Blackdown Funky Blogboy

pete_bubonic · Post by **pete_bubonic** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:18 am

Paulie wrote:What I can't work out from this thread is whether people think there's any musical value in this, or whether it's just a social phenomenon.

I think there's some quality Bassline out there, I don't think much if any is ground breaking or really pushing boundaries (because that's not it's aim obviously), but as more people get drawn into it maybe that will happen. Some kooky off beat SHackleton remix of Heartbroken! YUS PLEASE!

ozols man · Post by **ozols man** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:06 pm

haha... i reckon its ironic how funky is supposed to be the new ghetto music yet the producers r listing bugz as their influences. bugz being a crew having members from private school

u gotta love underground music

skipple · Post by **skipple** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:20 pm

pete bubonic wrote:
Paulie wrote:What I can't work out from this thread is whether people think there's any musical value in this, or whether it's just a social phenomenon.
I think there's some quality Bassline out there, I don't think much if any is ground breaking or really pushing boundaries (because that's not it's aim obviously), but as more people get drawn into it maybe that will happen. Some kooky off beat SHackleton remix of Heartbroken! YUS PLEASE!

its all about this remix really
www.myspace.com/therealnorequests

conspira · Post by **conspira** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:58 pm

Paulie wrote:What I can't work out from this thread is whether people think there's any musical value in this, or whether it's just a social phenomenon.

just a social phenomenon, don't see anything new here.

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:44 pm

Good read on the Blackdown blog.

I don't really like the term "funky house" as a lot of pretty bad dance music, imho, comes out under that banner.

If I'm not listening to dubstep, dub or hip hop I'm generally listening to Italo Disco, which has quite a dedicated follwing in london. Good vibes, good peoples, really upbeat electro disco with a definite 80's feel to it...

Anyone listen to much italo then?

fushimi · Post by **fushimi** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 3:03 pm

Shonky wrote:
Fushimi wrote:I know the reasons but I still can't get my head around people going from making angry, raw, exciting, huge, aggressive, mindblowing grime tunes to making staid house music. It's like directing a groundbreaking widely-admired indie movie then deciding to direct episodes of Eastenders - yeah your audience will always be bigger, but you're just punching a clock.
a/ what's so mindblowing and exciting about angry grime - I like some of it, but let's face it, I don't really enjoy people shouting threats in real life, and the vicarious thrills of being around angry people isn't that exciting if you've ever been about in a town centre at kicking out time. Not all grime, mind, don't take it personally grime people.

Good grime doesn't involve people shouting random threats. I don't listen to it for a "vicarious thrill" as you put it. It reminds me of people who say they don't like grime cos they "can't relate to the lyrics" - nobody actually listens to music, considers the lyrical content and how it relates to their own life experience, then decides whether they like the track. Put the best grime next to the best of the recent funky house and which is gonna be more raw, exciting, mindblowing and groundbreaking?

Shonky wrote:b/ you haven't actually listened to any of the links have you? And you don't like house anyway by the sounds of it. Your loss

I listened to nothing but house and techno since my first CD single (Chemical Brothers - Leave Home) till about 3 or 4 years ago when I broadened my horizons.

nubian minds · Post by **nubian minds** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:27 pm

UFO over easy wrote:
Shonky wrote:
stanton wrote:So it's kinda a moot point to say it's boring if it's not really bothered about being listened to as much as danced to.
Exactly. If people are looking for something less serious, more danceable (rather than skankable) and ultimately more fun, that does rather indicate the lack of that in the previously dominant music.
Meh, but it's boring from a dancefloor point of view as well. Some folks might be happy dancing away merrily to music they can completely ignore but in order to feel the urge to dance I need music that's interesting enough to get me going in the first place. I don't see how you can have one without the other.. how can you dance without being engaged by what you're dancing to, it doesn't make any sense.

you for real?

You can't understand ppl just dancing for the sake of dancing?
or for the sake of letting their hair down & having a good time?

That's what house music (in whatever direction it takes) essentially is all about. Getting dressed up,going to the local discotheque on a Friday or Saturday night & dancing your ass off & forgetting about all the troubles & strife in your life!

That's the very basis for dance music,the principle this while thing was built on and how some people forget that or think they are beyond or better than that totally escapes me.

That's one of life's great pleasures just getting out their and dancing your ass off all night long & getting lost in the moment.

So if you can't understand why ppl are having those same experiences to this 4x4 house or whatever else that really is your loss.

Come on Ben-go out & shake your body sometime you just might like it

ufo over easy · Post by **ufo over easy** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:46 pm

why would you want just that if you can have both? that's the only bit I find difficult to understand. obviously I get that music is subjective and all that stuff but that's why I qualified myself earlier by saying I get the impression that it's (rather bland) purely functional wallpaper

it's not like you have to choose between dancing and music you like.. especially not these days, with a billion nights to choose from in london every week

I'm also not against house in all it's many forms, I like loads of 4x4 stuff

nubian minds · Post by **nubian minds** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:24 pm

UFO over easy wrote: that's why I qualified myself earlier by saying I get the impression that it's (rather bland) purely functional wallpaper

but all,ok maybe 95% of music is merely functional wallpaper (As u so eloquently put it)

just something for housewives to stick on the radio while they are doing the ironing or have in the car while dropping the kids.It's the tiny,tiny subgenres that make up the other 5% where you have the trainspotters geeking out and paying more attention to detail than your average listener.

But in that geekery (something I've been guilty of for quite a while) you forget about the very essence of music and it's real power can be lost through the over-analysis of it all.

Sometimes you have to forget being a nerd ,join the other 95% of the population, get out have a good time & shock out!!!!

ufo over easy · Post by **ufo over easy** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:45 pm

come off it colin

nubian minds · Post by **nubian minds** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:00 pm

UFO over easy wrote:come off it colin

(I'm off to put on my 'girls aloud' cd)

4linehaiku · Post by **4linehaiku** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:33 pm

The problem is that there is lots of far superior purely functional dance music out there. And I'm yet to hear anything that holds any interest past that level either. That Apple guy is alright, but if that's the best on offer it's got some way to go. At the moment its only positive qualities seem to be that it has more money and more girls than Grime. So does Indie, that's not massively impressive. The Garage analogy would certainly imply that this will lead to exciting things, but it's not there yet.
I do regret writing off Garage, but I'm not going to start supporting 'funky' just because at some point it might get good. It's been the bland soundtrack to a million small town Saturday nights for years, and the fact that a few Grime DJs have jumped on it is yet to radically change that as far as I can see. Plus Bassline is much better.

There's also the fact that I'm a middle-class white kid who's never "dressed to impress" in his life, doesn't own any shoes that aren't trainers, or trousers that aren't jeans. So I don't think I'd even get in.

pangaea · Post by **pangaea** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:45 pm

geeky musos are a hard bunch to please

"you only want interesting music to dance to?"

jim · Post by **jim** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:19 pm

4linehaiku wrote:It's been the bland soundtrack to a million small town Saturday nights for years, and the fact that a few Grime DJs have jumped on it is yet to radically change that as far as I can see.

Funky is different to funky house a la hed kandi etc. though.

I have yet to hear anything too interesting from funky but I look forward to hearing the rinse mix. even if it turns out not to be too great I do like that funky is inevitably going to piss off the kind of people who need pissed off.

jim · Post by **jim** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:20 pm

Although dressing up is the opposite of what should be happening in a club as far as I'm concerned.

4linehaiku · Post by **4linehaiku** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:24 pm

jim wrote:Funky is different to funky house a la hed kandi etc. though.

Is it? Isn't it? Funky != House != Funky House except if the afterparty crowd is grimey and there's been at least 2 reloads and Jon E Cash didn't MC. Etc etc. I thought that confusion and inability to say what is and isn't funky was precisely what we're supposed to be getting excited about.

jim · Post by **jim** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:26 pm

Well I don't know much about it but it certainly doesn't seem to sound much like the kind of funky house you will hear blaring out of your local Yate's wine lodge.

EDIT: Well yeah it does a bit, but it does seem quite distinct as well.

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:27 pm

Fushimi wrote:Put the best grime next to the best of the recent funky house and which is gonna be more raw, exciting, mindblowing and groundbreaking?

If you change that to

Fushimi wrote:Put the best recent grime next to the best of the recent funky house and which is gonna be more raw, exciting, mindblowing and groundbreaking?

grime would probably be more raw, but on other accounts (unless I've missed some particularly original grime lately, which is possible) probably about the same.

Maybe it's just my past as a teenage metal fan, but I don't really see anything that exciting about that sort of sound any more, a lot of its as innovative as using a fuzzbox. And I didn't say all grime, presumably the mellower stuff can quite easily be played alongside funky house, bassline or whatever.

4linehaiku · Post by **4linehaiku** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:48 pm

Think recent Grime wins raw and exciting hands down. Groundbreaking not so much, but Funky ain't the one for that either. Let's not pretend that people are jumping ship because of sonic innovation, it's money, ladies and dances.

Shonky I reckon you should wait for Soul Food 3 before you write off Grime though, looks like it might be the best thing for a while.

4linehaiku · Post by **4linehaiku** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:50 pm

I should probably follow my own advise and listen to this Rinse Mix before I continue to slate it, but my experience so far is pretty consistent, and it's not good.

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