ukfunky 'Funky House' - A Profile Of The Scene

[Guest Sorter.]

Funky House: A Profile Of The SceneMelissa Bradshaw, July 11th, 2008 16:57

As the budget flights take the nation's youth off for the summer season in Ayia Napa, Melissa Bradshaw gives The Quietus the lowdown on what's happening in the funky house sceneAs July kicks in London’s sexiest young urban thing will be making its annual pilgrimage to Ayia Napa.I’m talking about funky house, and yes it’s new. Though there’s been no radical upheaval in its musical structure (if there had it wouldn’t be funky house now would it?), several trends, some years long, have coalesced with the result that funky house is currently totally fresh.The scene is comprised of a core of DJs, most of them in their mid/late twenties, who are long term ravers. Some of them, like MA1, Kismet, and NG were into house and garage before 2step evolved and split off from its forebear. By the time grime evolved out of 2step’s darkside, they were alienated. The moody, unpolished sound didn’t do it for them.In the summer of 2006 grime/dubstep blogger Martin Clark aka Blackdown reported on the bubbling funky house scene and speculated that it could provide an alternative to the already increment repetitiousness of dubstep. In 2005 DJ Supa D, who had dabbled in garage and then grime, played a straight house set on station Déjà vu on Christmas Day. The co-founder of Rinse FM, Geeneus, had also started getting into it.By the summer of 2007 the Napa scene saw funky get increasingly mixed in with other current genres. As Blackdown explained, this had a lot to do with the demands of Napa’s ravers, and a kind of anything goes attitude from DJs well known in other scenes. An offshoot of this was a confusion at A&R level that has become the butt of grass roots jokes. One that circulates in particular is about dubstep’s Benga getting called up by A&Rs asking for funky tunes because his tune ‘Night’ had been so ubiquitously mixed in with the sound. Typical A&Rs not knowing their half-steps from their shuffles! Garage and grime DJs in Napa were also picking up on funky via Napa nights like Circle, Precious Love and Red Carpet.At the end of 2007 Warner subsidiary Firm Music put out Pure Garage <, mixed by legendary garage DJ EZ, a staple of the Napa scene, with ‘Night’ next to Shut Up and Dance’s ‘Glory Days’ and on the same CD as bassline’s Wideboys and Dexplicit, and garage heavyweights from Agent X to Sweet Female Attitude. Spring 2008 and Rinse, firming up their newfound clout as a label, put out the first ‘funky’ compilation, mixed by Supa D. (Summer 2008 and Noel Clark’s film Adulthood features a clip of MA1 and Sophia’s ‘I’m Right Here’. If you were a Rinse regular and hadn’t listened in for a year, you’d be in for a tempo shock if you tuned in now: about 60% of their shows are funky. The vibe couldn’t be more different from the dubstep dominance of a year ago.The same goes for funky raves. While dubstep and grime were longtime sausage fests, funky house nights are full of women glammed up to the nines, wearing heels that could puncture your carotid artery, and drinking champagne. The men wear shirts. Because the sound is overarchingly sexy, with a shuffle provided by various rhythmic techniques and a predominance of female vocals, it’s like London reborn out of a long dominance of bass and moody minimalism.Even if you can’t make it out to Napa anytime in the next six weeks, you can still catch the vibe, or at least get ready for the return of the best DJs in the scene by downloading mixes here and here. It’s summer and London’s ready to rave. Just make sure you know about the following:Funky, UK Funky, House and Funky, or Wonky?Some will say ‘I’m going funky raving’. They mean nothing about flares. ‘Funky’ versus ‘Funky House’ both is and isn’t a serious source of contention. The abbreviated term first became used by ravers with their thing for swift moving vernacular. Then certain DJs began to adopt it to describe the specifically UK type of post-grime funky house beginning to be made by DJs like Geeneus and Apple, whose standout tunes Yellowtail (Geeneus) and Mr Bean (Apple) are mapping out new directions for specifically UK house. Then other DJs like Supa and Kismet made it known they’re sticking with ‘funky house’, because funky was a poorly produced bastardised version not in tune the long tradition of masterfully produced global house. Geeneus seems to be going with ‘House and Funky’ in order to keep both sides of it under one roof but still separate. A comic episode occurred earlier this summer when Circle decided to use the term ‘Wonky’, which is currently being used elsewhere to describe a kind of skewiff hip-hop. More on that later.BongosThere are lots of bongos in funky house. Producers like Paris’ DJ Gregory (see legendary track ‘Elle’) and New York’s Osunlade have long mastered the use of bongos and such. In UK funky, Crazy Cousinz’s ‘Bongo Jam’ is a massive hit. It features a male vocal chorus that goes ‘Sometimes I like to wake up in the morning, and play my bong-bong-bongos’ and a little female vocal that goes ‘I love to play my bongos in the moooorning’. Now what does that mean?GrimeThe NASTY crew producer Marcus Nasty has an infamous reputation in grime. He got into funky in Napa and now DJs pure funky on Déjà vu. This summer he appears to be going to mostly to Malia, so Roll Deep members don’t have to worry about getting into fights with him and ending up in jail and no bail. The other former big grime DJ is Perempay Perempay, who was once Bossman from Essentials. His track with Dee, ‘In The Air’ is getting time from Choice and 1xtra. Look out in future for the f*ck*ng gorgeous ‘Time To Let Go’, with astonishing Minnie Ripperton challenging vocals by Clea Soul.SexAs well as bongos and letting go, be prepared for seduction by Kyla, who asks on ‘Do You Mind’ with a baby soft voice, if she can take you home and shag you all night. There are lots of other vocals about getting wet and flying jets. Meanwhile on NG’s ‘Tell Me’ Katy B conveys the sultry compulsion of a confusing sexual attraction. Geeneus ran a monthly night called Sex, before he went weekly with Incognito. There is also a funky DJ called - Marco Del Horno.CirclesCircle, comprised of Kismet, Supa D, IC, Feva, and MCs Tippa and Gemini, do officially my favourite radio show of the moment. They play a lot of global house, with the tech-y Dennis Ferrer next to the sumptuous nu-jazz of Jazz-Tronik’s and Christian stuff like DJ Disciple. A well respected dubstep DJ is also known to have had his funky ‘moment’ to a Circle set. Circle have recently started a ‘Say No To Wonky’ campaign. Blackdown’s latest funky updates have noted the remarkable similarity to when in 2000 the UK Garage Council campaigned to veto the cocky little yout that was 2step. Meanwhile pretty much everyone who writes about funky at the moment can’t help talking about things going round in circles. And Kismet plays a lot of Peven Everett, who vocalled Roy Davis Jnr’s awesome ‘Gabriel’, a version by IC of which he Kis and Perempay have been playing a lot of, of late. ‘Gabriel’ is credited with kicking off the original UK garage movement. Full…

[Guest WAVE MACHINE]

the way i never knew bossman was perempay.

[Nola D]

i didnt even read this properly will come back to it, but i will say one thing: Ive been listening to funky for a longish time now and the funky scene atm is f*cked. It's been well and truly bastardized/bangwagoned resulting in shitter raves/and poor production tunes ie. funky anthem, every shelf life crazi cousin song etc..I could talk about this all day long tbh...

[Gordon Gekko]

Thing is, what is it with our UK scene's and people ALWAYS feel the need to give music different names which are still under the umbrella just coming from a diferent directionIt is a pisstake imo that EVERY little genre that starts gettin bigger, they start tryin 2 change the name or say that other people dont make ... they make ... just because it doesnt sound like the rest of the sh*t

[spiderman]

decent read, but they seem a bit biased and exagerattive.lol @ 60% of the shows are funky on rinse. der pushing it, but not THAT much.

[The Facilitator]

i didnt even read this properly will come back to it, but i will say one thing: Ive been listening to funky for a longish time now and the funky scene atm is f*cked. It's been well and truly bastardized/bangwagoned resulting in shitter raves/and poor production tunes ie. funky anthem, every shelf life crazi cousin song etc..I could talk about this all day long tbh...

I hear that completely, I was listening to that DJ twista mix & theres some tunes from Jay Swift & Spyro which are literally grime with bongos.

[Guest Sorter.]

decent read, but they seem a bit biased and exagerattive.lol @ 60% of the shows are funky on rinse. der pushing it, but not THAT much.

when ever i lock on its pure house...mainly day times....

[YFSD]

I must have the censored version of that Kyla tune then FFS

[Sinister]

the way i never knew bossman was perempay.

Alie.I didn't even know it was him."Techniques!"

[spiderman]

decent read, but they seem a bit biased and exagerattive.lol @ 60% of the shows are funky on rinse. der pushing it, but not THAT much.

when ever i lock on its pure house...mainly day times....

key bit being daytime. i reckon its gettin the majority of the airtime, but rinse plays so much that i cant see it being 60%. more like 40 at most.dats good tho, i think thats refreshing cos the funky sets in the day are more of a jam, then at night it gets a bit more raw.rinse has come a long long way, will be sick on the 14th bday.

[Gordon Gekko]

Swear Rinse are doing that just for their bid to get Rinse a legal before everythin changes innit

[Guest Sorter.]

should be legal if it stays the same....but i bet if it goes legal it will be sh*t.

[Gordon Gekko]

Yeah innit, you can see their tryin with the breakfast show with Scratcha hostin but thats actually good show but if they get legal you can say bye bye to the live grime sets n that because i doubt theyll still allow a gang of them to come in especially since they restricted it already in their bid to get legal

[Sinister]

Would be a sad day if Rinse got made Legal.But i swear legal radio stations arent a means to make money.Radio stations are already struggling to make P, now u got internet radio and digital.(whens the digital switchover)

[Guest Sorter.]

Would be a sad day if Rinse got made Legal.But i swear legal radio stations arent a means to make money.Radio stations are already struggling to make P, now u got internet radio and digital.(whens the digital switchover)

but supposedly Rinse is making MAD cash at the moment.

[Jo Dark]

Is it only the owners of Rinse who get paid at the moment? Would the DJs get paid if they went legal?

[spiderman]

Would be a sad day if Rinse got made Legal.

ye it would change too much if it turned legal.its bound to tho, its got underground british music on lock.it makes bare money off raves aswell.

[Sinister]

Would be a sad day if Rinse got made Legal.But i swear legal radio stations arent a means to make money.Radio stations are already struggling to make P, now u got internet radio and digital.(whens the digital switchover)

but supposedly Rinse is making MAD cash at the moment.

Yeah I heard this as well, but trusay it's just decks a mic and a room.You go legal and ur costs go thru the roof.Pluss you gotta pay the DJs

[Guest Sorter.]

Is it only the owners of Rinse who get paid at the moment? Would the DJs get paid if they went legal?

yeah at the mo, djs pay subs to get on, if they went legal they would have to pay the DJs....

[Guest Sorter.]

i believe all the pink ones are house shows...

[Sinister]

7 Grime shows.SMH

[Jo Dark]

Is it only the owners of Rinse who get paid at the moment? Would the DJs get paid if they went legal?

yeah at the mo, djs pay subs to get on, if they went legal they would have to pay the DJs....

Ah, so would the owners benefit drastically if they went legal? Would they have to bring in other types of music to get more money as a legal station?

[Guest Sorter.]

7 Grime shows.SMH

grimes dead tho...

[Guest Sorter.]

Is it only the owners of Rinse who get paid at the moment? Would the DJs get paid if they went legal?

yeah at the mo, djs pay subs to get on, if they went legal they would have to pay the DJs....

Ah, so would the owners benefit drastically if they went legal? Would they have to bring in other types of music to get more money as a legal station?

well theyed get alot more money from advertising, but i think theyd have to pay royalities, taxes, wages ect ect....

[Thun]

The bandwagon for funky has become stupid.It will be dead this time next year.