funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

abacus is also good too though ironically like lonely, even tho he says hes not into kismet and circle (like me) i can totally see them playing these. too

There is nothing more vibesy in music right now than Last Supper (Petchy/Topsy/Shantie/Dream) radio sets. Titchy it makes me want to agree with you that people who don't recognise the superiority and centrality of radio sets in uk funky have totally screwy taste.

Link to the Petchy/Topsy/Shantie 17 April set stolen from Dissensus:

http://www.mediafire.com/?tdekkztwwel

Sorry Tim, but Ghetts moonwalk ting was POO !

So if the champion pre mix (currently on the deelo) isnt HOT, then imma seriously question your sanity :)

tim if you get a chance check out the guy whos on live fm on saturday nights from around 1am. i caught some of it this weekend and it was pretty excellent. no mcs, but i like that. petchy sets can sometimes be too overstuffed with mcs. will check out that latest set tho.

"There is nothing more vibesy in music right now than Last Supper (Petchy/Topsy/Shantie/Dream) radio sets."

It's definitely got the raw pirate vibe but Shantie is so much better an MC than Topsy, who's basically the funky equivalent of Dog-Z from OT shouting over a house beat. It's quite surreal at times and typical of pirate radio that it can slip from sublime to ridiculous within a hair's musical breadth.

No Topsy is brilliant! Love him to bits.

OK praps i was a little harsh, as he's enthusiasm over skill but he is definitely closer to Dog-z than Shantie.

it's funny how the show's such a mix of different traditions: at the intro it's pure UKG in spirit - chatting about girls and raves - with Topsy DJing fairly straight house tracks. Then Shantie comes along and gives it some UKG host flavour, all very smooth, over some rougher, uk funky beats. Then by the middle Topsy's totally overhyped and is spitting bars for reloads and it's utterly grime in spirit - kinda exactly what one sector of funky/dubbage/LDN house doesnt want to be.

I think what I like is how inclusive it is. A lot of those tracks really are very straight house, and it's odd to think of Dream/Topsy/Shantie as a self-reinforcing "team" (all shouting the punchlines to eachothers' bars in the background - this is my favourite thing actually) when Dream/Topsy have such a grime/post-grime feel and Shantie is straight UKG host.

Unlike when So Solid became big there's no sense of there being a line drawn in the sand - Topsy doesn't come along at the expense of Shantie.

At the same time, it's not self-consciously "eclectic" like the Heartless Crew. There's still a single aesthetic at work (just an elastic one).

to my surprise i agree with martin clark. topsys just loud lairy and unshutupabble on these sets. just like dog-z. who i like, but on funky, it just seems wrong. you want a bit more panache. like rankin or shantie. or even jme. someone needs to shut the mic off on topsy from time to time. i know admitting this would jar with your 'everything about funky is immense' worldview tim, lol, but i find it hard to listen to petchy sets cos of topsy.

But everything about funky is immense!

Topsy kinda swings between being inspired (in a non-panache, idiot savant kinda way) and annoying for me. I don't want him to chant "Jerry Rankin! Jerry Rankin!" over and over again, but I love his stuttering rhymes. "You gonna need the b-b-boys in blue!"

Probably my favourite Last Supper member is actually Dream, who always seemed like he was on the soft end of grime and now feels perfectly poised on the just-a-bit-hard end of funky. Love that rhyme which is like "She said 'Dream you're an idiot/nobody will buy that t-shirt'/I said 'check the Facebook/DO YOUR RESEARCH!"

"to my surprise i agree with martin clark."

ohthehorror!

:D

i like both topsy and majestic in small doses (ie if they spread the verses a bit less liberally over sets) but topsy is just an irritating guy (maybe more irritating than majestic - sorry tim). im gonna listen to the new petchy set just to make sure i still feel this way. but the reason im hesitant is he totally fucking BURIES the tracks in his avalanche of verbiage. i like to hear the tracks breathe a bit. the mc with t man on sat nights is also good but i forget his name.

geeneus & katy b's "good life" cover and the roska remix of "quicktime" have been set free - http://twitter.com/RinseFM/status/12573185750

really feeling these trax - some have been floating around for longer than others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ2twPVjj9Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SPMRtMqmgI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKBamM9kxyc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUvMCDLq8FI

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

girl unit one is pretty big

Girl Unit is not my kinda thing but "Play Di Ting" is a huge tune. Lex you'd probably also really like Footsteps' "Rewind", which has a similar vibe only on an R&B rather than dancehall tip.

ikonika played "play di ting" at girl unit's single launch party tonight! it went offff

girl unit meanwhile closed with ciara's "speechless" <3 <3 <3

i cant stop listening to Champion's mix of Craig David from Chosen Ones, did this one get much attention?

Hearing Ikonika play Jam City Ecstasy remix @ Night Slugs last night was great.

Illmana's "Kiss You" downloadable here. AWESOME TUNE:

http://soundcloud.com/illmana/illmana-ft-tamzin-kiss-you

i really wish his "ready fi de war" with stush was available properly somewhere!!

Devine Collective's "Touch Her In The Morning" possibly the biggest banger of all the bangers they've done in 2010 so far (though hard to choose when they've all been so great).

This is the one with the string riffs and the minor key synth work (like Mario's "Mario Play The Bloodclaart Bass") and the R&B vocals "I touch her in the morning... NO LIES! NO LIES!"

Meanwhile the Roska album is actually really good!

Concentrated with relatively harder tracks that I think go a decent way towards recapturing the energy and dynamism (and sheer syncopation) of his early work ("Tomorrow Is Today", "Squark", "Timestamp"), while the vocal tracks (the two Jamie George tracks we already know, "Energy" and "I Need Love") are all just really well done, softer and sleeker without sacrificing his distinctiveness as a producer. And the album feels varied (repetitiveness being the ever-present danger of having such a worked-out production approach) without needlessly venturing off into "proper" techno / dubstep / grime / house / etc. Ironically the result ends up standing up much better next to, say, Carl Craig's Landcruising than an outright attempt to ape that feel would have been able to.

It's telling that Marcus Nasty has played heaps of tracks off the album - whereas I've never heard him play, like, "The Shepherd" or the Untold remix. "I Need Love" is practically an anthem at this stage.

haha i thought the roska album was really bloody boring - didn't help that it was released in the same week as the ~genius 4eva~ ikonika album i guess.

I wouldn't say I feel the opposite - I don't think the Ikonika album is "really bloody boring" and I do like tracks like "They Are All Losing The War", "Video Delays", "Look" and "Red Marker Pens". If I was patient with it I'd probably end up finding the whole album rewarding. But I guess as a general rule that style does very little to hook me and I have to restrain myself from switching over to something else very quickly. Whereas I thought I was definitely going to feel the same with the Roska album and I'm surprised that I don't.

Actually the one track on the Roska album that makes me impatient is "Messages" which is the most erm "funkstep" moment there.

That said I'd be interested to know if you were surprised at being bored by the Roska album, Lex. Do you particularly like much of his prior work other than "Our Father" (not some kind of trick question - I just know you really like that one)?

I'd find it odd for someone who likes his work generally not to be pleased with this album as I think it totally plays to his strengths, unless they'd actually wanted him to go for some kind of traditionalist detroit techno or funkstep vibe, or maybe they'd wanted the bangers to be more straightahead and less syncopated (so more in the "Our Father" / "Gone To A Better Place" / "In Your Handbag" vein) - maybe you would have liked the latter more?

I think maybe the "problem" with Roska's syncopation (when he works in this mode) is that it makes the tracks so tense rhythmically that they can't actually generate the same kind of free-sprint energy that a more straightforward rhythmic matrix allows, except in the mix where that energy is generated by the huge friction with the surrounding tracks. Even say "Climate Change" (still my sentimental favourite Roska tune) sounds a lot less dynamic as a standalone track than when it's used well in the mix. I guess this is a truism though.

Meanwhile Funkystepz have provided a download like for their Rihanna "Rude Boy" remix, which I've gone from thinking is a middling effort for them to totally loving. The way the beat breaks down so gratuitously during the "what you want want want" section is marvelous and very typical of their um generosity as producers.

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

Also Heatwave have linked up "Play Di Ting":

http://www.mediafire.com/?tnloidqdmmy

the roska album just didn't leave much of an impression - there wasn't as much character as i was expecting, even on the vocal tracks (i already disliked "wonderful day"). it's never a good sign when you're thinking "hmm is this album over yet?" on your first run-through. i don't know what i was expecting, i didn't know he's released an album til it was out, but i was def hoping for more in the "our father" vein, which is an all-timer for me.

i actually find the funkystepz "rude boy" a bit too bassliney - prefer the loose cannons remix with lady chann.

i also found roska album pretty boring. i feel like i've heard a lot of the tracks in mixes where i enjoyed them much more. in the mix context they feel much more energetic whereas in the album context they just feel a bit flat. also not a wise choice of album opener lol

I think maybe the "problem" with Roska's syncopation (when he works in this mode) is that it makes the tracks so tense rhythmically that they can't actually generate the same kind of free-sprint energy that a more straightforward rhythmic matrix allows, except in the mix where that energy is generated by the huge friction with the surrounding tracks.

100% otm

probably this isn't the place to talk about it but i'm also finding it hard to get into the ikonika album. i think the set of noises she uses is just quite...silly. for some reason i keep imagining how ridiculous it will sound when looking back on it in 20 years time. it's not like i don't like things with computer game bleeps and bloops as a rule..some amazing grime songs use these sounds but they always that 'hardness'.

that ikonika album is a bit shit. well shit is a bit strong but its so overrated now its untrue. she had good singles before, particularly please, but the album is just too much of that. and the chiptuney sounds wear thin quite quickly, just cos its hard to really take it too seriously after a while. it just sounds a bit silly cos shes aiming so hard for 'depth' and 'soul' and 'meaning'. plus its way too overloaded. people seem to think its 'complex' but its not really, its just unnecessarily overstuffed, as if piling as much of every possible idea you had for a track one after another is a good thing. it sounds nice and smart and all that, but as a whole it just doesnt add up. and the funky tracks - to bring it back on topic - are actually some of the weakest i thought. maybe its cos funky is still so new and developing, that it sounds a bit weird to hear her trying to essay it - like that one track that rips off lil silva, id rather hear lil silva tbh.

still not heard the roska album but hes really the last person i thought would do an album, or do one i would want to hear really. but i love his aesthetic.

also i hate that wonderful day track roska produced. good production (would rather it was instrumental) but such a pathetic vocal.

I'm not into the "Wonderful Day" vocal but hearing it in mixes so many times kinda wore away at my initial irritation. And I think "Love 2 Nite" is great.

whats the altered natives mix of that ikonika track like? ive a feeling i might like that more.

Lex my sense is that the big difference between us in this particular area (given we usually agree so much) is that I'm more of a rhythm nerd and you're more of a sonix nerd. The big stumbling block with Ikonika for me is that her rhythms mostly sound very enfeebled to me and the dinky computer game melodies just an elaborate distraction ("pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!")... Whereas I'm guessing part of what bores you about the Roska album is that once you take away the intensely detailed grooves the arrangements are very thin.

It's not coincidental, I think, that "Our Father" is both rhythmically simple and sonically "thick" by Roska's standards.

When did Major Note$ release an album? It popped up on Spotify the other day when I was looking for Friend of Mine and it sounds pretty good, lots of different vocalists, Basement Jaxx album voibe.

The Ikonika album is great, its the one video-game inspired album that actually makes you feel like you're inside a video game. But I'm not sure why it's being talked about here.

disagree that ikonika's rhythms are remotely "enfeebled" or whatever, i love how she messes with tempo and rhythm. and wtf is this lil silva rip-off that apparently is only on titchy's copy? she sounds nothing like him.

this track is great though -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW78HjQdvPM

It's not so much that Ikonika's rhythms are specifically enfeebled, it's just that whole stuttery draggy post-dubstep rhythm matrix used on most of the tracks (e.g. the first five) that I find very difficult to really get with in general regardless of the producer. But it's not worth having an argument over as I've never liked it except in isolated exceptions so I'm hardly going to change now.

Matt the internet is turning up no details of a Major Note$ album :-(

http://us.7digital.com/artists/major-notes/album

It exists! With packaging reminiscent of a CD of sea shanty cover versions available from your local petrol station.

er lex, psoriasis sounds like lil silvas different (i think its that one, though it could be bits of any of his tunes). quite obviously too. perhaps you missed that track?

not exactly difficult to spot -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lPIOf-z0TA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3PhBWkFWTM

Matt that Major Notes album looks like a comp of most of his older work (but no "Scream Out" or "Holy Ghost" WTF?), though I hadn't heard the opener "Tropicalia" and that's possibly new (and also sounds great!) - "Jungle Book" and "Friend of Mine" are classics also.

He's a bit inconsistent though - given how jaw-dropping productions like "Holy Ghost" or V-Boiz's "She Got That" or (ESPECIALLY) his remix of J-Wess' "Deja Vu" are it's odd that he then does relatively anonymous stuff like "Meet Me On The Dancefloor". I think when he wants to be he's maybe technically the best producer in the scene but you wouldn't know it from half his tracks.

OMG Princess Nyah Remix of "Pon De Floor"!!!

it's hard to say whos the more over rated on hyperdub...kode 9 himself, zomby, ikonika, cooly G or burial

i'm pickin zomby but this is neither the time or place to elaborate, sorry....as you were

i'm still not sold on this funky bidness eh ?...but i do appreciate your efforts to convert us Tim.

carry on with the good work.

Lex I forgot to say that that Redlight track is amazing. The video clip is like THE archetypal UK funky video clip too.

it fits in v well with zinc & ms dynamite's "wile out" i think - slightly tuffer than most funky