funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

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").

hey can some1 hook me up w/ a copy of 'inflation'?? is there a good place to buy (cheaply) these mpeg layer 3's?

I've only got it in mixes at the moment.

ukfunky.com is selling "Inflation" as an MP3 via paypal. As soon as I get paid again from pitchfork (as that's how they pay me anyways) I plan to lay down some soft cash.

yeh In The Morning i think is much much more chart-friendly than Do You Mind, the crispness and brightness of production alone give it so much more of a chance. r|t|c on the mark though, it is totally out there in both contexts

Inflation is also available at dubplate.net for one small english pound :)

swines! ukfunky charges 2. how much more funky stuff is on dublate, just big tunes? 2 for an mp3 is a jack

yeh 2 is a lot but i don't mind cos of how close to the producers ukfunky is

dubplate has got quite a lot of stuff up

I've heard bad things about buying mp3s from dubplate.net. A mate bought loads of stuff from there, it took days to be delivered to his inbox (someone is actually sitting there zipping up mp3s for each individual order it seems!) and half of the mp3s that eventually turned up were just the short samples that stream on the site - beware!

yeh i heard that stuff too, but when i bought some recently it worked like a totally professional download site, the links appeared on the right of the webpage which i could download from directly. don't know if ppl are still having problems but seems worth stating my experiences to balance

ive still never been able to find 'lift me up' anywhere :( is it @ ukfunky.com? that site is hard to navigate

lol im expecting some international music writing money to hit the paypal soon too, fraid its gonna end up in the same place

uk funky is a nightmare to navigate but seems well run,

http://www.zshare.net/audio/559245523de1f6a9/

http://www.teach-ict.com/images/furniture/tick.jpg

http://www.zshare.net/audio/55700058d044311c/

so this rmx of 'head shoulders knees and toes' with wale & kardinal offishal is ... official right?? crazy

they shoudla got boosie tho

cool thanks for the feedback

nah in truth i can see where you're coming from however unengaging the response was

and i apologise for saying it to dan138zig, it wasn't really a valuable contribution in the context, and its each to their own so i shouldn't have piped in

but im not really interested in a dull and straightforwardly logical approach to experiencing music. your perspective on that is what it is

― Benjamin, Monday, February 9, 2009 9:08 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sorry about how blunt my reply is but i think that the crazy cousinz branding noise is obviously so carefully sound-designed & it sounds so amazing when it comes in on the vinyl ... hearing it in shitty sound qual really misses out on the gigantic club sound it has

& really when hard drive space is so cheap ... its too bad we cant get the shows direct from the station ... but i guess that keeps folks from bootlegging

i really dig the crazy cousinz cover/remix of loveshy & love lockdown was obv meant to be a funky track btw

ahhhh crazy cousinz & hard house banton were so so so sick at wifey!! god i love the way funky sets always involve ALL THE HITS. the sticky b2b of 'bad gyal' and 'how very dare you' made me lose it more than any other moment but tonight was just endless good times. and i will not stand to hear any "grime funky" reservations about 'seasons' again b/c that tune is just SO MUCH FUN TO DANCE TO.

also the slightly schizo funky/bassline/funky mix really made me realise how much i prefer funky.

oh actually it was dubplate wonder not hard house banton

Lex again can I say I have no reservations about "grime funky". I should just stop reading dissensus on this topic though where half the people are like "yeah this funky is all tepid shit except for Lil Silva".

It's a bit like when people used to say all german dance music except villalobos was a waste of time - it's annoying even if you love villalobos.

My favourite other Lil Silva tracks aren't "Funky Flex" but "Different" and especially "Power" which is just insane.

Some other big grimy producers who I can't find out much about at the moment are Madd.One and Funkysteps.

Also Lex you should check out the latest Marcus Nasty set on Rinse, it features Princess MCing live - though briefly, low in the mix, and not terribly well.

Haven't heard the Crazy Cousinz mix of "Loveshy" - want this! Yeah it's weird how the "Love Lockdown" cover sorta sounds like the ultimate version of that song.

getting real obsessed with this stuff again ... tim u need to do another getphysical roundup!!

& im serious here -- how does 'lift me up' appear to have basically vanished off the radar? ive forgotten what it even sounds like

Which tune are you talking about deej? I can't even remember a "lift me up".

Yeah I've been toying with doing another round-up for a while...

really can't decide what to rave about most so far - maybe seani b 'lift me up', another vintage nasty crew style carnival tank; fuzzy logik 'cuban linq' and funky akatriel 'on & on', more salsa madness; or maybe the malice rmx of quentin harris, which is just fucking jawdropping

― r|t|c, Tuesday, July 29, 2008 7:10 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i just remember really being into it at the time & then it just disappeared ... i made a request on some uk site & got no responses

i haven't been around here in a while, but i do love me some funky house. big time.

Can't work out if Kode9's remix of Lee scratch Perry on his myspace is more of a 2step or funky tune

http://www.myspace.com/kode9

http://www.zshare.net/audio/560352974db77f5e/

File Name: lift_me_up-_radio_rip_.mp3

Deej I'm not sure re "Lift Me Up" - have you tried contacting Seany B? He's got a myspace page but no "lift me up" snippet in his music player.

A lot of the DJs give tunes to particular DJs ages before they enter into general circulation e.g. Footloose was playing Fuzzy Logic's "Polyfunk" in the middle of last year but Marcus Nasty has only played it in the last month or so. So maybe this one has still to fully emerge?

XPOST - Ha my detective work pales into insignificance!

Also LOL Dissensus are currently discussing whether Lil Silva, Cooly G and Kode9 form a holy triumvirate which redeems funky in the form of "dark funky". Y'all think I'm constructing strawmen here... Really don't understand the randomness behind the nerdy lionisation of Cooly G (although she's v. good and v. distinct sounding I'll grant). I have a suspicion that it's because she reminds me people of Cassy a bit (as in German house Cassy, not Cassie fan club).

doesn't every girl who makes beats get lionised like that to an extent? cassy, ellen allien, ikonika, cooly g...

once they get to a certain level the same people lionising them now will start speculating about how much help they got from their boyfriend.

also: stop reading dissensus!!!

i mean, the "strawman" here already exists, and it is called "dissensus posters" - this is just another iteration of it which should really not be affecting us any more

btw rtc what was the zshare you linked the other day? the one which shows up in itunes as "track 05" from "feb mix 09"

I started reading the dissensus thread and it is kinda fascinating in a sheer not-getting-it way. Is the site entirely composed of Reynolds minions?

i know (at least) 2 dissensus posters IRL and they're A+ dudes - i have no idea what they're like on dissensus because i don't read it - though they pretty much agree with me about the awfulness of reynolds acolytes and indeed reynolds himself, so they can't be that bad

I dont think ILXers should be throwing any moral mud at Dissensians when on certain shared topics they're effectively just using the same types of arguments to defend diametrically opposed positions. Personally I find it healthy, it's like reading The Guardian *and* The Times.