funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

Woah there's two RA writers called Jacob who like funky house??

Jacob Wright likes it too? Didn't know that.

Jacob Burns is a Scottish writer and musician, very big into dubstep and minimal. Now progressively getting more into funky, I really value his opinion.

It now occurs to my drunk brain that J@cob could possibly be Mr. Wright.

Sorry about that, carry on.

Yep that's me.

I'm not too quick on the uptake sometimes,

So yeah, how about that new Mentor Roska release ?

Up now on Juno

listening to that smoovie t mix ...

i like it, reminds me of that very very short-lived ragga house / soca house moment from 2004-2005

stuff like MAW ft nas:t & denise "work", basement jaxx "missing you" remix, jess & crabbe's various ragga-hip-house hybrids, etc

Here's a slightly newer one of Smoovie's in case anyones interested.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/o6i1qr

04-05 vahid?

Yeah the way that Smoovie actually uses "Work" and "Calabria" in the first mix really rams this home. The "Missing You" remix would fit in perfectly here. I'm really hoping that Basement Jaxx start responding to this (I just don't think their trebly Switch homages are as good as they could be).

There's a couple of ragga-hip-housey new tracks actually. Like that one the Crazi Cousinz play with the sped up R&B vocal ("She says she like's it THAT way/so me give it to her THAT way") for the verse and then Vybz Kartel for the chorus ("More/Raw/Hard to the core"). Or the one that just samples Bounty Killer's "yallow yallow" call.

Interestingly another big recycled hit on the scene is Bugs In The Attic's remix of Amy Winehouse's "In My Bed" - for that slightly shrill broken beat R&B vibe. I guess that was the raviest Bugs ever got.

Thought i'd make the jump over from dissensus for this. Let me start by asking if anyone knows what this is -

http://www.divshare.com/download/4759712-30c

Seriously wonky drums with a huge bassline and just a few hints of piano. Off that crazy couzinz launch party cd, its track 20. MC saying its the DJ naughty remix, but not what of.

Jacob

Hi guys just want to let you know that Fuzzy Logik has finally released the long awaited uk funky Bangerz N Mash E.P !

This has been getting battered by all the pirate stations and clubs everywhere and has been getting huge support from the likes of Supa D, MA1, Pioneer, Footloose ( 1xtra ), Marcus Nasty and many more. This EP also has the massive track, What Goes Around which features on the mix CD, Rinse 03 Mixed By Supa D.

Four uk funky house club favourites, on one E.P. <br><br> Features the tracks <b>"What Goes Around"</b>, <b>"Leader"</b>, <b>"Twiss"</b> and <b>"Funky Roller"</b>. <br><br>Limited Press, Out Now!!!

Available from ukrecordshop.com, Rhythm Division, Uptown Records & UDM.

Thank you!

<a href="http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk78/flogik/?action=view¤t=HP-01-1.jpg"; target="_blank"><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk78/flogik/HP-01-1.jpg"; border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

(sorry about the last post)

Hi guys just want to let you know that Fuzzy Logik has finally released the long awaited Bangerz N Mash E.P !

This has been getting battered by all the pirate stations and clubs everywhere and has been getting huge support from the likes of Supa D, MA1, Pioneer, Footloose ( 1xtra ), Marcus Nasty and many more.

This EP also has the massive track, What Goes Around which features on the mix CD, Rinse 03 Mixed By Supa D.

Four uk funky house club favourites, on one E.P. Features the tracks What Goes Around, Leader, Twiss and Funky Roller. Limited Press, Out Now!!!

Available from ukrecordshop.com, Rhythm Division, Uptown Records & UDM Now!!!

this guys "rumba" is pretty cool:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=50678233

who produced that sirens tune? huge bassline, loads of sirens going off in the background. 3 or 4 tracks in to that latest smoovie t show, just after the remix of florida i think.

oh the sirens thing was produced by hardhouse banton

Thx for the mix links.

Jacob, track 20 of the Bongo Jam Launch Party mix is Crazi Cousinz' remix of P2J & Shaniqua's "Dance Wid Me". But I think you mean track 19, which I'm guessing is DJ Naughty's remix of Crazi Cousinz & Kimona's "I See You", as it has some of the vocals from that tune.

""this guys "rumba" is pretty cool:"

Yeah, I've heard this one around a bit too. Reminds me of Seany B's "Stompa" a bit - grimey latin house! (who would've thought?). The way "Rumba" just gets larger and larger as it goes is ace, all those new sounds coming in while the central motif just chimes away.

TNT's "Take It Low" also massive.

(if it's not clear to those playing at home, the "this guy" Jacob means is TNT)

Cheers for all that Tim! You know I really like how things such as "Rumba" are so organic, or at least have all these organic elements. I guess its to do with them using percussion loops and stuff, but also the sounds are blocky and that clap on the four doesn't strike me as quantised. I got my apple vinyl in the post today and siegaliser is so raw, this stuff is so exciting right now. That smoovie t posted upthread is pretty big. Still hate bongo jam though!

Funky house seems like a misnomer, what I've heard sounds a lot less funky than garage to me. It never seems to have much syncopation.

In fact the "funky house" we're talking about is a lot more syncopated than the kind of house that has been called "funky house" for the last ten years or so.

Given that for the most part garage was not house, making that the reference point for the standard of funkiness in house isn't gonna help.

I was under the impression that the current London funky house scene emerged from garage. I may well be wrong, I only keep half an eye on these developments.

The most recent links on this thread lead to stuff with not much syncopation, though.

In some sense it did chap - but what happened (in very basic, general terms) was that a lot of UK Garage heads abandoned garage as it turned into grime and started listening to US-style funky house instead - where the "funky" really only refers to the bassline.

If there's an equivalent of Todd Edwards in terms of being a US producer who kickstarts a UK reponse, it'd be Dennis Ferrer, whose remix of Fish Go Deep's "The Cure & The Cause" was this new post-garage scene's first and perhaps still biggest anthem.

But what's been happening in the last six months is that productions have been getting rougher, more syncopated and, in some ways, "grimier". But it's an uneven development: not all new tracks are sharing all these qualities simultaneously and evenly.

A tune like "Rhumba" (which I assume is what you mean) uses a very heavy 4X4 kick but the production otherwise has all sorts of references to grime. Be wary of judging from the other tracks on the TNT myspace page, as some of these are bassline productions (a decidedly un-funky post-garage scene based in the north of England).

If you want examples of really syncopated tunes, check out Roska's myspace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=80990671

One thing I find really interesting about Roska's stuff and similar productions is how they can be so fucked up beatwise and still sound like house - often there will still be a 4X4 kick buried underneath the other rhythms, or even if there's not you can still here one in your head. 2-step garage didn't really sound like house at all: admittedly 2-step was also faster than house, but the groove matrix just wasn't compatible.

This stuff doesn't have much to do with 2-step at all though - it's more like a mixture of soca-house, broken beat and grime.

See also the myspace pages for Apple and Footloose.

There's something about the way the beats are built that makes the non 4/4 seem so compatible as well. If you were listening to a traditional house set, a move away from a 4/4 kick would seem like a seismic shift but it doesn't with this new stuff. Also, most kicks seem to be getting lighter. Its partly to make way for the bass I guess but that lends itself to polyrhythms much more easily.

The version of Skepta's "The Rolex Sweep" on the Marcus Nasty set with Shantie and Rankin' is the Fingeprint remix. One of the hardest, most insane funky tracks I've heard: the rhythm is a total mess (in a brilliant way). Nothing to do with house at all!

Mind you Donaeo's "African Warrior" is pretty fucking hard as well. Reminds me a bit of the dub of the Wideboys' "Something's Got Me Started", but harder. Love the clash between the rhythm and Donaeo's strained R&B vocals, though he does some MCing here too (actually more like R Kelly singjay).

Likewise if you listen to Roska's "Climate Change", the only kicks are on the 1 and the 4, which gives it a feeling of a groove that starts and kinda ends in house but goes all over the place in the middle of each bar.

Wow the dub of "African Warrior" is even more menacing. Check the bass!

Fingerprint's Remix of Footloose's Just Leave is pretty aggro as well.

Funny, considering the tune's lyrics advise the rude boys to "just leave" the dance before starting anything.

that Rolex Sweep Remix is amazing. the last Marcus Nasty set has been doing it for me in a big way. so varied, so sick. does anyone have anything approaching a tracklist?

nice one to those bringing the knowledge here already! thanks!

On his 1xtra radio show this week Footloose claims the Rolex Sweep remix had never been played before by anyone and had only just been completed - someone's telling someone porkies.

Benjamin do you mean the set with Rankin and Shanti?

The "sexy UK house" set with just Shanti is fantastic as well.

The first track is TNT's "Take It Low" (I wonder if this is not Skepta on the vocals too - e.g. the "single"/"mingle" couplet).

Still really want to ID the track on there that samples Jagged Edge - "Rolling down the lonely highway/asking God to please forgive me..."

I mean "Take It Low" is the first track on the Shantie/Rankin set.

oh i think it must be a different one, the one i mean opens with that track sampling jagged edge, then rolex sweep comes in third track in.

this one crazy track later on really pushes home how diverse the sound is at the moment, sounds like a soca-inflected expansion on the breakdown from Sugar Daddy, ridiculous vibes. need to get to one of these raves very soon.

also really feeling the Roska stuff. and loads of other ones i don't know the names of. does anyone have a myspace address for Fingerprint?

Maybe we've just got the tracks in different order.

Can't access myspace from this computer, but Fingerprint's definitely got a page, a lot of the other producer's pages link to it. But last time I checked (about a week ago) he didn't have his ruffer tracks up I don't think. "The Print" and "The Print (2008 Remix)" are both very good though.

I'm still not convinced, this is why on my facebook profile it says I like house (not funky). Just doesn't work for me.

oh wait i actually meant Sugar Is Sweeter not Sugar Daddy. and its actually quite an inappropriate reference point. ah well!

where are you hearing those Fingerprint tracks Tim?

found it...

http://www.myspace.com/fingaprint

STRICTLY VIBES: UK Funk House Essentials

It does mystify me that there isn't more of a groundswell of support for this stuff. There's, like, 5 regulars on this thread? Grime got much more of a response from ILX/the world at large.

Am I the only one who thinks this music is clearly as exciting as that was? (probaby even more so?)

Where are the epic Simon Reynolds thinkpieces eh.

Am I the only one who thinks this music is clearly as exciting as that was? (probaby even more so?)

Wake me up when the Funky House 'Junior Spesh' rolls into view....

Am I the only one who thinks this music is clearly as exciting as that was? (probaby even more so?)

more so

Marcus Nasty has two new mixes up in his Facebook group, FREE MIX CDS.

I don't like them quite as much as his other recent ones though, partly because they're a little bit more conservative, but perhaps mostly because they're missing Shantie, who I rather unfairly now consider to be the voice of funky house (I'm astonished at how much I love this guy).

Also Marcus has done a 2 hour set for BBC 1Xtra (with tracklisting! Finally!) that I still need to check out. This looks good:

Skepta / Wiley / Donao – Rolex Sweep (Special)
Seasons – Little Silver
Frontline – Eye Blue / Princess
Sirens – Hard House Banton
Reign – Hard House Banton
Bongo Jam – Crazy Cousins
The Way We Get Down – Vibe
Jungle Boy – Intramental
Tell Me – DJ NG (Genius Remix)
Marcus Special – Lightning Exclusive
Would You Mind – Kyla Ft Crazy Cousins
Quick Time – DJ Naughty (VIP Mix)
Piece Of Heaven – Beat Players Ft Lara McClarren
Stomper – Seany B
Gimme That 08 Remix – Mario Productions
Mr Seduction – Seany B
Brazillia – Baby Face J
Post Room Remix – Little Silver (Marcus Nasty Special)
Sheaneka – JP2
General remix – Malice
Liberty – Scotty D
Live Wire – Norris Da Boss
Bad Habits – Marc Ambience
The Music – Hard House Banton
In The Air – Perempae
Yellow Yail – Genius
Mario – Mario Productions
Terminator – JME
Funky Flex – Little Silver
Take Over – VIP Mix (Invasion Recordings)
Devil In A Blue Dress – Doneo
African Warrior – Doneo
Believe In Love – Rosca
Climate Change – Rosca
Speechless – Mystery
Flawless – Malice
Blanka – JME
Bad Habit – Malice
Make You Move – Seany B
Topper 5 Remix – Swif Joy
Im Right Here – MA1 Naughty Remix
Visions – Malice
Mind Body And Soul – TNT
Rock 2 The Beats – Kurupt Rec
Girl Like Me – Naughty Ft Addictive
Rising Sun – Invasion Rec
Level – Fuzzy Logic
Mr Bean Remix – Sypro
Take It The Top – Misa Mix ft Nia
Take It Low – Lev
High – Doneo
Things Have Changed – Mattalic

(TNT's "Mind, Body & Soul" is the vocal version of "Rumba", for those of you playing at home. It's the one with sassy diva going "'cos when the sun goes down my baby got me out of control..")

oi finners chuck us those mix links, i don't do fb

will swap for the wiseguy 1xtra shortcut LIKE SO

rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/1xtra/allstar_mix.ra

Marcus and Rankin on Deja Vu 28.06.08: http://www.sendspace.com/file/5vk5c5

Marcus, Sharkey P and L.E.V. Ayia Napa Send Off: http://www.sendspace.com/file/710yjc

safe.

mainly wanted cos "a little bit more conservative" strikes me for two reasons: been lazy and catching up, and also that some of the latest developments detailed above i found perturbing wrt their boshing aggression; while there were bits of nasty crew in even the earliest 08 marcus sets they still never cleaved as close to grime as something like 'african warrior' dub - yeah there's polyrhythms there and whatnot, but if you'd called it "any random skepta therapy session (paradox drumfunk remix)" nary an eyelid would be bat. seems a bit besides the point?

(this... this is the world's 1st funky formalist audition right?)

One of the things I should have talked more about in my blog post above (but I was kinda feverish and just wanted to finish it) is how even the most grimey of, say, Marcus's sets have heaps of relatively more conservative tunes, falling into two basic categories:

1) The diva vocal tunes ("Do You Mind", "Tell Me", "I Tried", "Dirty Thoughts", "I See You", "Make Your Move", "High Heels" etc.) - there's no necessary correlation between the vocal and the ruffness of the groove (hence "Rumba" becomes "Mind, Body & Soul") although yeah we're not likely to see vocal versions of Roska or Apple tunes any time soon.

2) The deep house tunes, which (in Marcus's sets) are mostly along the lines of Jerome Sydenham/Dennis Ferrer/Quentin Harris (not that these three guys all sound the same, but that's the space in which these tunes fall) - tunes like Perempay's "Hypnotic", and heaps of others I can't name. Lots of simple but sexy 4X4 beats, spare piano chords and strings.

At the moment as far as I can tell no-one's really playing sets that are wall to wall harder tunes from Apple/Roska/Footloose/"African Warrior (Dub)" etc. And heaps of producers fall on each side of the line, like Seany B has made "Stompa" and "Make Your Move", "Dirty Thoughts"; Footloose has his hard remixes and "Just Leave", same for Fingerprint with his recent remixes and "The Print".

"African Warrior (Dub)" isn't as good as the vocal version for the precise (and rather boring coming from me) reason that it sacrifices that perfect balance between singalong vocal tune and hard as nails groove.

yeah ok, that seems fair. funny to think of it now but i almost feel like i'd wrestled with similar demons whilst wondering if it was right that i should enjoy 'what goes around' that much more than 'leader'. innocent times.

anyway 4 those in the gallery seats, here to illustrate these points is dj naughty's 'tough luck', sandwiched between said 'african warrior' and 'tribal warfare' by a little "but only a very little" bit funky, taped off footloose:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/146008334ca80c19/

ps. 'tough luck' is the good one.

pps. i should add that i am in no way unsympathetic to the socabeat theology as is.

I guess i feel like I'm torn between the two emerging polar positions here. There are some people who say "oh yeah funky house is worthless except for Apple".

Which seems like the argument you'd make if you'd been into dubstep and grime but never got garage itself.

Conversely though I think the scene became really interesting at the point where its range expanded to include light vocal house tunes at one end and Apple at the other. It's the range itself, and the way all of these things are blended into one coherent genre, which I find interesting.

On one of the Marcus/Shantie sets Marcus mixes straight from "Hypnotic" into "Climate Change", and it's a spectacular feat of mixing both technically (the solitary string flares in "Hypnotic" slotting perfectly into an empty space in "Climate Change") and erm thematically - the transition is an embodiment of the openness in this music that possibly can't/won't last.

Yeah I guess that paradox-bosh sound on "African Warrior (Dub)" and "Tribal Warfare" sounds a bit oppressive in the context of two out of the three tracks, but are there any other tracks that even sound like that? They make the ominous-soca of Footloose or Baby Faced Jay's "Tribal Zone" sound a lot more peppy and girly by comparison.

Some of the tracks on DJ Naughty's myspace (not specified as they're mixed together as a segment from a live set) are verging on Germanic deepness, very much Innervisions meets Liebe*Detail.

Ha ha I could sorta imagine funky house audiences liking Ed Davenport's "Eyepspeak" or Tiger Stripes' "Hooked" actually.

the transition is an embodiment of the openness in this music that possibly can't/won't last.

haha yeah it's like what you were saying on the tropical thread about proto-paradise interregna and such, only now it's almost as if there's already an immanent strain of of melancholy there for whatever disappointing compromises that lie ahead once this all ossifies.

for my part, i guess my vector is still gonna be that marcus set i attended - but then the spare tautness of that whole vibe, and the interplay with the mc, is always unlikely to fashion itself a foothold in any kind of realworld record sale product. 'do you mind' is actually probably the one vocal tune that's gripping yet unobtrusive enough to stay true to that side, somehow. but it still sounds fantastic on daytime radio.

also, that glint of dancehall in there hasnt really panned out has it. links of what i thought mightve been abrew in a sec!

http://www.zshare.net/audio/1460480207997596/

munga's 'early morning' on corleone's atmopshere riddim (which sank without trace) - trace of lonely compulsion in there a bit like 'push the feeling on' or something maybe?

http://www.zshare.net/audio/14604826acab64d7/

ding dong's 'go away'... won't spoil this one.