What is the difference between Bassline, Funky and Niche?

your mum · Post by **your mum** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:40 pm

epithet wrote:I wish hyperdub had caught on as the name for dubstep cos at least kode9 has a clear definition for that. I prefer fidget to bassline/niche or funky.

To be fair I think I'd feel like an absolute twat telling anyone I liked Hyperdub. Dubstep's borderline. Still prefer the standard 'lots of weird shit'

felixgash · Post by **felixgash** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:45 pm

Plastician wrote:There's definitely a difference in sound between "Funky" and "Funky House"

Again, not sure what the name is all about but this new Funky sound sounds a bit like a more minimal take on the funky house sound. It's less in your face and definitely has an almost tribal feel to a lot of the beats.

That soca style drum pattern seems to be prominent in a lot of the stuff.

It sounds to me like Funky is to Funky House as Grime was to dark 2 Step at about the same time the 2 step was becoming more intelligent thru the likes of El B and Zed Bias

Been trying to tell this to many a person recently, but to no avail.

"Funky House" has become a sort of generic, umbrella term for the more commercial, often vocal, club-directed style of House - all your Kiss/Capital style of House. You'd even get a few of the more 'Electro' House tune falls under the "Funky House" category, 'Detroit' comes to mind.

"Funky" is pretty much nothing like "Funky House". It's deeper and more soulful, deriving a lot of its influence from the US Garage style beats of the early 90s and onwards - artists like Kerri Chandler and The Masters At Work come to mind.

But its starting to take off in it's own direction, as the Plastic guy said, you can clearly hear a 'black' (Soca) influence as well as the whole broken beat feel.

"Funky" is not Bob Sinclar, Junior Jack, Booty Luv, Moto Blanco and what have you.. it's far from it! That's generically labelled "Funky House".

The scene's bubbling, its still young - and it really needs a name change!

slothrop · Post by **slothrop** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:48 pm

DJ Whistla wrote:but yeh bassline and niche are v diff from funky to be sure
genre names eh?!

Yeah, to be honest I'm normally one of the people who jumps out to defend genre-itis when some idiot starts saying "why do you have all these stupid subgenres like house and trance and jungle, it's all music innit" but looking at a few recent threads I think people would maybe do well to just listen to the bloody tunes and decide whether they're any good or not than to obsess over what it's called and whether it deserves its own genre name, if people want to call what they're doing 'funky' I don't see how it bothers me.

edit: but yeah, I quite like this percussive soca-ish stuff, wouldn't mind hearing more of that sort of influence in dubstep, too, actually.

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:53 pm

Slothrop wrote: edit: but yeah, I quite like this percussive soca-ish stuff, wouldn't mind hearing more of that sort of influence in dubstep, too, actually.

Used to be all over the place before the plodders moved in

ory · Post by **ory** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:12 pm

felixGash wrote:"Funky" is pretty much nothing like "Funky House". It's deeper and more soulful, deriving a lot of its influence from the US Garage style beats of the early 90s and onwards - artists like Kerri Chandler and The Masters At Work come to mind.

Which begs the question, why is it called funky when it isn't funky at all? Chicago brought the funk to house music, New York brought the soul. US Garage is a NY thing.

felixgash · Post by **felixgash** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:19 pm

Ory wrote:
felixGash wrote:"Funky" is pretty much nothing like "Funky House". It's deeper and more soulful, deriving a lot of its influence from the US Garage style beats of the early 90s and onwards - artists like Kerri Chandler and The Masters At Work come to mind.
Which begs the question, why is it called funky when it isn't funky at all? Chicago brought the funk to house music, New York brought the soul. US Garage is a NY thing.

Well yeah, what's "funk" really..?! I mean, I like to say I mix House music, period, but if people ask me what kind I say something like the 'deeper, more soulful kind, skippy stuff with jazzy chords and a bit of funk".. lol, you get my point?! It's 'funky', but its not "Funky House".. (saying that I mix "funky house" and "electro" too so it's all peppercorn sauce!)

Commercial branding, doesn't mean much more.

stanton · Post by **stanton** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:20 pm

your mum wrote:Dubstep's borderline.

My sister and most of my chums who're not into this kind of music still piss themselves about the name 'dubstep' and never fail to ask me if I'm "off to step class" whenever I go out to a dance. At least hyperdub is knowingly ridiculous, there are far too many people taking all this too seriously.

Genre names are a curse and blessing, for instance I'm pleased that people have begun using the term 'horror core' to descirbe that nasty hacksaw-through-your-skull-wobble stuff. If it takes off as a genre name then it might get it's own dividers in record shops and I'll never have the misfortune of accidentally listening to it again.

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:22 pm

stanton wrote:Genre names are a curse and blessing, for instance I'm pleased that people have begun using the term 'horror core' to descirbe that nasty hacksaw-through-your-skull-wobble stuff. If it takes off as a genre name then it might get it's own dividers in record shops and I'll never have the misfortune of accidentally listening to it again.

With you on this one Stanton. Only thing is that I noticed the other day that horrorcore is a subdivision of dnb at my local record emporium.

ory · Post by **ory** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:24 pm

felixGash wrote:Well yeah, what's "funk" really..?!

Funk make you wanna jack, soul make you wanna groove.

ok that doesn't really clarify anything, does it?

felixgash · Post by **felixgash** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:27 pm

Listen to a bit of Finger Inc., 'Can You Feel It', explains it all!

ps. Check the mix in my sig if you like your Deep House bro.. it's good...!

cody · Post by **cody** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:39 pm

its just music!

genre names were actually invented by record shops in 1901 to help them come up with another way of categorizing tunes apart from alphabetically

meh

pete_bubonic · Post by **pete_bubonic** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:52 pm

cody wrote:its just music!

genre names were actually invented by record shops in 1901 to help them come up with another way of categorizing tunes apart from alphabetically

meh

LOL.

Genre names have been around a little longer than that. As humans are brains are hard wired to categorise. Although DnB goes a little extreme on that front

concept_ · Post by **concept_** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:07 pm

Felix
""Funky" is not Bob Sinclar" - listen to Bob Sinclar's earlier stuff on the Africanism label- this most definately reeks of UK Funky

out to Stanton saying genre names are a curse and blessing- its important to categorise and recognise the difference, but people seem to get far to hung up in it and specifics and forget to enjoy the music for what it is.

Some of you might know DJ NG (of Tell Me fame). He takes a really interesting stance on the emergence of the new Funky thing and jus music "genrelisation" as a whole. He plays a number of genres, taking his roots from UK Garage and incorporating the House 4x4 beat and the soca and tribal sounds and a load of other stuff, but he calls it by his own genre URBANCE or urban dance- basically anything that he is feeling that he will play- a good re-appropriation if you ask me, to avoid the whole argument. Man knows his stuff as well- wrote a massive dissertation on UK Garage at uni.

ozols man · Post by **ozols man** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:12 pm

mwhahaha my mate just came round for a mix with some of the latest "funky", the beats were hard - kinda dark almost like grime, with raw unprocessed drums, definetly sounding nice

concept_ · Post by **concept_** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:20 pm

ozols man wrote:mwhahaha my mate just came round for a mix with some of the latest "funky", the beats were hard - kinda dark almost like grime, with raw unprocessed drums, definetly sounding nice

what tunes?
listen to some of the stuff perempay and dee are doing on the funky circuit now. This brings it back to grime alot.

felixgash · Post by **felixgash** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:32 pm

concept_ wrote:Felix
""Funky" is not Bob Sinclar" - listen to Bob Sinclar's earlier stuff on the Africanism label- this most definately reeks of UK Funky

I meant Bob Sinclar in the "World Hold On" and "Everybody's Free" sense, his later, completely commercial bits. =]

As for his Africanism bits, the "UK Funky" sound reeks of them..

dub boy · Post by **dub boy** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:34 pm

Im really feeling the funky stuff at the minute. I prefer the darker instrumental tunes with those tribal soca style beats.

There's some stuff near the end of that Marcus Nasty set on Dejavu that Blackdown blogged that's great.... really good kinda trample vibes.

I reckon this summer funky's gonna be HUGE at carnivals. Can't wait

struggle · Post by **struggle** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:34 pm

DJ Whistla wrote: i wudnt mind it all just being called "garage" again

dub boy · Post by **dub boy** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:35 pm

Bassline's wierd...

There's lots of good stuff granted, but so much of it sounds like hard house! uuuuuuuuuuuurgh

tiggertigger · Post by **tiggertigger** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 6:00 pm

Bassline & Niche are essentially the same thing. Not quite dark 4/4 as in the Narrows style, but very close to what grime would be if you sped it up and forced it over a 4/4 pattern - lots of string stabs, gliding square synths, crunching basses. The vocals are generally R&B take offs or very glassy thin US influenced female vocals. There is a slight offshoot they call Organ House (think What's It Gonna Be as opposed to Heartbroken) which as it sounds, includes organ basses. Niche is the name of the club that the sound was pioneered in. If you want to hear what's going on look out for TRC, TS7, DJ Q, Delinquents, Witty Boy, Burga Boy & JTJ.

I think Geeneus summed up funky best - "anything with a 4/4 kick underneath with the right vibe". Its great because its like experimenting with that format, changing from a traditional house beat to a soca-like off kick beat (think Cure And The Cause). Its generally quite moody and minimalist when it comes to the chords used when UK produced, but saying that one of the anthems is Shaun Escoffery - Days Like This. Musically it focuses largely on rhodes, quite squelchy synths and is very influenced by the US Garage of old. A real departure back to the roots of garage in some respect.

Hope those points are comprehensive enough!

What is the difference between Bassline, Funky and Niche?

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