funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

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.

screama apparently also does a terrific line in nu-basementjaxxia now btw:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/82780777457cac32/

love this guy so much

found this solid lil set accelerator from murdz up for download: http://soundcloud.com/murdz86/murdz-86-you-will-get-air-pie

has anybody ever locked into dj spookys weekly funky sets on icecold fm? i'm fascinated by his approach to tunes. obviously he's the most visible proponant of tough, rigid almost industrial grime so his treatment of slicker, more elastic rhythms draws their sense of propulsion into a sprawling construction of sorts.

love that link. screama really is a fantastic producer. i think something that makes the midlands so fertile for universal bangers (trc is the master of this) is the lack of concrete stylistic provincialism found in london. i mean, rival still wouldn't care about funky house were he from birmingham, but i dare say you'd see him on a set somewhere.

Funkystepz's Deep Roller EP Out 20 December Featuring "Cut Above", "Mr Bandicoot", "Kingtowns VIP", "Windstorm".

Face Off EP out next year.

I know "Mr Bandicoot" and "Windstorm" and they are both bangers and a half.

Not to mention that Sounds of Malibu is out now!!:

http://www.junodownload.com/products/sounds-of-malibu/1663971-02/

http://www.gifs.net/Animation11/Jobs_and_People/Police/Siren.gif

DOWNLOAD: http://clubsignal.com/mix10.php

ITUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/radio-signal/id404540584

01. SIGNAL XMAS EVE SPECIAL 24TH December 2010 Advert
02. The Fives ft. Vanya Taylor – It's What You Do
03. FunkyStepz ft. Lily McKenzie – For U (Original Mix)
04. Lil Silva – No Hooks
05. J Labelz ft. Naughty Natz – Touch Me
06. Diamond ft. Sophia Romain – If I Never... Fall In Love Again...
07. Katy B – Katy On A Mission (Roska Remix)
08. Perempay 'N' Dee ft. Cleo Sol – Addicted (Main Mix)
09. Bassboy & Marcus Nasty – Shitta
10. Donae'O – I'm Fly (Radio Edit)
11. Funky Twinz ft. Angel J – Smile
12. El-B ft. Natasha – I Feel
13. Champion – Tribal Affair
14. Kano ft. Aidonia & Wiley – Get Wild
15. Mr. M – Dash Down
16. SIGNAL XMAS EVE SPECIAL 24TH December 2010 Advert
17. Riskgo – They Call Me (Sunglasses Freestyle)
18. Undisputed – Sunglasses (Dumplin Remix)
19. Mr. Silva & C-Don – 10 Outta 10
20. Champion – Motherboard (Undisputed Remix)
21. Funky Twinz – Energizer
22. DJ Sava ft. Raluka – I Like (The Trumpet) (Ill Blu Remix)
23. Princess Nyah – Take Control
24. Tenny Ten – Swaggnificent (Crazy Cousinz Club Mix)
25. KOF ft. Esco Williams – All Good (FunkyStepz Mix)
26. James Bellamy – My Love (Say U Want It) (FunkyStepz Remix)
27. Jessie J ft. Lady Chann – Do It Like A Dude (Curtis Lynch Jnr Remix)
28. Andriah – Love Me Not (Digital Dubstar Mix)
29. Crazy Cousinz ft. Tasha Kenny – What You Did
30. SiSi ft. Riskgo – Love Me
31. Hard House Banton – Colonel
32. Screama ft. Justice & Sy – Tomboy
33. Andy Jay & S-Tee ft. Tasha – Take Me Up
34. FunkyStepz – You Got It (Original Mix)
35. Fuzzy Logik ft. Jada Pearl – All My Love
36. GTE ft. Kelsey – Something On Your Mind
37. Miss Fire – Do You Feel The Same (2010 Mix)

Some awesome new dubs on the 24 November Marcus set. What on earth is that tune that Shantie smashes right after Mercurial Myrmidon's "Hey Bongo".

Also, this sounds 100 x better as silly hip-house than it did as an instrumental (and it sounded pretty great to begin with):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-bZYpehG60&feature=player_embedded#at=218

Some awesome new dubs on the 24 November Marcus set. What on earth is that tune that Shantie smashes right after Mercurial Myrmidon's "Hey Bongo".

Also the mix of Veve/Eastwood's "Right There" into Funkystepz's "Fuller" was a mix that had to happen. That's some fucking harmonic Ewan Pearson type shit right there.

YO peeps The Fives made some BANGING Funky remixes!

Hey peeps I'm new to this!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrEGPfWy3Zs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxhzvnhjuGk&feature=related

What do you guys think??

@Tim F I've been thinking of something. I'm a HUGE fan of Funky but I feel that Funky has yet to reach mainstream/commercial success. I mean Funky is more enjoyable and radio-friendly and club-oriented in comparison to Dubstep. I mean Garage EXPLOADED a decade ago, and I think the same should happen to Funky very soon. Why do you think that is...Funky not getting mainstream love? Is it to do with labels...? and which Funky act(s) do you think should definitely be signed to a major to get Funky across the nation, and not just the clubs?

TBH I've never really expected funky to have massive crossover success and I've never really cared that much whether it does or not.

I mean, it'd be great for the artists to get money, but I don't think it would significantly change my experience of funky for it to be in the charts.

I guess this is a reflection of the fact that, living in Australia, I never experienced garage as a chart phenomenon. The only garage tunes that really charted over here were "Sweet Like Chocolate", "Out Of Your Mind" and "Fill Me In", which only half-counts. So, while I followed garage pretty intensely, the massive ubiquity of the music in the UK was something I only heard or read about.

I've said before that I think the conditions are simply less conducive for funky: garage at its most pop was only a stones throw from the sound of a lot of other pop music of the era (esp. R&B obv) while still sounding very novel, whereas funky's syncopation is now out of step with the straight footed beats of pretty much all pop, and then when funky smooths that out it becomes hard for the average listener to distinguish it from straight vocal house, which is hardly charting with any great regularity these days anyway.

HOLY SHIT at Funkystepz' Deep Roller EP:

http://boomkat.com/downloads/365602-funkystepz-deep-roller-ep

ah, here's the thread. i'd just been forlornly searching for "rolling fuck off with the sunday roast already" all this time.

had thought 'cut above' (or at least its sample) was a little silly at first but have now fully succumbed to its spirographed lunatic geometries.

Yeah I think i'm often slightly wary of funky tracks that seem too fractured until they reveal their underlying logic, which takes a couple of listens.

Don't take seriously any Boomkat blurbs of course </standing rules of funky house sceptics' constitution>

oh no sorry, the timbaland "beat club" snatch was what i meant by sample. (heavens man what do you take me for.)

Ha ha no my volenti non fit injuria w/r/t boomkat certainly wasn't aimed at you!

Although really boomkat making everything funkystepz do a grand prelude to their hyperdub single is probably doing funkystepz a favour in terms of generating hype.

got nowt better to do, so here's a little december top 5 dead or alive catchup sesh:

murdz 86 - homeland
(http://smoovekriminal.podomatic.com/player/web/2010-11-30T14_17_46-08_00 , hour mark)

glowering double bass murmur, a muted distant ominous wind, tribal drum prowling, and altogether a general sense of unease and listless danger - what is it in this i find so absorbing? i don't know, but i kind of feel it might have something to do with that champion "uk funky conga mix" i keep finding myself getting lost in but would hate to make a big prescriptive thing out of. perhaps also subconsciously reminiscent of the older atmospheric riddims you don't hear so much of now like seany b's 'bass & congo'.

gugu - rockabyebaby
(http://soundcloud.com/gugu-mcr/dva007-gugu-ep-preview)

from the man who done that amusing jazzy number, this is the (erroneously heard) "drop the bomb baby" one i mentioned on that funkystepz set a while back. as with the murdz, same applies; chitinous creep, instant pin-drop silent prairie menace. is this really me writing this stuff? *taps screen*

carnao beats ft kadey james - love strong
(youtube.com/watch?v=NMBogKfCz1w)

the follow up to 'get out' doesn't disappoint. iirc one of the two involved was on twitter the other day excitedly telling the other he'd heard this on at selfridges? christ knows how that might have come to pass, but perhaps it was the destined soundtrack to a girl desperately searching for a dress she knew would fail to save her relationship.

secret agent gel - frankenstein
(youtube.com/watch?v=z7Nnog890wM)

this is that marcus banger! (no, not the pew-pew drexciyan african pirate submarine torpedo riddim, as er, i like to call it). memorably and best heard as part of the perfect series of ominous scene-setting tunes preceding one of the MOMENTS of 2010, rankin's sudden first thrilling battle with the almighty 'lions den' tyrannosaurus during the classic 20th october set. turns out this track was made by a lol/dj/rupture matt shadeteky brooklynite global ambulance chaser? do try and act surprised.

brenmar - at it again
(youtube.com/watch?v=nWKI9OO0gKo)

fully admit there's tons of more deserving tunes to pick out tbh (need to listen to dumplin's remix of monique parris 'be my baby' again for starters) but after secret angent gel i may as well ostentatiously flaunt my open-minded side with this lone good tune off some nonsense release on discobelle of all things. essentially this is just some haunted ballroom bassline, which i have o'deed on in recent weeks and happily remains reliably addictive in its psychotic protoplasmic id sort of way. still processing, but boss margins: rest assured your excellent post did not go unread.

Argh you had to post this while i'm at work and can't check out youtubes!