funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

okay, what is the piano track that comes in at 22 mins?

this set is k-awesome btw

Yeah the 15 Jan is a favourite of mine too. I don't know what the piano tune is but how cool are the beats on it?

When you get to it Reverend let me know what you think of the track at 36 minutes.

I'll try to re-up "Our Father" a bit later.

Also the one I'm describing above (see quote below) is at 52 min:

"the one with the descending piano riff and the sampled vocal going "dat dat, nn dat nn whoo-whoo!" before breaking out into near-absurd broken beat percussion."

Actually it's more like "da da, da-daon her-ber!"

Also wouldn't mind knowing what the track at 30 mins is.

Yeah that one's everywhere - in my head I'm grouping it under the banner of "LFO revivalism" (see also Roska's "In Your Handbag" and JME's "Blanka").

(though "In Your Headbag" is perhaps more like LFO X Claude Von Stroke X Nick Holder's "Erotic Discourse" - and of course there's a funky refix of "Erotic Discourse" floating around too)

36 mins is okay. I like the vocals in the chorus, but not so much during the verse, beat isn't quite anything special. I've heard several things in this mix I like more.

Liking whatever comes after it.

52 mins is A++++ would dance to this all the time

sorry to be dumm but wheres the link for that mix?

The Crazy Cousinz track at 56 mins is dope too

http://rinsefm.blogspot.com/2009/01/marcus-nasty-21st-january.html

Rev, that's "Inflation", AKA my track of the year!

thank u!

ah, I see... it is the b-side of "Funky Anthem" (which is so-so not their best work imo)

Yeah "Funky Anthem" is pretty average. If I ever see that 12inch though I'm picking it up for "Inflation".

Some more youtubery on this thread

lots of these tunes (inc 'inflation' and 'our father') are available to buy from ukfunky.com btw

outside of the uk?

oh i don't know if it works outside the uk - it's via paypal so i thought it would. will reup tonight if tim hasn't...

btw crazy cousinz rmx of shontelle. omg pianos! http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yyvo1my0ott

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4620/backoc5.jpg

Tracklist:
N10-Tainment feat Ruth - I Pray (FaZe Special)
Footsteps - Baby Kinta
Princess ft Coldsteps - Frontline Remix
DJ NG - Tell Me (Geeneus Remix)
DBC - Promises
DBC - Promises (Roska Remix)
Lil Silva - Seasons
Fuzzy Logic ft Egypt - In The Morning
Roska - Whats In Your Handbag
KIG - Head Sholders Knees & Toes (Donaeo Remix)
Suges Vs Swift Jay - Tribe
Coldsteps ft Princess - I Will Be There
Dj Gregory - Dont Panic
Marz Music ft Kadisha - Free
Lemar - If She Knew (Crazy Cousinz Mix)
Major Notes ft Steelo (Skream Out)
Restless Soul - Tricks (Faeda Remix)
Delinquent - I Got U (Delio D Cruz Super Funky Mix)
Diamond ft Terri Walker - Love At First Sight
Tribal Audio - Abyss
Tawiah - Everystep (Arms Remix)
Roska - Our Father
M Sadler - Shine For Me
Yotam Avni - Get Together
Doctor - Give It To You (Soultonic Soundsystem Mix)
Fuzzy Logic ft LA - Call Me
Wookie - Finally
The Sunburst Band - Journey To The Sun (Dennis Ferrer Mix)
Teedra Moses - Be Your Girl (Faeda Soulful Mix)
AC Layne ft Charlene Dance - Deja Vu
Dj Sekey - Ride The Database (Chillzone Mix)

Download:

Zip File (Seperate Tracks)
rapidshare: http://rapidshare.com/files/197742403/FaZe_-_Funky_February_09.zip
sendspace: http://www.sendspace.com/file/lqxvdd
zShare: http://www.zshare.net/download/55582475312d0614/

Single File:
zShare Stream: http://www.zshare.net/audio/5557763227d97caf/

THANK U THANK U <3 <3 <3

Thanks for that FaZe! It's nice to be able to ID the Suges vs Swift Jay track - would never have guessed that Suges were involved (then again I don't know what the original sounds like) but in retrospect it kinda makes sense. I always thought that tune sounded a bit like a Low Deep grime instrumental.

From the Marcus Nasty set Jan 15th, what the f&*k is that MAW/Omni Trio-esque tune with the pianos at 22:38secs!!!???

KIG - Head Sholders Knees & Toes (Donaeo Remix)

^ this is teh nuts. (might forgive him farmer yardie at this rate.) also the new lowslung muttered verse is exactly why i keep saying flowdan should switch to funky. even the crap one from tok would do!

Farmer Yardie was great though.

haha check out who joined donaeo on stage for 'african warrior'

:-O

Also that makes "African Warrior" and "My Philosophy" sound like the same genre.

"^ this is teh nuts. (might forgive him farmer yardie at this rate.) also the new lowslung muttered verse is exactly why i keep saying flowdan should switch to funky. even the crap one from tok would do!"

Yeah I love this, and I like how Donaeo just sucks up pre-exisitng tunes and makes them his own. Flo Dan totally should be a funky MC though - he always sounds best talking shit over fast beats. Stop fucking with The Bug, Dan, and get on this.

^^cosine - also that big latinate remix of princess nyah. really feeling the track that opens it too - more xylophones! love its abstract moodiness. and tawiah into 'our father' is such a great transition.

surprised there hasn't been much lil silva talk here yet, 'seasons' and 'funky flex' are both massive...

also ALSO: crazy cousinz and hard house banton are playing wifey on friday and i am definitely reaching...

http://profile.ak.facebook.com/object3/253/3/n46748313035_1475.jpg

Yeah Lil' Silva is great, I think I talked about "Seasons" is one of my overviews last year. My only complaint is that he's the producer that lots of funky house sceptics check for in order to legitimise their sweeping dismissals of the rest of the genre, presumably because "Seasons" is the archetypal (grime)-funky tune. But this is not his fault and it's an amazing track either way (also approaching "Yellowtail" levels of deserving ubiquity at this stage).

From the Marcus Nasty set Jan 15th, what the f&*k is that MAW/Omni Trio-esque tune with the pianos at 22:38secs!!!???

don't know the ID but its a remix of / shares the sample with Hi Times - Journey Into Jazz, which is phenomenal

yeha wifey sounds sick this week but it clashes with prosumer/maurice fulton at east village. plus every time i go some sort of uk dance ting i attempt to blend in by wearing a new era hat and look like a tool.

i found an mp3 of that amazing n10-tainment track on the faze mix http://www.zshare.net/audio/547459512b656c83/

re: 'seasons' and grime-funkiness - i see where you're coming from but i think it's so much more obviously melodic, and with more of that steelpanny carnival vibe, than 'yellowtail'. also it feels like it's always on the verge of turning into '4 minutes' (and wow, imagine a funky remix of that beat)

Yeah can I stress that it's a fabulous track! My beef is purely contextual (as is the "yellowtail" comparison - but also remember "yellowtail" is a really fun bumping tune - the bass drop!).

Mak 10's "Sequence" - now there's a crappy "hard" effort.

don't think i've heard that...

cooly g's "mwah mwah mwah": best producer stamp ever?

http://www.illestlyrics.com/wp-content/uploads/jadakiss3.jpg

nah.

kode9's new funky stuff

http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?Track=HYP009

The reservations I have about "Black Sun" and "Gone 2 Far" are fairly similar to those I have about "Sequence", though they're better tracks: sure the rhythm programming is nice enough and the synth chords are impressively discordant but... it's not very funky is it? The groove doesn't really build at all, on either track, it just sort of assaults you repetitively. Compare/contrast with "Inflation" which doesn't hold itself out as groundbreaking but is all about the build, the sense of excitement of the ratatat snares glancing off the string slashes, the point when the booming bass finally comes in, then the xylophone. Whereas Kode9 seems to like making tracks that hover in stasis, suspended, sort of wavering in glowering confusion. This isn't a bad thing per se but it seems to me to depart from the core value of UK funky's approach to its groove (and its basis in house), which is I think very much about hype-building, trying to work a sense of narrative development into a relatively repetitive groove-framework. People like Roska and Apple do this less so than others (whereas Crazy Couzins, perhaps owing to their songfulness, are at the absolute extreme - all their tracks and remixes have multiple sections, builds, breakdowns etc.; Fuzzy Logic is another producer big into narrative development), but even with them there's more of this than on these Kode9 tracks - plus listening to most Roska or Apple tracks in full you start to realise how DJ/MC toolsy they are, best suited to appearing for 2 minutes in a mix with an MC on top rather than played out in corpulent seven minute glory. Whereas with these Kode9 tracks (and even more so "Sequence") it takes about thirty seconds to start wondering what the point of this continuing is.

Maybe this is why the hip hop parts of Memories of the Future are far and away my favourite Kode 9 productions: Spaceape provides the sense of "build" around which Kode 9 can then do his superlative creepy sound design thing.

Marcus Nasty on his most recent show apologised to Ramadanman for not being able to download his new funky tracks in time to play them. Based on "Blimey" and (the also amazing, headwrecking) "Revenue" I wouldn't be surprised if his funky tracks are strong; I think his approach to groove is already closer to the underlying approach of funky. "Revenue" sounds a bit like Aphrodisiax actually.

Kode9 seems to like making tracks that hover in stasis, suspended, sort of wavering in glowering confusion

a very satisfying description! very much so for Black Sun

i don't actually enjoy the tunes that much (as in i would probably be a bit bored on a dancefloor), but i guess that's not really the point for his stuff, and fair play. i'm glad he's drawn from a new set of influences and made a shift in terms of tempo and beats, but retained his individuality, vibe and vision. but you're right, as a result it feels a long long way from the heart of uk funky

interesting in terms of the discussion of his approach to narrative is to contrast his Reminnissin remix. in fact i think to be fair he mixes it up a lot between tracks in that regard... Konfusion, Magnetic City, Stung etc all involve pretty slow burning but intense narrative development (still glowering though!). there is though a sense in which you could almost say they evoke stasis in motion in some sense, an evolving closed circuit, wheras the likes of Fuzzy Logik or Crazy Cousinz evolve in a much more fluid and absolute way

as you point to, one of the things i find amazing about Crazy Cousinz is the amount of progression and build they can get into their vocal tracks without you really even noticing... they can feel like traditionally structured pop songs but in fact they swell and lift and break in pretty epic ways

tbh despite the funkyesque rhythm i can't really think of those kode9 tracks as "funky" per se at all, and labelling them as such does both kode9 and UK funky a disservice - they seem to fit quite neatly into what joker, ikonika et al are doing right now though.

To be fair, I've heard Kode9 play 'Black Sun' in a straight funky set and it was totally danceable, fitted in fine but obviously sounded a bit alien. The second drop in particular went off.

i like to think that roska's 'in your handbag' is a sly nod to the halcyon days of handbag house

I think Lex is OTM here. “Black Sun," for example, is really something like one part dubstep, one part funky, and one part wonky. I am excited at the prospect of Ramadanman doing funky tracks however.

bit too late to avoid the hail of old dubstep chestnuts coming down, but i think the secret of 'in the morning' is, in its very fine balance, how well it plays off all the sides it concerns. in a funky mix it stands out a mile, like an outside tune the scene's co-opted, but in pop radio terms it retains just enough spare trackyness and circularity, and therefore dance cache, to stand out in that context too; any further into fully-formed songcraft and we'd be talking about one of those retro 80s wonky jobs like alphabeat or something. CHOON.

also i think i have come to love the overlooked bit in 'inflation' where it goes full-on gloria estefan most of all.

what the melody right at the end? isn't that just them playing their "cray-zee cousinz" stamp" on a xylophone?

http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/deck?track=FUNKYANTHEM-c

thanks to the magnificent chemical records web deck thingy i can now say "oh yeah, so it is". but still, it's a good payoff in its own context.

(... seriously, that thing is great!! well done to all @ chemical for authentically replicating the tedious and depressing mental journey you travel on watching a label go round as you sift thru a bunch of new records in a shop.)

incidentally when i looked at the cousinz myspace just now it said they were playing luton on friday. i suppose they could do wifey as well but...

haha, look where they're playing next friday. horrific.

"bit too late to avoid the hail of old dubstep chestnuts coming down, but i think the secret of 'in the morning' is, in its very fine balance, how well it plays off all the sides it concerns. in a funky mix it stands out a mile, like an outside tune the scene's co-opted, but in pop radio terms it retains just enough spare trackyness and circularity, and therefore dance cache, to stand out in that context too; any further into fully-formed songcraft and we'd be talking about one of those retro 80s wonky jobs like alphabeat or something. CHOON."

Yes. It's pretty amazing. I think this tune is much more pop than "Do You Mind" to be honest, but the beat is so sharp. I was in love from the first "Wooh!"

Re Kode9 - interestingly the tracks that Ben mentioned (the "Reminiscin" remix, "Magnetic City" etc.) are all my favourite Kode9 tracks. He works best when he's got a bit of lightness of touch I think, and goes mysterious rather than out'n'out oppressive dystopian. Otherwise he can come across a bit heavy-handed - a lot of his "big statement" tracks fall into that category (e.g. "Spit", "Ghost Town").