Funky/London/UK House
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Can't get enough of the Petchy sets, best thing I've heard in ages. I love how they've developed Grime levels of lyrical virtuosity but with a more positive, light-heated subject matter. Its exactly what I hoped would happen with the interaction between MCs and Funky. I get bored sometimes listening to sets with no MCs.
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Innit tho - it's a big part of what makes it fresh and exciting for me. Not that there's anything wrong with the grime way of doing things, obviously, but there's no particular need for funky to just become grime mk II, it feels more interesting if it goes somewhere new.
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Prob too late now anyway - but no, sadly I didn't get an advance ticket so can't help you out. I would have been paying the full whack if I made it. You should still go though if you can manage it.
Think my brother is heading down with some friends, he wouldn't know UK funky if it slapped him in the face though. :slanted:
MCing isn't essential for me but I love it on funky even in full-on Petchy mode. I guess because funky always remains so danceable that I don't actually associate it entirely with grime, which had abandoned anything so danceable by the end of 2002.
I said this on the same topic on ILM:
I don't think that funky is turning into grime exactly - though certainly it is like grime in some senses. But I think the better comparison point (which Siah hints at) is dancehall - its balance between dancing and "rapping" (and a sing-songy quality equally drawn from populist dance and R&B) feels persistent in the same way that it does in dancehall, like there's some secret emulsifying ingredient that keeps these qualities in co-existent suspension rather than passing into conflict with one another.
One way of measuring the difference is in the (again, the word seems appropriate) persistent danceability of funky. In terms of garage's transformation into grime, and more precisely the shift from productions/DJs to MCs, the writing ought to have been on the wall way back with "Pulse X", which was danceable but only incidentally and fitfully so. By contrast funky has created a vital role for MCs while never retreating from its status as dance music (although certainly it has retreated from its status as house music, albeit in an asymmetrical manner), and this translates into the approach of MCs. On the DJ Petchy 23 March set just posted on Dissensus (I'll copy the link here) there's a real sense of party time jollity and fun that existed in garage only fleetingly. Whereas in garage that moment was only a transitional side-effect, in funky this is central and crucial.
Perhaps each genre in this process of development partially learns from the "mistakes" of its forebears, in turn opening itself up to new risks-of-sudden-transformation. Garage was wise to the risk of over-abstraction by watching what happened to jungle (though this trend later reared its head in the guise of dubstep) but was caught instead by hip hop's gravitational pull (in the form of grime). I have a strong suspicion that if funky rapidly transforms into something else, it won't be grime mark II, but something else and relatively unexpected.
Of course dancehall, which feels like it's at the centre of all these sounds (jungle, garage, grime, funky), is always a benevolent force on all these styles, IMO.
I said this on the same topic on ILM:
I don't think that funky is turning into grime exactly - though certainly it is like grime in some senses. But I think the better comparison point (which Siah hints at) is dancehall - its balance between dancing and "rapping" (and a sing-songy quality equally drawn from populist dance and R&B) feels persistent in the same way that it does in dancehall, like there's some secret emulsifying ingredient that keeps these qualities in co-existent suspension rather than passing into conflict with one another.
One way of measuring the difference is in the (again, the word seems appropriate) persistent danceability of funky. In terms of garage's transformation into grime, and more precisely the shift from productions/DJs to MCs, the writing ought to have been on the wall way back with "Pulse X", which was danceable but only incidentally and fitfully so. By contrast funky has created a vital role for MCs while never retreating from its status as dance music (although certainly it has retreated from its status as house music, albeit in an asymmetrical manner), and this translates into the approach of MCs. On the DJ Petchy 23 March set just posted on Dissensus (I'll copy the link here) there's a real sense of party time jollity and fun that existed in garage only fleetingly. Whereas in garage that moment was only a transitional side-effect, in funky this is central and crucial.
Perhaps each genre in this process of development partially learns from the "mistakes" of its forebears, in turn opening itself up to new risks-of-sudden-transformation. Garage was wise to the risk of over-abstraction by watching what happened to jungle (though this trend later reared its head in the guise of dubstep) but was caught instead by hip hop's gravitational pull (in the form of grime). I have a strong suspicion that if funky rapidly transforms into something else, it won't be grime mark II, but something else and relatively unexpected.
Of course dancehall, which feels like it's at the centre of all these sounds (jungle, garage, grime, funky), is always a benevolent force on all these styles, IMO.
wise
bare BARE BONES
Listen again to this -
http://djs.totalkiss.com/2010/04/the-kiss-chosen-ones-the-future-of-uk-funky/
Mixes from
Marc Ryder (no not that one)
Miss Fire
DJ Champion
Hardhouse Banton
http://djs.totalkiss.com/2010/04/the-kiss-chosen-ones-the-future-of-uk-funky/
Mixes from
Marc Ryder (no not that one)
Miss Fire
DJ Champion
Hardhouse Banton
mos dan
fact music
everyone's heard slackk's eski house mix by now i hope? if not http://dot-alt.blogspot.com/2010/04/slackk-eski-house-mix.html
funky's persistent danceability is absolutely it's greatest strength for me tim. and it hasn't lost that in its grimier moments (see above). do you not think the role for the mc is somewhat reduced since the death/derision of the skank tune, relative to its height a year or so ago? further, as i've said before, mcs have been forced to be almost apologetic for their presence by a 'we don't want this turning into grime' culture.
but anyway yeah, funky isn't going to turn into grime mark 2, no question. totally different kettle of fish.
funky's persistent danceability is absolutely it's greatest strength for me tim. and it hasn't lost that in its grimier moments (see above). do you not think the role for the mc is somewhat reduced since the death/derision of the skank tune, relative to its height a year or so ago? further, as i've said before, mcs have been forced to be almost apologetic for their presence by a 'we don't want this turning into grime' culture.
but anyway yeah, funky isn't going to turn into grime mark 2, no question. totally different kettle of fish.
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Short answer: yes and no, but mostly no.
MCs might be less prominent on released tunes compared to last year due to the decline in skank tracks (though there are still some MC vocals coming out, and quite a variety too, not just skanks - see some of the tunes listed/discussed upthread).
But MCs are a big presence over sets on the pirates - and not just the LiveFM guys that we're all chatting about and getting fanboy-ish over, but also when guys like Majestic or Rankin appear with Marcus on Rinse now they have a lot more bars and general presence now, and I think are becoming more 'names' in their own right. (My impression is that the big-name MCs are getting good feedback in the raves too, but obv I can't judge this for certain).
Anyway, Slackk's mix is great, if anyone hasn't listened to it then they're mad..
Edit: Top current funky MCs -
Shantie, Topsee, Rankin, Dream, Majestic. I have a lot of time for Mr Bandit too, even though by his own admission he doesn't really have any bars.
Feel free to add/disagree/debate.
Edit again: Not trying to sound like a funky know-it-all with this post. I don't know nuffin about nuffin, in the long view. These are just my own impressions from listening to a fair ammount of the recent music.
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Shantie's guest spot on Rudimental's "Midnight" makes me so happy - it's like he's a funky celebrity now!
I wouldn't read an awful amount into the decline of skank tracks - really that just means the end of MCing-as-novelty. What is becoming much more common is tracks that are fairly blatantly designed for MCs to perform live over - Marcus Nasty and Bassboy's tracks together are a good example of this.
I wouldn't read an awful amount into the decline of skank tracks - really that just means the end of MCing-as-novelty. What is becoming much more common is tracks that are fairly blatantly designed for MCs to perform live over - Marcus Nasty and Bassboy's tracks together are a good example of this.
I got a bit of the set where he and Topsy were guesting on Jerry Rankin's show last week:
http://rapidshare.com/files/3727573...n_b2b_Petchy___Mc_Topsy__29-03-2010_.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/3727573...n_b2b_Petchy___Mc_Topsy__29-03-2010_.mp3.html
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Thanks a lot for this, another great set.
Although I'd endorse the above, I'd disagree a little bit with some of your comments on your piece re slackks' mix, Dan. As occasionally ambiguous as he was, I think it's pretty clear that Marcus's complaints weren't about grimey tracks, or even grimey MCs per se, but specifically the practice of stealing pre-existing tracks without the permission of the producer - by which standard, wouldn't (paradoxically) Lil' Silva be an "anti-grime producer"?
At any rate in terms of grimey production, what with productions from Champion, Nasty/Bass Boy, Undisputed, Scottie D, Enrique Benitez etc. I'd say that there's more grimey tracks now as a proportion of the scene than there were two years ago - though perhaps less than people might have expected.
Actually Champion's mix for that Kiss Chosen Ones special reminds me a bit of Jam City.