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!
― r|t|c, Thursday, 3 July 2008 02:57 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― r|t|c, Thursday, 3 July 2008 03:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Re: roughness...
Actually for me the most exciting thing about this scene is the over 'sexy' element to a lot of it. There's been this weird and persistent de-sexualising of dance genres for ages, and you could see funky as being the turn of that tide. And I particularly like the fact that the sexiness here isn't the self-consciously 'adult' kind but quite often feels a lot rawer and more teenage - something that you could argue only 2step and disco ever nailed before (with obvious exceptions of hip hop/rnb and jamaican styles).
I'm obviously lacking any first hand experience of clubs/raves that play this stuff, but it seems to me that being in an environment where you hear primarily DJ Naughty, Perempay and vocal tunes might actually be more unique and different than one in which it's all hard percussive Apple-style stomp...
― J@cob, Thursday, 3 July 2008 03:26 (fifteen years ago) link
I have a question. How mainstream/underground is this stuff in Britain?
― The Reverend, Thursday, 3 July 2008 05:49 (fifteen years ago) link
omg we were just discussing this in aol chatroom's 'chatz'!
― Tape Store, Thursday, 3 July 2008 05:55 (fifteen years ago) link
omg motherfucker!
― The Reverend, Thursday, 3 July 2008 06:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Well, 'wearing my rolex' charted...
I'd tend to think 'underground' is kind of an irrelevant descriptor for this stuff. It's populist music that isn't popular yet.
― J@cob, Thursday, 3 July 2008 07:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Woah, Skykicking revived!??!?1?/!?!
― Raw Patrick, Thursday, 3 July 2008 07:44 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm thinking that it might be worth reviving just to post stuff about funky house.
"proto-paradise interregna and such"
rtc this is surely in yr top twenty or so. Though "driven home in the somnambulance" remains number 1 always and forever.
It's at least gonna be interesting to see what happens with this stuff. It's not necessarily a case of light&sexy-->hard&masculine, although that's one obvious trajectory for it. Garage is an interesting example here: when 2-step took over the music actually got more lighthearted and poppy than it had been in speed garage's immediately preceding boom boom bassline era, as if the revelation of the 2-step beat itself gave the rest of the music some temporary breathing space in which it didn't have to busy itself with wowing the headz.
If we're gonna isolate syncopated stompadelic producers then I prefer Roska to Apple, but I still don't want Roska's sound to take over the scene. Would much prefer the dominant sound to be a kind of R&B Mark II - only with a more viable/accessible rhythmic basis than R&B Mark I. A tune like Diamond's "Champagne Dance" is as WTF groovewise as anything else but it is also great singalong material. And if tunes like that became the common ground you could see the current arrangement whereby sets can also accommodate both deeper housey tunes and frantic soca-inspired tunes, at least temporarily.
― Tim F, Thursday, 3 July 2008 08:27 (fifteen years ago) link
x-post: i would say still pretty underground - i dont see much stuff written abt it or advertised at many club nights. but i'm in london - is london meant to be the centre of the scene?? or is it elsewhere.
o and great to see skykicking back!
― t_g, Thursday, 3 July 2008 09:13 (fifteen years ago) link
is london meant to be the centre of the scene??
Yes.
The one place very near me that did put on this kinda thing has just changed to an indie night instead.
― Raw Patrick, Thursday, 3 July 2008 10:15 (fifteen years ago) link
:(
― t_g, Thursday, 3 July 2008 11:08 (fifteen years ago) link
haha tim i will never fathom yr fondness for that terrible jamaican patient spiel.
appears malice is our 'gabreille' dubber btw:
http://www.myspace.com/diamondindaruffproductions
― r|t|c, Thursday, 3 July 2008 20:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Wake me up when the Funky House 'Junior Spesh' rolls into view....
-- linea, Wednesday, 2 July 2008 15:15 (Yesterday) Link
roll into view you say?
― r|t|c, Thursday, 3 July 2008 20:15 (fifteen years ago) link
-- J@cob, Thursday, July 3, 2008 8:25 AM (12 hours ago)
It is very underground. It doesn't have much of a foothold anywhere outside of London at all and even their it's not the main thing going on.
And "Wearing my Rolex" doesn't really have much to do with this to my ears (just straight up electro-house really, surely?).
― jim, Thursday, 3 July 2008 20:21 (fifteen years ago) link
ozzie b checks in
(tune sounds a lot better in the middle of the "Marcus, Sharkey P and L.E.V. Ayia Napa Send Off" set above)
― r|t|c, Saturday, 5 July 2008 11:39 (fifteen years ago) link
unless it's real... jungle funky i don't wanna hear it. i can't stand that fast fake ass dance music that sounds about 10 years too slow
― usic, Saturday, 5 July 2008 11:44 (fifteen years ago) link
i want a jam i can shake my shoulders to and circle around moving weight. vibrate, etc. i don't want some corny shitty breakbeat alternating while some fag samples horns without any high complexity much less meaningfun resolution. i hate this genre
― usic, Saturday, 5 July 2008 11:46 (fifteen years ago) link
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9821/bongomadnessrg2.gif
want
― The Reverend, Saturday, 5 July 2008 22:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Loving Apple's "Bean Get Well Soon". The track on his myspace labeled "SAMPLE of wots to come" is interesting with its combination of funky-styled drums and bassline-style...bassline.
― The Reverend, Sunday, 6 July 2008 00:41 (fifteen years ago) link
suppose it would be shortsighted to find mc versatile's work on TEH FUNKY ANTHEM (aka 'gabryelle' x crazy cousinz x shout-pouts to everyone in the scene) a tad embarassing huh
― r|t|c, Monday, 7 July 2008 12:09 (fifteen years ago) link
haha 'shout-pouts'... shout-pouts to all my homies 4real
― r|t|c, Monday, 7 July 2008 12:10 (fifteen years ago) link
maybe it's just cos marcus then follows with the gorgeous murk of geeneus 'piece of heaven' right after
also yeah, what is that hott analogue dialtone salsa bubbler that goes "get on - the floor!"
― r|t|c, Monday, 7 July 2008 12:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Trying to think of a track that could actually be described as a series of "shout-pouts".
Maybe Skepta's shock claim "Soulja Boy can't dance like me."
Isn't Teh Funky Anthem really an MC version of Crazi Cousinz (superior) "High Heels" - the one that goes "I got my high heels on, and the DJ is playing my favourite song. I'm sipping on JD, and i admit I am feeling a little tipsy..."
Hoping I never live to see a house track offering a shout-pout to Jim Beam though.
xpost: RTC that's Delio D’Cruz ft. K Cat – Get On The Floor
― Tim F, Monday, 7 July 2008 12:18 (fifteen years ago) link
duh ok! still terrible with names right now... don't recall that 'high heels' being quite as stabby but i shall defer.
http://rinsefm.blogspot.com/2008/07/ma1-28th-june.html http://rinsefm.blogspot.com/2008/07/dj-ng-27th-june.html
been enjoying these most recent ma1 and ng rinse sets also. they are not nearly as kaleidoscopical as the prime marcus cuts or anything, but still some good head-down deep snaking skanking business i feel.
hah i think between funky and riding for bbe and whatnot on the other thread i might be going thru some sort of "once and future king of west london" jazzy herb phase.
― r|t|c, Monday, 7 July 2008 12:45 (fifteen years ago) link
btw if anyone missed that marcus 1xtra allstar mix from last week i done nicked it and can put up if need be. ooh hello it's a mj cole mix now!
― r|t|c, Monday, 7 July 2008 12:51 (fifteen years ago) link
If it would not be too much trouble that'd be rad. I only got to the first hour.
― Tim F, Monday, 7 July 2008 12:54 (fifteen years ago) link
here
here also is a vid from the frontlines of the dangerous living room afterparty scene.
(busy signal 'step out' over 'leader' though :DDDDD)
― r|t|c, Monday, 7 July 2008 15:38 (fifteen years ago) link
smoovie t linked to this thread on his myspace blog
although yeah we're not likely to see vocal versions of Roska or Apple tunes any time soon.
there's at least this version of 'apple bubble'
― dbs, Monday, 7 July 2008 22:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Marcus and Rankin on Deja Vu 28.06.08: http://www.sendspace.com/file/5vk5c5
Got a track id on the ravey one about 15 minutes in?
― J@cob, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 01:30 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
-- Tim F, Wednesday, July 2, 2008 10:00 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Link
to be honest, i think its probably good we dont have these things??
― deej, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 01:37 (fifteen years ago) link
Deej the issue here is genuine enthusiasm for what's being discussed. Reynolds' piece on 2-step for The Wire in 1999 was so good that I've spent the last 9 years writing roundabout homages to it.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 03:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Yes but arguably 2step in 1999 was at the culmination of 2-3 years of development and refinement of its basic structures and sounds. It was so much more fully formed as an aesthetic and a scene than 'funky' is right now.
Right now it's much more like when people were talking about 'sunday scene' and 'RIPGroove' first came out and the potential that had to eventually evolve into 2step.
― J@cob, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 08:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Also, re: dubstep - if you place the origins of the sound with Horsepower and Ghost and Hatcha then it probably didn't get its 'media break' until at least 2 years later, once Skream broke big...
I mean don't get me wrong I think funky does suffer from being too girly/commercial sounding for most crits/bloggers to get excited about it, but it's also early days.
― J@cob, Tuesday, 8 July 2008 08:36 (fifteen years ago) link
that song on the 1xtra marcus nasty mix @ 54:20 is great - anyone got a title?
― deej, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 02:20 (fifteen years ago) link
this is a totally ilx-ish reference but it reminds me of luciano's "madre mother mere" or whatever it was called
― deej, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 02:21 (fifteen years ago) link
ha it goes into an opera-y singing thing that sounds perfectly all over the place in a basement jaxx way. or maybe thats the next song?
― deej, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 02:22 (fifteen years ago) link
and the vocal track @ 61:10 is killin it too
― deej, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 02:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Ha ha Jess said to me in an e-mail that he really wants to hear the funky house track I described as sounding like Cadenza + Bounty Killer samples.
I will make some attempts at track IDs this evening folks - thanks for posting those mixes rtc and jacob!
"Right now it's much more like when people were talking about 'sunday scene' and 'RIPGroove' first came out and the potential that had to eventually evolve into 2step."
I dunno, couldn't you say the "sunday scene" moment was when "The Cure & The Cause" first blew up? I don't know whether these scenes map on to one another timewise really, but if I had to guess I'd say this is the equivalent of 1998 for 2-step.
Ha ha let's do track equivs:
"The Whole Night (Crazi Cousinz Mix)" = "My Desire (Dreem Teem Mix)" "Feeline" = "Destiny" "Bongo Jam" = "Straight From The Heart" "Yellowtail" = "Spirit of the Sun (S. Gurley Mix)" "Hypnotic" = "Sincere" "Segalizer" = "Kaotic Madness" "Leader" = "Madness On The Streets"
― Tim F, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 02:45 (fifteen years ago) link
deej: http://youtube.com/watch?v=D8e4iWhQHYc
('live wire', nice try marcus!)
quite neat that rose windross should find herself in the midst of all this really.
― r|t|c, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 03:23 (fifteen years ago) link
and yeah otm it is very jaxxy indeed what with the fake capleton-sounding guy in there as well
also 61:10 vocal: http://www.myspace.com/djperempay
― r|t|c, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 03:30 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.myspace.com/urbance - i like this new 'to be vocalled soon i hope' melancholy banger on ng's page
(amazing pink bruise sunrise in ldn right now giving me a cheapo napa moment haha)
― r|t|c, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 04:01 (fifteen years ago) link
j@cob you notice the bit in your ravey one where it goes "mario play the bloodclaat bass"? yeah.
― r|t|c, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 04:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Dissensus/Wire-types are mystifyingly into Rustie and aquacrunk/wonky or whatevs rather than this stuff.
― Raw Patrick, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 07:42 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost: thanks!
Nobody else pick up on that tune? It's doing something quite different with the cheap synth sounds apple uses...
― J@cob, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 08:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah "Mario Play The Bloodlclart" (that ravey tune) is great! The use of the synths feels like an extension on a kind of perky carnivalesque siren thing that quite a few tunes do - see Baby Faced Jay's "Tribal Zone" for example.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 09:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Carnivalesque = Jaxxy?
Jaxx:Funky :: Todd Edwards:2step?
― J@cob, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 09:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Yes! This is why I'm hoping Basement Jaxx get counter-inspired on their next album and return to their roots a bit (and abandon their pointless recent attempts to beat nu-rave at its own game).
― Tim F, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 11:05 (fifteen years ago) link
APHRODISIAX - UNFINISHED BUSINESS
OMG this is so fucking next level.
It's like a funky equiv. of James Lavonz's "Mash Up Da Venue" or the Bump & Flex Dancehall Dub of "All I Do".
Check the myspace for a sample:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=368460659
Actually it sorta sounds almost like IDM in isolation - better in the mix where its essential housiness shines through.
― Tim F, Friday, 11 July 2008 14:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Their "Keep it Moving" is also massive, though again I didn't quite realise it till I heard it in the mix - in Footloose's show for this week.
Also on that mix, Bearfoot Monk's "Wearwolf" is another so-wired-it's-almost-IDM track - makes me think of The Black Dog.
― Tim F, Friday, 11 July 2008 15:41 (fifteen years ago) link