Blackdown Funky Blogboy

stanton · Post by **stanton** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:26 pm

Anyone read the latest Blackdown Blog?

It's an excellent read I must say, mainly due to the interview with Soulja, Geeneus & Supa, a real eye-opener to the Funky scene as well as containing several insights to the growth of Grime & Dubstep. It certainly puts FWD's funky/house sets of recent months into perspective (thought I think their booking of some different talent does this too. ie: oneman, Braiden, Scientist).

What is most interesting is that I now realise I have actually attended at least one Funky event. I've got to say that if I wasn't jacked up and with the crowd I was with I don't know if I'd have wanted to dance, but it really seemed to be more of the US side of the sound a bit too vocal, a bit too funky and a bit too Bassless for me. Some of the stuff linked to in the Blog is very much like that to my ears, just like funky house but with a slightly different drum, no thanks. Some of it however is spot on, a rawer sound, slightly breaky and playing on rhythms between the drums and the bass. It's really interesting to hear them talking about the two different sounds and it's made me look further into a scene I might have dismissed otherwise after hearing a few duff tunes.

ufo over easy · Post by **ufo over easy** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:30 pm

wicked article, deserves to be published somewhere. wish you'd see stuff like this in print... I'd actually buy magazines.

what I get from funky at the moment is - sociologically interesting, sonically very boring. I've heard some quite cool bustling percussive stuff but it still didn't really hold my interest for very long.

bob crunkhouse · Post by **bob crunkhouse** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:41 pm

yeh great read. Not really feelin the funky sound though..except DJ NG "tell me" thats a chooooooooooooooon!

stanton · Post by **stanton** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:43 pm

UFO over easy wrote:wicked article, deserves to be published somewhere. wish you'd see stuff like this in print... I'd actually buy magazines.

what I get from funky at the moment is - sociologically interesting, sonically very boring. I've heard some quite cool bustling percussive stuff but it still didn't really hold my interest for very long.

I agree with you to an extent, but what I think the interview really demonstrates is that this scene/sound/woteva really is being formed in the dance as it's essentially all about making music for dancing. 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.

sully_shanks · Post by **sully_shanks** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:15 pm

funky
nah mate house
nah funky house
nah just funky
funny stuff
crossover movements are definately a gd thing tho!!

corpsey · Post by **corpsey** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:20 pm

Great stuff

I especially enjoy reading blanket dismissals of DNB as being soulless formulaic faux-angry music.

EDIT: actually shut my mouth, I understand the general point being made and I suppose I agree. The article proper is very interesting... I suppose it never pays to dismiss an emerging form of music before it gets going properly, and an injection of bounce and fun (without aggro screw face vibes) would be welcome in the underground...

John Locke · Post by **John Locke** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:35 pm

fanny

stanton · Post by **stanton** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:46 pm

Battle Gong wrote:fanny

I wouldn't use that term myself, but I agree that more girls at events can only be a good thing.

oddfellow · Post by **oddfellow** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:48 pm

I liked the article but the point of view that people should get on board because they missed out on garage the first time round doesnt really stand up for me. I appreciate some of the garage sounds since I got into dubstep but thats only because of what dubstep is.

Whatever this genre is at the moment doesnt interest me at all but I am looking forward to what it becomes.

John Locke · Post by **John Locke** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:55 pm

stanton wrote:
Battle Gong wrote:fanny
I wouldn't use that term myself, but I agree that more girls at events can only be a good thing.

was just offering an alternative name 2 funky, which is a shit name (and what italians call funk). fanny seemed both appropriately dismissive and sumhow accurate at the same time

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:58 pm

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. Probably less to analyze for the critics but more fun for the floor.

Can't read blogs at work, but I'll check this later.

[b]racket · Post by **[b]racket** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:26 pm

that was a really interesting read.

thanks.

pete_bubonic · Post by **pete_bubonic** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:31 pm

Good read. Tbh I wasn't even aware there was a difference between Bassline House and modern day Funky House. What are the audible differences?

And surely it's a joke trying to call a genre just 'funky', you can't serious? Bassline and Niche I can understand. But funky is weak.

[b]racket · Post by **[b]racket** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:34 pm

I'm digging some of Apples beats...liking the drum arrangements in some of this stuff..

ufo over easy · Post by **ufo over easy** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:41 pm

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.

blackdown · Post by **blackdown** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:33 pm

some people just dont care about music as much as we do. strange concept i admit, but i suspect it's true

mudda · Post by **mudda** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:41 pm

Blackdown wrote:some people just dont care about music as much as we do. strange concept i admit, but i suspect it's true

"What kind of music are you into?" (Expects 'Indie', 'Hip Hop', 'House' etc.)

"Mainly the more minimal, 4x4 end of dubstep but lately I've been getting into my Berlin dub techno and dabbling in earlier Detroit stuff. And I never get bored of jazz-funk fusion nor pioneering ambient soundscapes."

"Right."

mudda · Post by **mudda** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:58 pm

"Soulja: Major labels have been ringing me to get funky house remixes from Benga and Coki! I'm like, "you've got the wrong people..." "

Who are these people?

bob crunkhouse · Post by **bob crunkhouse** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:38 pm

i know Rod Stewart wanted a Coki refix, pretty sure Keane are working with benga to.

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:38 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.

Hmm...I've always thought that dance music was more of a physical thing than an analytical one. The most effective dance music to my mind is the stuff which you can feel yourself twitching to get on the dancefloor to, not something I'd necessarily write an essay about. Surely the engagement is whether you want to bust a move to it or not, no?

Don't think I've ever hit a floor due to interesting arrangement, sociological context or engineering skills, it's good to have a layer beyond just function, but dance music is supposed to be functional - if no-one wants to dance it's not dance music surely?

Quite liked Apple's stuff by the way, if he could pair those rhythms up with some more variation I'd be laughing. Those soca rhythms work really well I think.

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