises, just after Bad Gyal

- whatever it is after Daydreaming with the big low end Russian symphonic strings

- that track immediately before Juremiah Riddim with the xylophones (not the one you went mad for)

- the big "put down your gun... Congro drum" tune

Lex: also, i like the fact that the jumeirah riddim is so called...because sticky made it in a jumeirah hotel room.

by the way, I believe Lex accurately confirmed the correct spelling of the seen-every-possible-variant JUMEIRAH riddim.

"Tinchy even says upthread "no idea how you guys find out who makes what..." and then you all say "oh but are there even any producers worth writing about anyway...?"

it is hard to find out though. i mean, i know how i used to find out grime tunes, cos youd hear them on sets, then check out clips on ukrs or wherever or in the shops and go 'oh thats what that is!' but with funky theres fuck all to buy in the shops that hasnt already been there for about 5 months. and i hate going to ukfunky.com (though i should prob change this). shd prob spend more time on juno or something going through each and every mp3 snippet.

i like that its so hard to find out about funky though, despite the net apparently making it so easy to find out about everything. its quite satisfying. the reason people arent jumping on it is cos its almost 'too' urban/black/cheesy etc. you could say that about grime too of course but grime had aggression which indie fans can kinda get behind and a 'voice of urban youth!' angle which journos liked, but funky is less interesting to write about. which in a way, is what makes it even better. people dont see that its anything special. when raves start getting locked off or someone gets stabbed/killed etc, media people will prob start caring. i cant remember if it was exactly like this for ukg but i dont think many people really cared about that in the dance media or paid much attention until it started to really blow and got on their radar. thats when they HAVE to pay attention and cant ignore it. til then, no chance. youll just get a few reviews in the observer. fact types are never gonna be comfortable writing about its 'straighter' side without distancing disclaimers cos of their indie/techno hang ups. i personally wouldnt have it any other way. its good for the scene.

fact/ra/dissensus poster boy kode 9 on funky:

You can fiddle around on top of musical structures as much as you want – and I'm referring here to what people are calling “wonky” and “future garage” – but where real collective rhythmic innovation in the last 15, 20 years, whatever, comes from for me is from the pirate radio of London. So you can smudge synths on top, you can fuck up the beat a little bit, you can IDM the beat a little bit [this refers to “intelligent dance music” - a branch of 90s electronica that lost touch with the dancefloor in its pursuit of ever-more intricate structures], you can fuck things up, but where the real grassroots collective movement comes from – that's collective innovation, and not just people fucking things about – seems to be through pirate radio culture in London, and right now that's coming through funky.

I mean rhythmically: not so much tonally, there's not so much that's interesting going on in the actual sounds you get in funky, nothing interesting at all. Garage, two-step had far more that was interesting when it came to sound design than funky has yet got, but percussively it's where it's happening. Much more exciting than someone splattering hip-hop up or glitching dubstep up, know what I mean? So for me that's where the collective innovation is coming from rather than the specifically formal innovation, which is what people do more parasitically off of a musical movement once it's established.

Yeah titchy I wasn't criticizing you - it simply is easier to keep up with figures like Jam City and Julio Bashmore (isn't he just Claude Von Stroke redux though?) - ha I've already received two emails from IRL friends saying "oh wow you were right funky is good, check out this jam city mix I found out about on fact!"

I guess one thing I'm almost mourning is the absence of The Face (though isn't it set to come back in some capacity)? The Face wrote really well and regularly about 2-step garage, and more generally seemed to have this intuitive grasp that things didn't have to get all indie to be worth covering - maybe my memory is making it out to be better than it was though, I dunno. I remember though reading a really enthusiastic short piece about Sparks & Kie (of "Fly Bi" / "Double Impact" fame) in The Face and even at the time thinking "yeah, no other magazine would ever take these guys seriously, they don't have the requisite whiff of importance and iconoclasm."

This was while all the other magazines were embarrassing themselves by bigging up "breakbeat garage"/"breakstep".

Kode9 always reads as spot on, though you'd think from these kinds of quotes that he never played dubstep or wonky.

youd also think hyperdub would be releasing a shitload of funky from the way hes been talking about it. tho im glad kode 9 gave 'future garage' (im guessing he means brackles and that lot) a bit of a kicking.

the only style mags i think are left now are dazed and confused and ID but they seem to have cut their music content down. but yeah, the face, sky, sleaze nation etc filled a real gap in the music media that isnt really there now... sites like dont watch that and super super i think are kinda in that same sort of vein but i dont check them out all that often tbh - i have enough net distractions.

quite liked that alicia secrets mighty mo remix marcus nasty played the other week though it could do with a proper full on re-rub, ie less of the originals slightly MOR piano.

I used to quite like all of those but I think The Face was the central one with respect to all this kind of stuff. Or maybe it's just that stealing old copies of The Face of my older sister when I was a lot younger was so important to my musical development.

In funky news, I finally checked out Roska's 100% Roska Productions mix for Rinse from about a month back. On the one hand it confirms that Roska c. 2000 mostly just cruises at this level of "really well produced but not exciting", however his remix of La Cartier/Fuzzy Logick's "Call Me" is simply MASSIVE - got that excellent feel of rapid curling and uncurling that characterises his best work.

BUT massive lols at him getting Jamie George to revocal "Wonderful Day" as a whiny complaint about other producers biting Roska's style (a la Missy's "Beat Bitin'").

xpost don't know that track - which show was it?

not last wed but the one before. he opened with it i think.

i kinda lost interest in him a while back so i might have missed out on some key tunes but roskas pretty boring tbh. those 1st and 2nd eps were good (the 1st one esp) but since then hes either tried to stick to this somewhat tasteful middle ground while failing to really come up with any great variations on his original theme (he seems one of these guys that has one good idea and repatterns it over and over again, but in his case its not really being re-milked in any esp inspiring way) or tried to sound more like 'proper' house.

I think after declaring allegiance to "proper" house (and against grime) at the beginning of the year he's gradually started returning to some proper syncopation - hence the quality of his remixes of "Reign" and "Call Me". He's even now done a grime tune or remix, though it's not great. And obv he's picking up on ideas from dubstep now.

But yeah a lot of the other stuff is very tasteful, not necc. in a "middle ground" sense, though often that too - but as much just that it feels like you can see him thinking (as judges are wont to say on Idol) - everything feels quite nuanced and aware of past styles and interestingly arranged, without having that intuitive compulsion of his original tunes.

I suspect that the reason his remixes of other funky tunes (see also "Quicktime", "The Print") are so good is that he can cannibalize the energy and hooks of the original tune and then just insert his (still) special brand of beat science.

He strikes me as the funky equivalent of Wookie (as much owing to those basslines as anything else) (and of course leaving aside Wookie's own funky tune) with both the positive and negative connotations that entails.

'Our Father' is still one of my favourite tunes this year (well, top 30). the Wookie thing occurred to me too.

yeah "our father" is definitely THE roska tune of the year for me - and the one i've heard out most too

tim, did you ever hear the dj glamour mix w/dj naughty's "love lockdown", 321's "bring it back" etc on it? i got it off 7yg but can't remember if it was mentioned hear or not. it's a great mix anyway though i wouldn't want a new one to be so skank-heavy.

btw "migraine skank" is apparently at no 53 lol. still not a hit but better than "in the morning" did :(

and was a lot of 2-step's press not helped enormously by its commercial success? easier to pitch stuff, and easier to pick out the major players, when they're at no 1.

Yeah sure but The Face additionally wrote about stuff that was never ever gonna get anywhere near the charts. I always got the sense that they enjoyed the idea of UK Garage as this private little world doing its own thing, but rather than simply say as much they were also moved to write about it.

"Our Father" is great but technically last year and immediately pre Roska's announcement of a new more musical direction (although the housiness of the rest of that EP is probably related).

I haven't heard that DJ Glamour mix Lex, where can I find it?

scroll down a bit http://blog.7yearglitch.com/

actually their own mix at the top looks fire too

Woah Glamour's myspace blog seems to have a ridiculous number of great-looking DJ mixes - he's up to vol. 11!

http://blogs.myspace.com/deejayglamour

30. Crazy Cousinz - Sweet Like Chocolate

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh my god I DO NOT HAVE THE HOURS IN THE DAY FOR THIS~~~

Yeah I saw that and was like "okay breathe, it's probably gonna disappoint you..."

cant tek no more (mixes), as that dizzee song said. well my HD cant.

I suspect that the reason his remixes of other funky tunes (see also "Quicktime", "The Print") are so good is that he can cannibalize the energy and hooks of the original tune and then just insert his (still) special brand of beat science.

right. hes very particular and you can tell hes quite a bit finnicky which might be why theres a certain restraint to his beats so when he gets some material that doesnt have the anxiety of whether its too hooky or not refined enough it seems to work in his favour.

tho i am kinda intrigued to hear this lol:
Blue Pearl – Naked in the rain (Sidechains remix) – 45.25

all this said, today's fact mix by jam city really is incredible. there's more to it than dismissing it as "beat science"

aaaah and just as i type that he drops the vocal of natasha's "so sick", which i remember only i loved back in 07!!! :D

which i remember only i loved back in 07 09

j/k

well obviously jam city also loves it in 09 so i'm not alone any more :)

i miss the days when you could just miss a radio show or mix and not have the pressure of having to get through everything... its like a new album every week!

such is the price we pay for living in exciting times

i shall remain stoic

30. Crazy Cousinz - Sweet Like Chocolate

^^^this was on the crazy cousinz essential mix

nb on the ja side of things, this smutlee fabric mix looks amazing - http://soundcloud.com/fabric/smutlee-fabriclive-10th-birthday-promo-mix

01 Geeneus Ft. Chino - Smutlee Special (Yellowtail Vip Riddim) (White)
02 Egypt Ft. Busy Signal & Mavado - Badman Place (In The Morning
03 Riddim) (smutlee Blend) (white) -
04 Illmana Ft. Stush - Ready Fi De War (White)
05 Marvin Brown - Jack It Up (White)
06 Sticky Ft. Ding Dong - Badman Forward [(bad Gyal/jumeirah Riddim) (smutlee Blend) (white)]
07 Suncycle Ft. Mavado - No More (Bless Beats Rmx) (Suncycle)
08 Major Lazer - Pon De Floor (Mad Decent)
09 Lil Silva Ft. Vybz Kartel - Pon De Floor (Different Riddim) (Smutlee Blend) (White)
10 Bbk - Too Many Funky Tunes (Martelo Blend) (White)
11 Hardhouse Banton Ft. Vybz Kartel - Dump Truck (Sirens Riddim) (Smutlee Blend) (White)
12 Sticky Ft. Elephantman - Krazy Hype (Fugitive Riddim) (Smutlee
13 Blend) (white) -
14 Warrior One Ft. Lady Chann - King (White)
15 Maxwell D - Funky Baby (White)
16 Geeneus Ft. Ms Dynamite - Get Low (Crackish Riddim) (White)
17 El - B Ft. Mirikal [We Dont Play (ghost)]
18 Dubchild - Show It Now (Ratio Mix) (Dpr Recordings)
19 Emvee - Repeat Me (White)
20 Roska Ft. Jamie George - Wonderful Day (Smutlee Special) (Roska Kicks & Snares)
21 Danny Native Ft. Busy Signal - Da Style Deh (Rass Out Riddim) (Smutlee Blend) (White)
22 Maxwell D - Street Knowledge (Rass Out Riddim) (White)
23 Donae'o - Party Hard (Dev79 Rmx) (White)
24 Malanté & Dex Ft. New Kidz - Lions (Exploited Germany)
25 Erup - Click Mi Fingers (Grahmzilla Rmx) (White)
26 Lady Chann - Sticky Situation (Toddla T & Seiji Rmx) (White)
27 Mavado - So Special (Dj Yonny Rmx) (White)
28 Whitey Ft. Mr Vegas - Hot Wuk (Wrap It Up Riddim) (Smutlee Blend) (White)
29 Miike Snow Ft. New Kidz & South Rakkas - Get Mad (Animal Riddim) (Smutlee Blend) (White)

how come no ones done one of these with grime mcs yet

To be honest that looks a lot better than any grime version which would probably end up with endless variations of JME and Skepta wittering over 'What's In Your Handbag'.

Okay so the Jam City FACT Mix sounds heaps better than the Low End Spasm mix IMO. More dynamic, prettier, great use of vocals.

New single from Benga and Zinc ft. Sweetie Irie is a decent slice of dancehall-funky but using Sweetie Ire is a bit hubristic - or, is that the right word? Is there a word that specifically means "offending the gods by trying to imitate their works?"

Because using anyone from the Middle Row camp is kinda implicitly claiming you can match Ed Case, e.g. remix of "Clint Eastwood", the amazing 2001 refixes of "You're Mine" and "Sorry (I Didn't Know)" etc.

OTOH it's closer to 1999 era Basement Jaxx so maybe Benga and Zinc thought they just had to be better than "Feeling's Gone".

Heard this on Code Red's October 16 show. Also features a funky version of "My Desire", but it's a bit middling, stick with the Bugz in the Attic remix if you have to go there (and in fact just stay with the Dreem Teem if it all possible). Royal P could maybe have done a decent remix.

However I'm betting Lex will LOVE this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zBp7LW2wc8

that reminds me of a steppy and bleepy DJ Gregory. It's cool how the track is swung and pushed forward by dropping the 4th kick in each bar.

This Jam City mix is good so far (12 min in). One of the questions I wanted to ask this thread was whether there was a variant of funky that was similar to Darkstar's "Aidy's Girl Is a Computer", but it seems that the JC mix fits the bill pretty well. The more skippy, steppy and broken this stuff is, the more I like it.

Tricky, off the top of my head, search:

Aphrodisiax - Unfinished Business
Funky Underground - Dub Boy
Swift Jay vs Suges - Tribe
Scratcha DVA - Hard House
Scotty D - Dream (any Scotty D really)
Funkystepz - "Funky Sound" or "Bounce"
Pearson Sound - Wad
Hard House Banton - Reign (original and Roska remix)
La Cartier - Call me (Roska Remix)
Mos' Wanted - Different Lekstrix

IMO Jam City's rhythmic erm "matrix" is very much in line with the above stuff - I actually disagree with Matt DC on this, I think from a groove perspective he's 100% funky.

Here's "Unfinished Business" (though it's played pitched up by funky djs):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY3JuTOCJ_Q

A skank version of "Funky Sound":

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

... Unless you mean "similar to Darkstar" in terms of being emo.

From what I can remember of my conversations with the guy from Darkstar, he's the opposite of emo.

Very spirited and friendly, I've actually been completely amazed at where their sound has gone.

But then again this may be just my inner gay goth kid showing, why'd you think I liked Dubstep?.

I will now continue to listen to Dead Can Dance and leave this nice thread alone.

"Emo" as in "emotional" - "Aidy's Girl Is A Computer" sounds like Plaid. "Need You" less so.

What threw me off was when they ditched the sample based aesthetic and went completely IDM/electro.

Its fashionable, but not really playing to their strengths.

Funky that sounded like Darkstar 2 or 3 years ago would actually make a lot of sense.

Thanks Tim! Both of those embeds are good, but I like the skank version of "Funky Sound" the best. I could easily see slotting either of them in with some contemporary deep house. The Jam City mix had plenty of emo in it to push those buttons, but yeah I am looking for something that has both emo and slower, steppier rhythms while also not being so explicitly indebted to hardcore/rave.

Floating Points?

Its not Funky but its good dubstep influenced deep house.

yes!! Vacuum Boogie is one of my favorite EPs from this year.

Trying to point this back towards Funky tempo stuff.

Maybe check for some of the stuff the United Vibes crew are making?

Double Helix, I think he might be under another name right now though.

Some really great broken 2-step vibes to some of them.

http://www.divshare.com/download/8555591-b90

Solar Man- “Cerafin”
No Fixed Abode- “Flowers”
Solar Man- “Cold Hearted”
Low Density- “New Gun”
Amen Ra- “Hidden Life Force”
Amen Ra feat. Double Helix- “Song to Auset”
Low Density Matter- “Definitions”
Amen Ra- “From Whence We came”
Double Helix- “Futuristic Dream”
Double Helix- “Ghost”
Amen Ra- “N22/The Aves”
Double Helix- “The Possibilities 2009”
Double Helix- “Black Ops”
Amen Ra- “Unknown Sources”
Amen Ra and Double Helix- “God Walk”
No Fixed Abode- “Static”

I honestly have no idea what this sounds like, going to listen to it now.