funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

I've heard it used more often in Diplo-esque ways that throw in cumbia and kuduro and who knows what else. And come on, Hyperdub "making a break with dubstep" is totally protesting too much.

TBH I think anything about "bass" - "UK Bass", "Global Bass" - puts me off for a couple of reasons:

1) The over-emphasis on bass: there was a period of maybe a handful of years in the mid-to-late 90s when people under-estimated the importance of bass in jungle - hence all those oddly tinny sounding stabs at the genre from outsiders and advertisers. Since then there's been a massive over-compensation in the other direction, but by making bass so utterly central the result is actually a restriction in what can be done with bass - it's all either blaring or mollases thick (either of which approaches, don't get me wrong, can be amazing when done well). You wouldn't get the kind of sweet/tearjerker basslines that, say, K Warren used to make falling under this rubric. Instead, the emphasis on "bass" shows up in a kind of leaden stodginess in so much of the music from "Katy On A Mission" through to the less inspired Bok Bok tunes. One of the things I really like about UK Funky is how liberated from the pressure to "meditate on the bass weight" it feels - bass is freed up to play a variety of roles from major to minor to character actor, rather than smother everything in glowering oppressiveness.

2) I don't like terms which foreground their all-embracingness. If a genre name has to involve a concept, it should be one which tries to capture a reasonably specific vibe - this is why I've always liked "balearic" incidentally, its very elusiveness and seeming specificity making the user strive to define it ever more carefully and exhaustively. Whereas "global bass" is all about an alleged diversity tied together by a homogeneity which is usually the least interesting thing about it (refer to (1) above).

"UK funky" is a pretty poor name for a genre too, but like "UK garage" it ultimately doesn't mean a lot, it's a historical hangover.

yuppie, yupstep, yuppage, ydm...

'Dubbage' is a worse term than any of these fwiw.

It makes me think of fibre.

well that's why everyone involved has shied away from giving it a name, right?

also this

You wouldn't get the kind of sweet/tearjerker basslines that, say, K Warren used to make falling under this rubric. Instead, the emphasis on "bass" shows up in a kind of leaden stodginess in so much of the music from "Katy On A Mission" through to the less inspired Bok Bok tunes

is the worst kind of "judging a whole swathe of music by the bits i don't like" - this isn't really a typical characteristic of it, and i'm not even sure "katy on a mission" would fall into that genre anyway.

xp

Lex I've heard probably 80% of this stuff and you can't deny that the bass is by and large done in this style!

jam city and deep teknologi and mosca and kingdom and nguzunguzu all make bass like benga? uhhh

can someone with a twitter acc do me a favour and get onto mike delinquent and ask him to 1/ stop fucking moaning!!!!!!! and 2/ if he's gonna release 'say yes' cos it's the best thing he's ever done and life is passing it by

actually the other guy who was in delinquent came on here to rep his soulful direction didnt he! if ur still reading do the right thing bro man

while i'm at it - weird how that geeneus/katy b/ms dynamite tune never appeared again after that one time eh

like that's the shit that shouldve been yer magnetic man imo

is that "say yes" anything to do with the ill blu/shanique cover of floetry?

no, completely diff. tim & i talked about it way upthread - i will post up a zshare

It's much better.

here u go

http://www.zshare.net/audio/790305179c04758a/

if only we wrote press releases/factmag blogs/yupstep tweets eh

that divine spacepirouette just at the end of chorus is sooooo lenky.

oh it's that one! i've heard it on some illmana mix. the singer is kyra (not to be confused with kyla), who also did that amazing vocal of lil silva's "different". yes it's terrific, it'll just take some time to supplant the earworminess of ill blu's "say yes".

so, now that there actually are a fair number of funky tracks available for purchase in some way or another, anyone have recommendations? especially since funky seems to be pretty poor at marketing itself (e.g. major notes' album = google black hole). the last thing i bought from ukfunky.com was emvee's 'great high' ep, and while i appreciate their track samples, the "[producer] with the UK Funky track [track]" formula is pretty tired - but there is lots of great looking stuff!

From ukfunky.com be sure to get:

Royal P - Between Us
Ill Blu - Time To Get Nasty
Swift Jay - Toppa 5
Undisputed - Sunglasses
Delerious - Truthful
Shystie - Pull It Wheel It (Ill Blu Remix)
Magic Touch Productions - Take Over
Seany B - Stompa
Highly Rated Ent. - Back (Funky Boy Remix)
Lil' Silva - Different
Funky Underground - Dub Boy
Big Kidd Productions - Boomting (Dub)
Moony - Donnie
Kris Baya - Heartbreaker (Ill Blu Remix)
Drew Austin - Swingers
N10-Tainment - I Pray
Naughty Raver - Tease Me (After Dark Remix)
Major Notes - Friend of Mine
Smoove Kriminal - Thumpin' (actually pretty much all the Smoove Kriminal tracks up there sound great, he seems to upload only his swirly dreamy material)

can someone with a twitter acc do me a favour and get onto mike delinquent and ask him to 1/ stop fucking moaning!!!!!!! and 2/ if he's gonna release 'say yes' cos it's the best thing he's ever done and life is passing it by

― r|t|c, Thursday, August 5, 2010 7:07 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

would read rtc twitter

um, who was behind the spizzazzz twitter then?

domino effect - crazy cousins rmx (((d-_-b)))

i like much of what i've heard from this genre, but i don't know enough about it. this compilation -- on the "insatiable music" label -- supposedly is a collection of funky, grime and bassline songs.

http://mp3passion.net/uploads/posts/1252572496_supa_dupa.jpg

is it legitimate (not knockoff or unsanctioned, low-quality copies) and, if so, is it good? (big investment by emusic standards (69 credits)).

it's legit and there are some amazing tracks on it - haven't got the whole thing but have topped up my own collection with many mp3s from it over time (and lately itunes and 7digital have started selling a lot of them as stand-alone, unmixed tracks)

im digging these dj reflex mixes. hella cheesy fun

'louder' by katy b is standard 4/4 beats meets r'n'b tactics. vocals on the forefront (not surprising if it's something from the upcoming album, tho). is it produced by geeneus or zinc?

...first post, btw

been listening to the old jungle as u know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0KuaXB84K0

just gonna put this here and say nuffin.

and neither should you i might add.

so this petchy (peeeetchyyyy, peeeetchyyyy) set man put up on the dissensh is cracking good fun - was decidely unsure about the crispy guy after he committed the unspoken cardinal sin of rhyming funky with chunky monkey but "some gal said i look like krishnan guru / murthy, that's why the gally wanna murk me" won me over in the end.

nerd-wise the very first track on the set with the topsee vocal is LIVE.

looks like we're gonna have to go back to taping marcus every week the way success has gone to the rinse podcast ppl's heads btw.

rusty (hello, hi) - acc to lex 'louder' is a zinc number; it came up here rolling uk urban pop thread originally but the thread remits aren't set in stone obv.

deej - tnx boo i guess but then i'd only be tweeting for you guys' benefit anyway so...

lex - not me! but at a crazy guess i should imagine the other spz ppl would be behind it? good to see them back btw.

that jungle track feels like a coincidence imo altho not on the level of crediting jungle for timbaland

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VvHi7AwQIg

^^^ Heard this refix of "We No Speak Americano" sans Maxwell D in the latest Marcus Nasty set (11 August), which is slamming. I'm hoping the presence of Shantie again signals this will be a semi regular thing. Also love love love the remix of Undisputed's "Terror" that appears shortly afterwards.

Don't say I give nothing back!

Maxwell D - Funky Soprano (We No Speak Americano Refix):

http://www.sendspace.com/file/l7tgl9

downloading, though i think i hate the og "we no speak americano" :/

wasnt too into that, the interminable maxwell d chat version at least. now i hear it again the steelpan later on is nice but i dunno.

bugger, so it was just the old rinse rss feed that was tardy then!! guess that's my afternoon sorted...

and yeah deej no of course i wasn't saying that's anything more than coincidental! but it is quite fun on a "if you can't join nuum, beat nuum (with its own stick)" tip i think, especially what with that being like 1991 proto-jungle if i understand things correctly.

Listen to the marcus set, I reckon the Americano refix sounds better as an instrumental for other MCs than with Maxwell. It's one of the most hyper moments in the 11 August set.

nerd-wise the very first track on the set with the topsee vocal is LIVE.

can i just quadruple underline this btw - also on closer listening it interpolates wamdue's 'king of my castle'! must find this tune! (will zshare later if need be.)

actually now's as good a time - put ya money where ya mouf is, king of the castle, not the type that bounces

yeah fair dos, the americano does indeed sound a 100x hotter in the set. i've still got an inordinate fondness for that shimmering placid jazzy riddim that kicks off the vocal section though, such an awesome vehicle for mcs (even the rubbish ramzee guy).

really really like the new screama vocal that kicks the set off ("i used to be a tomboy - i had to switch!") and, most of all, the (new?) vocal version of funkystepz 'trinity hill' at 25 minutes which i will assume features lily mackenzie and is called 'set me free' - anyone pining for the stately elegance of wookie/ny's 'falling again' should check it out.

listened to a funkystepz set as well - the 'hype hype' refix seems to have been a marker for their sound settling down to a general sticky-ish carnivalesque i think. they've also done a refix of the equinoxx's new jim screechie riddim, which erm... i am noting down... for the benefit of... the internet... i guess. but it's very them, as modern riddims go, and i like how quick they were to grab it.

haha, youtube comments that are otm:

ShakesSTACCkaKes 1 day ago
dis shyt odd

yeah fair dos, the americano does indeed sound a 100x hotter in the set. i've still got an inordinate fondness for that shimmering placid jazzy riddim that kicks off the vocal section though, such an awesome vehicle for mcs (even the rubbish ramzee guy).

The one that sounds like a kind of arty instrumental version of the Perempay "Be Your Girl" remix you mean?

It's weird, ramzee has one or two good rhymes which he deploys, and I like it when he sings near the end, but the rest of the time it sounds like he's really not trying.

His voice would work well for an MC except that there are 5847 bassline MCs with exactly the same voice.

really really like the new screama vocal that kicks the set off ("i used to be a tomboy - i had to switch!") and, most of all, the (new?) vocal version of funkystepz 'trinity hill' at 25 minutes which i will assume features lily mackenzie and is called 'set me free' - anyone pining for the stately elegance of wookie/ny's 'falling again' should check it out.

^^^ Endorse all of this. I always loved "Trinity Hill" but as an instrumental it's the kind of tune that doesn't leap out at you unless you've fully absorbed funky's operating principles IMO, nice to see it get a second life as a vocal tune.

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/1612002-02.htm

been bopping along compulsively to this the last few days - lr really is in the highest echelon of funky producers, just terrifically adroit.

also been reading reynolds' fucking brilliant and still ultra-relevant footnotes to feminine pressure, which i don't think i'd ever seen before - or at least i hope not, cos i feel like i've been more or less been repeating the main thrust of it most of it for ages haha (#12!!!) (16, 17, 18, 19 also crucial). kind of bewildering to think how out of hand nuum acolytes n' arguments have been in the past while this has always existed; kind of sad how much of a silly old goat simey is now in comparison.

about to stick the new marcus on now if anyone fancies it.

btw ill blu randomly uploaded a bunch of their remixes on twitter - http://www.sendspace.com/file/oea8a0 - all of which i'd actually spent time ~hunting down~, sigh, though i'd never heard the hot chip one (surprisingly good) or their own "roll with me" track.

Yes been meaning to buy the LR Groove EP...

Meanwhile Feminine Pressure (and in partic the footnotes) is one of my absolute favourite pieces of music crit ever, I basically maintain allegiance to the underlying notion of the continuum by relying on its definition here and ignoring all subsequent attempts at redefinition, esp. post-grime (which weirdly ruined nuum-crit by turning it into its opposite).

I read that at the same time I was actually discovering garage (via The Dreem Teem In Session II, "Sweet Like Chocolate", Locked On's CD singles, "My Desire" - this was the sum total of what I was able to find in circa June 1999 in Australia sadly) and it pretty much sent my entire thinking about music in a new direction.

Been listening to a DJ Ramsey (of Ramsey & Fen) and MC Kie Magic FM set from Feb 1999 and thinking about how different my experience of 2-step would have been if the whole internet infrastructure had been as developed then as it is now.

http://www.factmag.com/2010/08/27/the-ever-brilliant-kyla-covers-aaliyahs-at-your-best-download-inside/

not sure if the ppl at fact know this wasnt an aaliyah original but anyway, its lovely by default, though ultimately about as necessary as the sa-ra cover of just like a baby. never heard kyla in this sort of context.

THIS FUCKING TUNE.

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

Vocal tune of the year??

Also love the grainy late 80s feel of the video clip.