funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

Thanks, Tim. Lol at us using the exact same phrase.

i've been jamming only ill blu, thanks to tim

to rtc: cheers, will check when I get home.

What i like about the "Fuller" / "Hurricane Riddim" choice (and this may apply to the new tracks you refer to as well, haven't heard them yet I don't think) is that they combine what is great about Funkystepz and what is necessary for a Hyperdub release without any compromise.

Like, "Hurricane Riddim" is very stern and dramatic and post-grime and "hey look at me i iz very syncopated not house at all" and yet for all that (or even because of all that) it still retains that quintessentially Funkystepz brand of technicolour ridiculousness which is central to at least 80% of their good tunes and is a large part of their appeal for me.

(also both tunes work without MCs as well as with, which sadly wasn't quite the case with "Different Lekstrix" IMO - and that's the most comparable prior "funky anthem makes good on respected label" release I can think of)

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

geeneus what have you done!!!!!

oh i see it's already on rolling pop. wait does this not sound to anyone else a lot worse than the radio rip from time ago? and not just cos it's pitched down.

viz: http://www.zshare.net/audio/76193020824a7b5f/

thx for the line up rtc. the final version of 'lights on' is way worse than the radio rip :x.and to think that it was my most anticipated album in 2010...(after 'katy on a mission', 'louder' and this one, that feeling has just faded)

That Esthero remix is awesome! Surprisingly pretty.

lions den. massive.

loving the 'esthero' rmx, as well.

It's now been posted (in full and high quality) on fact. I'll add the link when I get home.

It is SO FUCKING AWESOME.

http://www.factmag.com/2010/10/29/download-a-new-funkystepz-dubplate-their-remix-of-esthos-bitch/

Also the funkystepz tune from the last marcus set that rtc did the tracklist for is "Rhythm Storm".

gorgeous track. i checked out the original (dunno who "estho" is meant to be) and it's almost kind of a shame they bothered admitting it - literally just the 4 seconds of vocal snatch and murmur and the music is totally new. might've had another hyperdub 12 out of it if they'd called it 'expired applecare' or something...

zzzzzzz btw 'for u' is still out on the 7th, the 'sounds of malibu' ep (ft 'whispers' & 'leave with you' among others) is out on the 22nd, and 'lovers' sometime in 2011 if i heard him right zzzzzzz

Didn't Esthero used to be some sort of trip hop outfit about 10 years ago?

Great news re future releases. No one in the world is better placed than them to do an album right now, they're so spoil for choice in terms of balancing vocal tracks, bangers and curios.

In other news everyone needs to go by the Mike Delinquent Project remix of KCat's "Epileptic":

http://www.junodownload.com/products/epileptic/1638310-02/

Unexpectedly, "Epileptic" appears actually to be about living with epilepsy.

Tune is really good though, should appeal to anyone into Funkystepz' fruitier, bassline-influenced efforts.

leaving aside all issues except aesthetic ... how is that soul jazz tracklisting? i've only dipped my toes in funky and i've never got very deep (loathed the marcus nasty and supa d mix CDs for rinse) but like grime i can enjoy it in small doses (2-3 tracks at a time, very much enjoy when post-dubstep DJs dip into funky) and was wondering whether this would be an appropriate sampler.

If you most enjoy funky when played by post dubstep djs, then, uh, yeah, probably.

r u ready for my lyrical power
lyrical shower

yeah, i like my roska and i like my "rass out" but i'm a bit on the fence about your crazy cousins and lil silvas

on the earlier subject of funkystepz i would imagine they have material for another hyperdub 12" in 'shocker' and 'warrior', both new stormers from their latest sets. (warrior is a 'spells of yoruba' interpolation iirc.)

Okay so "Warrior" is stomping genius. Naughty Raver called and wants his groove back though. "Shocker" a bit more orthodox "hard" funky but still quality.

But what I really want to ID from that Funkystepz set is that "In My System" tune at about 85 minutes. Slamming!

last night's vaunted mc sesh was pretty dry i thought.... like they came in a bit bigheaded and the set never really took off save from whenever topsee touched mic and the last 20 minutes maybe. not sure any of these types of sets have hit the heights of the first one with viper, sharky p etc.

a more specific problem than the new breed needing to show some decorum, show some class however was the generally uninspired mixing, far too submissive in simply facilitating a platform for the mcs. very much bore the point home (that i think tim might have already made sometime during the blackdown "too tracky" fiasco over on the other place) about how it's the intense dancehall-style quick mix deejay skillset that really defines what's best in funky far more so than the individual tracks played in succession.

this is probably gonna be a little overstated by the frustrated meh hangover but i might speculate it could be getting to the stage now where funky's umbilical connection to house is starting to feel the strain, becoming a noose around its neck even. with the boom in new young "proper funky" uk producers since 2008 it's now entirely possible - in someone like smoove kriminal's sets for instance (however much i enjoy them) - to have a kind of an inversion of funky's roots where it's possible to play a set of bona fide all-uk cuts mixed in a sequential standardised house fashion rather than in terms of the ardkore mixing style and outrageous contextual bricolage that once necessarily dictated how regular house tunes could adopt a uk flava. (already i find myself more drawn to the younger dj's who are coming to funky from a more general urban lineage, like dj nate or greyman or whatever, than the housier ones hedging their bets like ma1).

i'm not saying that GARAGE WILL/SHOULD/MUST/ NOW MUTATE INTO 2STEP or anything but i do get a growing feeling sometimes than the footloosian "just house innit" gestation period is perhaps coming to an end, and that either something will happen or nothing will - in the best and worst way respectively.

haha xp'd with tim's humbling positivity goddamnit!

That set's with Supa D on the decks as well isn't it? Not the most exciting of choices really (for all that I prefer him to MA1).

Haven't downloaded the set let alone listened to it, but as a general rule my favourite sets are really rapidfire, lurching, the interplay between softer and harder beats, vocal tunes and instrumentals (the irony being that once they actually become self-consciously "eclectic" I get turned off). I assume this is along the lines of what you're talking about.

In particular (as I tried to discuss throughout the fiasco) the radicalism of the tune-collisions, the creation of mythical beasts out of rhythms dueling with and vibing off one another. Which is something that all prior hardcore genres have done to varying extents but which I think funky has really particularly excelled at, perhaps even made into its own little raison d'être (for good and for ill: remove it and it's like removing a vital organ, for all that the tunes themselves are still present and correct).

What this means for the future I don't know. I tend to think dancehall remains the most constructive "what would jesus do" point of comparison for funky, and what strikes me is that dancehall was at its most vibrant and vibey when you had that combination of tunes drawing sounds from all over the place while using them for emphatically dancehall ends (that is: cranking out riddims unashamedly).

Where producers like Ill Blu and Funkystepz* both "go right" is in being sonically ecumenical while (most of the time) using that pop-genre-scavenger approach to make tunes that in terms of underlying structure and (perhaps more importantly) basic function are none-more-funky. Funky swiping from bassline is, in this regard, a bit like dancehall using bhangra/desi motifs.

What can detract slightly from, say, the Smoove Kriminal dj approach at times (and it's true of a whole host of lesser producers posting their tunes on uk funky) is the preponderance of a certain house-allied organicism, such that the tunes signify an anti-ruffness even when all the funky elements have been accounted for - moreover, they don't signify "melting pot" in the same way.

I much prefer housey signifiers to be deployed as a kind of novelty, in much the same way as you still had "proper" reggae tunes sneaking into dancehall sets even at their most outre. Tunes like "Wind Storm" (where did I get "Rhythm Storm" from??) or that jazzy one you like rtc are good examples of this.

(*devine collective too but more subtly)

not that i disagree at all, but it's probably worth making the minor clarification that i was talking about the more general helter-skelter style of utilitarian dancehall mixing (mak 10ish, if you like) whereas you've built on it further in taking the perspective of the more kaleidoscopic 2003-06 dancehall era, which in addition to its combinatorial possiblities is also representative of funky's elastic boundaries on an internalised track by track basis. (ie was thinking about it in the wake of a mc set so i didnt have the interplay angle toppermost in my mind.)

also that 'in my system' tune is the funkystepz mix of the same-titled tinchy stryder & jodie connor song, you've probably since gathered. remains unreleased afaik.

quite like the sound of the crafty little "drop the bomb baby" track briefly at 28mins on their 29th october set (the one coming after 'bad girl'.)

updated repost of the three marcus show tracklists i've done, couple of recent discoveries in there for the nerds

8th September

20th October

27th October

DJ Naughty - 1Xtra Guest Mix 2-11-2010

DJ Naughty - Untitled
DJ Naughty - Untitled
DJ Naughty - Don't Refuse it
LR Groove - Childs Play
Bait Trouble - Body Language (DJ Naughty Remix)
Mischief Makers - Play My Game (DJ Naughty Remix)
DJ Naughty - 5th Gear
Crazy Cousinz - Bongo Jam (DJ Naughty Remix)
Tim Deluxe - It Just Won't Do (DJ Naughty Remix)
DJ Naughty - Get Down (feat. Song Bird)
DJ Naughty - Rat Race

thanks rtc!

not that i disagree at all, but it's probably worth making the minor clarification that i was talking about the more general helter-skelter style of utilitarian dancehall mixing (mak 10ish, if you like) whereas you've built on it further in taking the perspective of the more kaleidoscopic 2003-06 dancehall era, which in addition to its combinatorial possiblities is also representative of funky's elastic boundaries on an internalised track by track basis. (ie was thinking about it in the wake of a mc set so i didnt have the interplay angle toppermost in my mind.)

Yeah I recognised that these are separate points - I guess sometimes I feel like, and this is surprising to me actually, that there's very few ways in which (esp. that era of) dancehall is not a good influence on or model for funky. Not in the literal sense of Heatwave stuff - though that's fine too - but on a more submerged logic-of-the-music level.

Like, when Blackdown was complaining on dissensus that the emphasis on mixability in funky comes at the expense of full-fledged productions, I just think back to 2003 dancehall which was one of the most sonically rich purple patches I can think of, one that got me as invested in productions-as-productions as anything has, and yet was even more functional and short-attention-spannish.

And more generally I just think dancehall gets all the relevant balances in the same way: discrete "songs" submerging into a party flow, that tension between the producer, singer, MC/deejay and DJ.

OMG!!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004BCJS7O/ref=dm_sp_alb

O____O

lol how do you even make a cover that low-budget in this day and age. these guys are actually a bunch of hardcore squat-living art school situationists i swear.

haha AND they've mixed up the house girl numbers again! love it.

not that i'm ungrateful (and finely calculated aesthetic aside) but it wouldve been so so awesome if that was just all the house girls like a proper riddim album. goes without saying that the material was there for a takin-you-on-a-journey type album too - 'eyes on you', 'people keep dancing', 'touch her in the morning', 'dirty funk', 'thriller', all the murdz/smokeoffski soundscapes... sample clearance though i suppose. but it could have been stellar.

in other release news, acc to the most recent ill blu show the hoover madness tune is called 'monster' and it will be coming out with 'dirty monkey' sometime early next year (after the 'meltdown' ep on numbers).

must stress if you havent heard 'monster' from the set i orig pointed it out on you havent heard its wild shamanic breakdown wot fried my tiny mind and very nearly caused me to shack out on public transport. (they've mixed out before it every time since). might give it a radio rip in a bit.

Which set was that on again? I'm terrified of hitting "show all messages" on this thread now.

goes without saying that the material was there for a takin-you-on-a-journey type album too - 'eyes on you', 'people keep dancing', 'touch her in the morning', 'dirty funk', 'thriller', all the murdz/smokeoffski soundscapes... sample clearance though i suppose. but it could have been stellar.

TBH I don't think they've got any kind of strategy even remotely worked out. Mad One just released a tune on iTunes called "Rewrote The Chapter" which is like "People Keep Dancing" with worse vocals.

But yeah an album with those songs would be great.

12th october - 58:25 is the precise moment i'm on about, when the sirens go off. haha think i've bigged it up a bit too much now.

which set was it you were asking for an id for a vocal? i skimmed but it wasn't immediately apparent which you meant.

The tune on that set from about 14.40 (after "Can't Say No").

Yeah "Monster" is ridic. massive, that breakdown. Mixing straight into "Meltdown" from that is kinda evil.

brasstooth 'pleasure' (paleface mix)?

funky alzheimer's is the worst, dunno where i'd be if i didnt note every single thing down now.

we should probably start a new thread shouldnt we. fond of the old girl though...

brasstooth 'pleasure' (paleface mix)?

Oh yes, I'm pretty sure it is this. Case in point: I knew this!

Okay so the House Girls album (plus the Never Coming Out EP) are now available on iTunes under "Mad One". Get on it people.

Notwithstanding the impurity of not being a House Girls version, I'm so pleased "Gotta Have It" was on there - always felt that tune needed more time in the sun.

Should I start a lex/matt dc style thread in re the single of the fucking year finally getting a release, for hype purposes, or would that be disingenous.

disingenous disingenuous

Well this is weird. Is it out anywhere other than iTunes currently? I see it's still listed as having a 12/3/10 release date on Amazon for some reason.

Totally in favour of individual song hype threads. Doesn't seem to have worked for The Fives, though :(

Yeah I know. I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall sometimes. It's like lots of people who should otherwise be into so much of this stuff have this kind of fortress of indifference set up, a fortress with about ten walls each with a different excuse, and when you overturn one excuse they just retreat to the next wall back.
</melodrama>

the album is wonderful though! i'd only heard a snippet of house girls 6 beforehand, which sounds kind of hissy and horrible when you're only listening to its busiest 45 seconds cropped out of a mix - but it's probably the trackiest version, and the album as a whole is really pretty warm. like how spooky and subdued and yet totally fun #8 is - the zombie chants and uncanny synths are about as weird as it gets, but it would still fit right in on a halloween playlist. #5 might be my favorite so far tho, i love how odd the siren sounds only played once - like instead of being a 'shit gets real' part in the song, the entire song takes on that initial moment of unresolved tension, with all the parts echoing the siren (like that chattery synth at about 2:05) - so good. 'gotta have it' is killer too - instead of ruining the track, the mass of too many rhythms coming together somehow makes the perfect counterpoint to the staccato piano - where else do you get this style in funky? (srs question) also, i assume there's no secret house girls 2, and the track numbering is just misleading?

AFAIK "House Girls 2" is just a special dub of the original, with things like double organ chords rather than single organ chords. Having them both on an album would be overkill somewhat.

'gotta have it' is killer too - instead of ruining the track, the mass of too many rhythms coming together somehow makes the perfect counterpoint to the staccato piano - where else do you get this style in funky? (srs question)

I dunno, it's kind of unique in that way. Most tunes with a staccato piano line like that would have a very simple beat - as indeed "Gotta Have It" does for roughly one third of the time. The messy drum kit bits are pretty much a deliberate (but effective) switch up gimmick in that context.

Am feeling the "House Girls - The Album" love too, shame we have to wait until Christmas!

fao matt dc: hey so remember a few months back when i was blithely suggesting the awesome funky nostalgijam potential of football italia, did you also think to yourself then WHY YES but strictly only in the form of a bad 'rated r' rihanna rubstep knockoff?

well guess what!

http://soundcloud.com/screama-complexsimplicity/screama-ft-farah-goalazio-clip

http://www.junodownload.com/products/dark-underground-ep/1660317-02/

and now i mention it, the pathetic sense of achievement i get from filling in three unknown intersticial marcus instrumentals in one go is uncomfortably reminiscent of doing a panini sticker album again.