funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

Do you mean Seany B's "Mr Seduction" from about 2 years ago?

That's the one that goes "I'm thinking of thoughts, of dirty thoughts, and it's all your fault, I want to be yours..."

there's a couple of screama/farah follow-ups aren't there? - the "baby i like your style" one at 86 mins on the 10th feb marcus, the "my life is good, my life is sweet" one at 33 on the 3rd march one. the latter might stand up to 'kiss' imo, albeit more demurely.

and here now's the bit in the script where i say tim should expand on his unified theory of r&b sensibility in funky.

haha yeah, i think thats the one. better late then never :)

Listening to that DJ Petchy/Topsy/Dream set again. SO EFFORTLESSLY EXCITING. What is that track at 47 minutes.

the ill blu remix of sabrina washington is sooooo good - naughty remix too but tim otm that the "ah, ah, ayyyy-ah" vocal on ill blu really pushes it over the top

the funkystepz remix of "rude boy" is odd in that it seems to borrow most from the hyperactive energy of bassline - i know lots of bassline producers had crossed over to funky, i didn't think this was the case for funkystepz?

the original "omg" is such disappointing electropop bollocks :(

and here now's the bit in the script where i say tim should expand on his unified theory of r&b sensibility in funky.

Not really unified and barely a theory. Basically I reckon there's a reason that funky goes for US R&B divas (Teedra and Jazmine in particular) who strike an absolute middleground between modern R&B attitude and a really organicky warm soulfulness - funky's sense of R&B is (by and large) a lot warmer than garage's was.

You couldn't accuse funky of embracing "hypersoul" in the same way that you could at least plausibly say of garage (note my equivocations here). Some of this may be for the prosaic reason that funky is a bit slower.

Could probably expand on this and explain it better but eh... I've had a few too many beers.

the funkystepz remix of "rude boy" is odd in that it seems to borrow most from the hyperactive energy of bassline - i know lots of bassline producers had crossed over to funky, i didn't think this was the case for funkystepz?

The Rude Boy remix isn't even a particularly great example of Funkystepz's recent shameless bassline-biting. Lex I know you're resistant to this but you simply must download one of Funkystepz's radio sets and listen to the all-Funkystepz production sections!

They're not from bassline but they (or at least some of them) are pushing a fusion sound harder than just about anybody in funky.

Lex when you hear "Lovers" you will literally flip.

i'm not resistant, i'd love to hear it all, i literally don't have the time! i have to leave the house in an hour and do literally a million things first. if they (or anyone) have any sets around an hour long (or god forbid actual TRACKS) (and no 96kbps nonsense) (i sound so fussy but these are basic requirements of music consumption in 2010) i'll def jump on those.

Basically I reckon there's a reason that funky goes for US R&B divas (Teedra and Jazmine in particular) who strike an absolute middleground between modern R&B attitude and a really organicky warm soulfulness

think the issue of "classiness" is also key here - i've found that a lot of funky producers have jazz backgrounds, in the sense that they grew up around family members who played jazz, and of course that's one never-talked-about element of uk garage's entire lineage, so you get values like soulfulness and also TECHNICAL CHOPS ingrained into these artists - which of course leads you towards the more grown&sexy or organic r&b artists (erykah being another recurring funky-friendly r&b singer).

The Feb 9th mix is gone now... Will try one of the more recent sets and tell you which section to listen to.

Yet another great - and very grimey - Ill Blu track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1SO7DBmbwY&feature=player_embedded

where are these sophisticated jazzy chops in funky producers exactly? are you sure they dont mean the type of jazz you get on smooth jazz programmes?

I'd actually disagree a little bit with Lex on this point in that someone like Farah - who's totally an organic and archetypal funky diva - doesn't sound polished or anything, she's just got a great intuitive feel to her - see also Miss Fire obv. If anything the vocals in funky I'm thinking of aren't so much about technical skill so much as just an untrained and unforced humanness.

It's also reflective of their different eras but with uk garage its R&B-ness by and large struck me as much smoother, which is why Craig David was such a great and representative vocalist. I always think of the Architechs' kinda androidy remix of Brandy and Monica's "The Boy Is Mine" - which feels like something very different (in terms of what it is in R&B it's seeking to reproduce/transform) than, say, a remix of Jazmine Sullivan.

Thinking this is my top 10 of 2010 so far (in no particular order):

Funkystepz - Hurricane Riddim
Naughty Raver - Drama
Farah & Screama - Kiss Me
Sabrina Washington - OMG (Ill Blu Remix)
Devine Collective - People Keep Dancing
Emvee - Windrush
that Thriller-sampling track
Bassboy & Marcus Nasty - Let's Get Nasty
Funkystepz - Lovers
Devine Collective - Tribal Daydream

Having said that Greyman may be the secret hottest producer right now. I hear heaps of tracks whose identity I otherwise couldn't begin to guess at with his laughing-ghost sample-signature.

Great start to the year.

haha, i'd only vote for the thriller track if it always came with the extended 'ur girl's a player' mc riff.

("your girl's a dirty one / your girl's a dirty one / she'll be like that til she's 31" being the best of the lot obv.)

devine collective's 'dirty funk' is from last year then i take it...? hadn't heard it before the petchy set - ridic track.

I've allowed myself to get way behind right now. Which are the best mixes to catch up with? Ideally specially recorded mixes rather than radio sets.

The Majestic/Marcus Nasty set is the only really good "specially recorded" set I have from this year.

Yeah "Dirty Funk" is ace but I have a feeling it's from last year? Maybe not though. What's the track it samples? Anyway not sure how many ridic Devine Collective tracks I can put in a top ten w/o looking ridic myself.

The rap from the Petchy set that always pops into my head is Dream (roughly paraphrased):

She said "Dream you're an arsehole"
I said "thanks for the compliment love but I wouldn't touch you with a bargepole"
She said "oh my days I can't believe it, you're as cold as the weather in Glasgow!
No, Moscow!"
I'll put a hole in your heart on Valentine's Day without use of a crossbow!

In terms of strategic relaxation of "no radio sets" rules, I'd say it's worth it for the Petchy/Topsy/Dream set linked above. It's becoming a cliche for people to compare it to the old days of Mak 10/Nasty Crew in terms of sheer intensity but that really is what it feels like a lot of the time.

Funkystepz 9 February is the other one for me, insofar as being relatively good sound quality and having an easy-to-isolate second hour block of all Funkystepz tunes. If I don't find a more recent set which matches it I'll upload it.

As you'd expect the Ill Blu remix of Hot Chip is a bit more subdued than is usual for them, but not too much. Nice xylophone:

http://soundcloud.com/richtlobf/hot-chip-i-feel-better-ill-blue-remix

ill blu 9th february

http://www.sendspace.com/file/gi0ezk

sorry i meant funkystepz obv.

Thanks Corpsey!

Now, everyone, go to about 57 minutes in and listen from there.

BTW, what's the tune that "Dirty Funk" samples so liberally (the "ba-da-ba, ba-ba, ba-ba, ba-ba, ba-da-ba-da-ba" vocals)? It feels like a key moment in the development of modern culture and yet its identity has somehow passed me by.

Also is there a free and idiot-proof way to chop up long MP3s on a mac so that I can isolate tracks deserving of particular focus in future?

tim is there anyway to hear the songs you listed aside from mixes? i.e. the two of the first five google results for "funkystepz lovers" brings up your blog & this thread

you can do that on garage band pretty easily

just open the mix in garage band & then isolate the section where the song is & delete everything around it

Okay I will try to puzzle out Garage Band - if successful, "Lovers" will be the first thing I serve.

it's kind of tough to figure out

(this is me cutting out a gucci mane verse)

you want to open garageband & drag the song/mix from its folder & into the garage band window

after that you want to double click on the long bar where the song is so you get a window that looks like this

http://i43.tinypic.com/5xri42.png

from here you can then cut out the parts of the track/mix just by clicking anywhere at the bottom & dragging in whichever direction -- if you press play on the button there you can obv figure out where the track is in correspondence to the bar

once you get your highlighted section of the track you just press delete

to convert to mp3 go share -> export song to disc -> select "mp3 converter" from the "compress using" dropdown menu & it should send an mp3 to your desktop (mine shows up as a quicktime file but it can be uploaded to mp3 service/opened in itunes)

Thanks Jordan, here you go. Funkystepz - Lovers:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/gkglfo

"lovers" is sweet!

dj constantly talking over the top = not sweet. this is the other reason i don't listen to the radio, does my head in.

why don't ill blu and funkystepz do non-radio mp3 mixes like, idk, every other dj out there? bah.

I guess they move in different circles - I don't think any big funky producers have done a high-sound-quality productions mix, though obv it's a precondition for all yr more liminal producers. I'd like to see it. I think a big part of the process is bringing them into the right circles, building relationships with the kinds of zines and blogs that usually host those kinds of mixes.

fuck all these free mixes. radio sets are where this musics meant to be heard innit

like listening to an old heartless crew upfront fm rip to putting on crisp biscuit

you music journalists should go and do a bit of hunting imo (im sure lex has even slated other journos for being lazy) - cant have everything spoonfed to you by a fact or RA mix

"vinyl's where this music's meant to be heard!"

damn right lol

its true tho
like listening to an old roll deep set vs in at the deep end
no contest really

i haven't actively listened to any radio station in ~10 years - hate hate hate radio presenters and djs who can't seem to stop talking over the music, if it can annoy me in a 2min snippet then i'm not going to take it for 4hrs

rinse fm is hardly obscure and would no more qualify as "hunting" (smh) than a promo mp3 mix (of which there are dozens upon dozens of providers besides fact and RA)

i'd be very happy for the radio format to die out completely within the next decade tbh

but the medium is totally diff
hearing something on a set with marcus and rankin vs hearing fucking annie mac or mary anne hobbs is not nearly the same thing
this music is made to be heard in the way it is presented by marcus nasty, mak 10 et al
saying you dont like listening to pirate radio is just odd really
how can you like this music and not like pirate radio?

a lot of radio is shit and has gotten much shitter in the last 10 years or so but i would be v sad without radio 4 or even 6 music from time to time really
sometimes its nice to have stuff selected for you

i've enjoyed pirate radio in the past and obv it's tremendously ~important~ but i don't even tune into rinse for djs i already like or even friends any more - why would i, when they all churn out mp3 mixes on the reg?

even on marcus radio sets it's like, you're talking too much, stfu and let the music play

I'm suspicious of the "vinyl" / "this one pair of speakers in bristol" style arguments b/c they imply that the experience of individual pieces of music can fundamentally be determined by the sound-medium, rather than merely enhanced. I can understand the enhancement, but not fundamental transformation (my capacity to adore funky from Australia kinda proves this in reverse).

There's a difference between the above kind of argument and saying that certain styles of music designed to be played in the mix with (often spontaneous) live MCing will also sound better in that context, or that monster tunes like "House Girls Part One" actually comparatively lack something when played without an MC, let alone as a standalone track.

You can say that it's a difference of degree, but it's a pretty big degree IMO.

Moreover performances like Topsy on that Petchy set are works of art in and of themselves.

DJ Maxsin from Funkystepz is a different scenario entirely, primarily (I'm guessing, as this seems to be standard practice) he's talking over the tunes deliberately to prevent my editing exercise resulting in DJs who haven't personally been given "dubplates" from playing new tunes.

This isn't just some obscure cultural practice. "For You" has been floating around in instrumental form for over a year but is only gonna get a proper release this year. "Lovers" will emerge properly in late 2010 at the earliest. In a scene where almost all exchange of music is digital, concern about even medium-fidelity "clean" mp3s getting out in advance is quite high.

even on marcus radio sets it's like, you're talking too much, stfu and let the music play

This kinda mystifies me though.

rankin has made me love so many tunes more than i might otherwise do, ditto marcus' mixing/selection.

unless its lex just doing his gleeful contrarian thing.

nah i just have control issues w/r/t what i listen to, and find the sound of a human voice cutting unexpectedly into music really jarring