MC’s on Funky

There has been quite a bit of debate on whether grime MC’s should jump on funky or not. I for one don’t mind it if the music is good, MC’s spitting on good rhythms is kind of what they do best. But anyway the recent talk about this has generally not really interested me, neither has the music to be honest, until I stumbled upon an old documentary on Hip-House in Chicago in 1989 and it turns out there are a hell of a lot of parallels to what is going on today on the UK underground. Watch it for yourself bellow…

Cooly G – Narst / Love Dub Refix / Love Dub [Hyperdub]

Original writen for the Sonic Router bass blog and all round good egg, it just had to go up here aswell as I'm a sucka for Cooly's beats and I wrote about her self released EP a while back here Vol.s 2 & 3 of which are out now, but here is the big one the Hyperdub 12".

UK funky is making moves on the underground with its soca infused beats, house tempo, big bass, smooth grooves and that all important hint of dirt. It’s the juxtaposition of light and dark vibes that makes UK funky interesting, plus the massively danceable beats of course.

Singer and producer Cooly G hailing from South London where so much UK bass music has been pioneered before, drops her debut 12” for forward pushing, genre spanners Hyperdub who always have their ear to the ground for new and exciting hybrids. This platter shows both sides of funky while also helping to push it in new directions.

The first track ‘Narst’ comes on like a dirty grime infused dance floor shaker reminiscent of recent instrumentals from Nocturnal fed via old school Chicago house. It kind of sounds like the most gritty of super hero’s theme tunes, but one with a bit of slinky class like Cat Woman. The strings build and dub out before big house kicks propel everything forward and the other percussion funks it up into a big danceable beast before the chest beating bass throws down on you.

The flip which features ‘Love Dub’ and its refix is defiantly a highlight the intricate soca drum patterns flow, shake, bump and groove in all directions and make you want to wind your body in new and sexy ways. This is the smooth loved up end of UK funky, pure vibes. Cooly G sings snippets in her sweet and slinky way as smooth loved up chords get all warm and fuzzy above and the bass punches bellow, its all so spaced out mellow and minimal yet insanely danceable. The original and refix aren’t to dissimilar they both bring dubbed out vibes and amazing percussion with the soulful feel but the refix kind of steps up the kick a little.

Cooly G takes funky in new directions here by really stepping up the production values and making some really minimal forward thinking sounds all of her own.

http://www.myspace.com/coolyg

Cooly G – DUB OrGANIzER Vol.1

Cooly G takes funky into a whole other deep direction. The bass is huge and the beats remind me of that really old minimal / stripped back Chicago house but with a mad little London skip, grime and edge to them. Awesome stuff, she is going to be huge on the dance floor this year I reckon. There are big things coming from her in the form of a Hyperdub release as well, you don't get much cooler than that!

DUB OrGANIzER Vol.1 is a wicked collection of deep and lilting funky it manages to be sophisticated and sexy sounding yet a little bit raw all at once. First track Dis Boy Pt. 4 has a low slung steel drum and trumpet vibe to it but they don’t sound like your regular drum and horn combo as all her percussion is really deepy, skippy and clicky like its made by machine and filtered through and organic funk grinder. The horns are deep in the mix and filtered low, they give it a nice grimey sound. Little soulful vocal snippets and samples give all these tracks a really nice housey style. On track two Ya Instrumental you can really hear the bass working and the African rhythm’s that are so prevalent in this vibrant funky scene at the moment, this track really reminds me of Township Funk by DJ Majuva but a lot more mellow and spacey.

If you don’t know already funky is a dirty London swung house hybrid that kind of echoes past swung and housey scenes that seem to come out of our capital city, you know the ones UK Garage / 2-Step which mutated into Grime / Dubstep. Funky is another beast though it takes elements of house that has always been a big part of UK club culture and mixes it with the rhythmic flows of Africa. Not unlike house has done in the past, I mean in the early days house from Detroit and Chicago was a lot looser than some of it is now. The strict four to the floor kick patterns kind of took over really. But anyway funky brings the funk back by adding a new variation on swing by joining the dots somewhere between house, grime, dubstep and African style drumming. It’s kind of a UK version of Kwaito but that’s a whole other kettle of fish for another time…

Back to Cooly G, Craze Refix pounds and skips while ghostly vocal snippets usher the track in and melt into an acid line. Acid has always been a big part of house things really kicked off when someone got hold of a 303 and got tweaking. So the Craze Refix follows this tradition and puts a deep and hypnotic twist onto it. What I love about this funky scene is that it’s putting the bass back into house again, it’s something that has been lost a little over time, it’s like the second coming of the bleep and bass manuva of Warp in the early 90’s but with a slight contempory flavour. The final track on the EP is Floating a mellow little number with some really cool lyrical samples that flow over the soul drenched house patterns.

There is something really compelling about Cooly G’s take on funky it strips away everything that I can find a bit annoying about the scene, which is the overly cheesey stuff with dance moves and just down right blatant rip offs of old house. She’s not as dirty and grimey as people like Lil Sillva, Apple and D Malice she has her own deeper style that puts her out on her own at the moment. Cooly is pushing it in her own little direction and it’s very refreshing indeed. I can see her getting picked up far and wide by house and minimal heads as well as funky and dubstep DJ’s.

You can buy the DUB OrGANIzER Vol.1 EP direct from her myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/coolyg

Hyperdub Up and Coming

Hyperdub is setting it’s self up well for the beginning of 2009 with some quality slabs of bass music. Stretching its already diverse catalogue into territories far and wide, well this time it’s going a bit funky at least. I will maybe do an article on funky soon enough but for now just check this out. It made my jaw drop.

HDB018 A. Joker - 'Digidesign' AA. 2000F & J Kamata - 'You Don't Know What Love Is'

Late February

These two tracks have been around for quite some time now but they still rock so hard. Digidesign has to be one of my favourite Joker tracks so far and the 2000F & J Kamata tune is some next level P-Funk vocoder business.

Joker

2000F

J Kamata

HDB019 LD A. Traumatic Times AA. Woodblock early 2009

I think LD played these in his Marry Ann Hobbs showcase but I’m not to sure about that. LD is blowing me away right now with his funky swinging and driving drum patterns he just has so much soul and a wicked dancy vibe. Check out an interview with LD by 3barfire’s Markle here.

LD

HDB020 Cooly G A. Narst AA. Love Dub / Love Dub refix Out in March

Cooly G is almost an unknown to me, I say almost as I found her just yesterday and thought to myself, now this is some good shit. Then I went for a peek on dubstepforum like you do and found out that Kode 9 had picked up some of her tracks for release! She makes a deep funky kind of house, you know funky as in funky. It sounds pretty different to your average funky too so may well push the sound into yet more diverse territories. She also has a self-released CD out soon that you can cop from her.

Cooly G

HYP009 A. Kode9 - Black Sun B. Kode9 - 2 Far Gone March release

I will let the video of Black Sun speak for it’s self here:





This is one fucked up funky paced wonky bleep fest from what I can gather, I’ve only really seen it on the video so we will have to wait and see what the rest is like. Big things!

Kode 9

Then:

‘don't worry . . .it all goes to shit after this one
got a double ep from this guy from bavaria playin the spoons wooden spoons, mind you, not some formulaic metal spoon sheet’
Hyperdub (2008)