Funk, flava and quotes

[mesh]

im not havin a go at you, but i cant stand reading people runt how this kind of people are loosers because they make this kind of tunes, and arent trying to make anthems...
maybe they DONT want to make anthems mate! thought about that?
maybe they want to make a tune (not a song), which is goin to be heard from a small label boss, he'll rock to it, release it, sell 1000 copies, then played at small gigs for like 5 months, and then forgoten.
To my opinion, thats better than making a super likebale infectious riffage anthem, which is goin to be battered for years upon years.
why spend all this energy into one tune, when you can make 20 at the same time.
If you know that your tunes got an expiry date, then youre always need to look forward. You finished a tune, good, start work on the next one. Dont just stand there, listening your masterpiece anthem, and jerking off to the idea of how cool you are, and how many good reviews you gonna get in Knowledge..

I think thats an interesting distinction to make, I'm especially interested in the bolded sentence. The faceless aspect of dnb, which enables a lot of good stuff to happen creatively is not so much there when a producer makes an anthem, its true.
But I disagree that it is 'better' than making 'infectious riffage anthems'. I think a lot of great moments have been created by producers deliberately trying to do just that over the years.

Its important to keep this in context, this has happened for years in rave and dnb, and we're not gonna change it. People always copy/rip-off successful tunes, and in any rush based culture like dnb people will always get sick of what sounded excellent just months ago, just because they've heard it before.

I'm all for taking the intellectualism and chin-stroking out of dnb, but I think its a bit misplaced to accuse artists like Pendulum of jerking off to their success. Like you, I can't stand listening to a rant about how people are losers because they make a certain type of sound, in this case wildly successful, popular anthems.

I agreed with Dustek's 'techstep rut' comment, but I have been caning tunes by Silent Witness - Atlanta, and Spirit -Re-Dial on the radio every week. I guess they're 'techy' but I try not to think about them that way.
**In fact 'techstep' as I know it disappeared in the old school revival of 2000-01. I mean the No U Turn sound etc. People got sick of it and moved on, but I pulled out Check Me Out by Ed Rush out of the crate last weekend. Sick tune.
Sometimes this music, which is so based around intense, immediate experiences, is fertile ground for knee-jerk reactions. I will deliberately have one from time to time, and I think we all do. "Fuck it, I've had enough neuro, its everywhere, rah !! blah!!" Doesnt mean I stop liking it, I'll probably buy some the next week. Its like eating too many chips and then all of a sudden you're sick of them. Until you get blazed again, and then its on like donkey kong.

 

[Dustek]

just had an image of a tech-clown WITH A COWBELL COWSTEPPING out of my basement.

shit, ey.

 

[bloodfire]

what do you guys concider to be tech theres so many sub genres in drum n bass . name some djs or artist that you think play or produce tech . i mean if i hear a tune and i like it i buy it. these sub genres dont mean much to me. my record collecion has artist like calibre, tech itch, niosia, sub focus, bad company yeah there different styles of dnb but its all drum n bass . if i heard a tune that you would call tech and liked it id buy it. i try not to get stuck in to one style. some ppl will only listen to one style of dnb its a bit sad

 

[Dustek]

I was doing some research for Wiki and found this:

"A resident of New York ("it's not as glamorous as it sounds, I live in this neighbourhood where I have to pay protection money to rude boy gangsters just to get in my flat") he is generally quite denigrating about the current state of drum & bass, last time he was here it was the era of the noise for noise's sake practitioners. "Too many of the producers that people rabbit on about these days don't realise what the roots of the music were," he says, giggling. "It's just rubbish to believe that you can write a good drum & bass track without a funky element, that you can win people over with noise. A couple of years ago, when everybody was falling over themselves for that sound, Dego, Mark (4 Hero) and I were listening to some radio station and we were just falling about the floor, laughing. I mean it's just a waste of programming skills and proves that a lot of drum & bass producers have no imagination." from A Guy Called Gerald.

The interview is from 2002. It pretty sums up what I feel about dnb.

EXCEPT Gerald's been coming back into drum & bass with the funk element coming back into it. I still feel there's too much programming and not enough funk but perhaps that will change.

 

[moriaty]

[/]
about the comment of a guy called gerrard..
fair enuff, funk is good in songs, we meed songs, not tunes, souless noisy crap blah blah blah..
YES, that might be the case for music, the music one might listen at home, in the car, at a bar over a drink, at a hotel whilst doin his boyfrind, whatever...
BUT...
if one goes to a club, in order to listen to drum and bass music (ya know, this new trendy sound..), beeing played by a Disc Jockey (the other recent trend..), playing vinyl records, which are repoduced on big fuck off speakers (ok, shut it and get on..!!), he is actually going to a.............
..*drum roll*.........RAVE....!!!
and one does NOT go to a rave to appreciate the musicality and inner beauty of a masterpiece song, he goes to dance his fat arse off to bangin tunes, in a turmoil of sweaty and equally barely conscious fellow ravers..
And i hope i speak for most of the now 100% mapped Massive Jungle Republic population, by providing this simple proof of the infamous equation
Dj + Dnb + club + 30kwatts = rave

And after utilising elementary level mathematics,
here i would like to leave scientific approaches, and speak my own opinion...

i'll sum up WHY i prefer repetative tunes, to the likes of Phace, Codex, Usual suspects, Subtitles, and the Offkey camp..
Im a DJ, (i know, youre propably shoked hearin this, i was too..)
and i like nothing better than to mix too tunes,
loooooong and deeeeep...

Cheese aside, my point is that two tunes, involving mainly rhythmic parts, will mix together much better than two melody driven songs. After adjusting a record's pitch for beatmacthing purposes, not only youve lost the original key it was written in, but almost certainly youre not even in a valid picth range of another real key..
By combining two badly transposed melodies, the chances of creating a harmony that doesnt sound like a chav burning out a souped up fiesta, are less than finding a virgin gilr in a British school...and thats very low chances indeed..

Hence, two tunes that are made up of mostly rhythmical parts will crate a much more exciting live mix..

Honestly.., im done bying tunes with massive build ups, which then cut out, the lyrics start flowing, and the once lush melody, all of a sudden zound liek ze kaka, clashing and tumbling with the tune you got playing..and no much point in double dropping huge anthems.., i dont know, its just sounds so cheesy to me, dont have a valid explanation, its just does to me..
[/]

**morphine release engaged**

also, i do see how some melodies work great with others, or just coming through another rhythmical tune, but again, in a set id keep teh melodies to a minimum, concetrating more on creating waves of pressure with adjustments on volume and eq..
Yes dust, this is the dancefloor pressure youve read about in reviews, but it doent come from a tune on its own...

oh, and wikipedia is a no go for me mang....i hate beeing arcticulate...and swear too much for their liking....

peass

 

[mesh]

i'll sum up WHY i prefer repetative tunes, to the likes of Phace, Codex, Usual suspects, Subtitles, and the Offkey camp..
Im a DJ, (i know, youre propably shoked hearin this, i was too..)
and i like nothing better than to mix too tunes,
loooooong and deeeeep...

Cheese aside, my point is that two tunes, involving mainly rhythmic parts, will mix together much better than two melody driven songs. After adjusting a record's pitch for beatmacthing purposes, not only youve lost the original key it was written in, but almost certainly youre not even in a valid picth range of another real key..
By combining two badly transposed melodies, the chances of creating a harmony that doesnt sound like a chav burning out a souped up fiesta, are less than finding a virgin gilr in a British school...and thats very low chances indeed..

Hence, two tunes that are made up of mostly rhythmical parts will crate a much more exciting live mix..

Honestly.., im done bying tunes with massive build ups, which then cut out, the lyrics start flowing, and the once lush melody, all of a sudden zound liek ze kaka, clashing and tumbling with the tune you got playing..and no much point in double dropping huge anthems.., i dont know, its just sounds so cheesy to me, dont have a valid explanation, its just does to me..
[/]

**morphine release engaged**

also, i do see how some melodies work great with others, or just coming through another rhythmical tune, but again, in a set id keep teh melodies to a minimum, concetrating more on creating waves of pressure with adjustments on volume and eq..
Yes dust, this is the dancefloor pressure youve read about in reviews, but it doent come from a tune on its own...

thats a really good point, and I think the recent prevalence for DJs to want to double drop has laid this clash bare .... fact is most melodies will clash.
Even if they are in pitch normally, as soon as you adjust your pitch fader it is not matched anymore.
I saw a hilarious thread on DOA with this knob using a computer key-matcher so he could figure out what tunes to double-drop together. I think Blu Mar Ten replied saying "I just use my ears", which to me is the obvious point.
If you cant trust your ears then dont DJ.
I also agree about the drum'n'bass 'pressure', working with EQ etc. I guess part of what marked the transition from hardcore to jungle was that people slowly stripped out a lot of melody, riffs etc, and left us with erm ... just drums and bass.
A lot of big riffs, melodic or not, lie in the mid-range, and they can get in the way of drum pressure. When you're just working with top and bottom you can work the percussion nicely.

I'd like to add that drum'n'bass beats are much less chaotic (more predictable) than jungle beats were 11-12 years ago. When I listen to old Randall mixes of these complex beats it sounds amazing, there is so much depth in the percussion and it sounded raw too.

Has this had an influence on how the sound has developed?
Just wanted to throw that out there.

 

[Dustek]

[Hence, two tunes that are made up of mostly rhythmical parts will crate a much more exciting live mix..

Honestly.., im done bying tunes with massive build ups, which then cut out, the lyrics start flowing, and the once lush melody, all of a sudden zound liek ze kaka, clashing and tumbling with the tune you got playing..and no much point in double dropping huge anthems.., i dont know, its just sounds so cheesy to me, dont have a valid explanation, its just does to me..

I've got a different approach, I like the beats to flow AND contrast. I can't stand beats that go and on. The music has to go up & down for me. Otherwise its as repetitive and boring as progressive house. Zzz...

I need time to dance, time to piss, time to drink a beer, time to chat up the girl and time to listen to that epic intro. After dancing for twenty minutes, you need to drop, unless you're 18 and on speed (too many people I see like that).



As a dj I really like to fuck with people on the floor. They may think they know where I'm going, but I'll put in a buildup and just as the track is supposed to drop, I'll slam an intro to another song in or pause, wait, flange and put the song on reverse play (on a nonTechnics or CD). Just examples.

A mix that fucks with you is a more exciting mix IMHO. So what if it clashes a bit. Crap house will never clash with its beat structure but drum & bass should, even Andy C fucks up from time to time.

Jungle back in the day... ah, you never knew what was going to happen cos the producers were just going with the flow. Melody & beats.

There is nothing worse than a dj friendly track.

And here's Klute on the subject.

Peace & respect, I've got different dancefloor needs and dj approaches, and Gordo's got different needs and approaches.

 

[mesh]

Peace & respect, I've got different dancefloor needs and dj approaches, and Gordo's got different needs and approaches.

thats it, thank fuck. its why its so hard to do it all in wiki, or anything seen as authoritative.

better you tha me

edit - can i say its interesting that they paraphrase Klute as believing dnb is 'reactionary'. its kinda similar to what I was getting at with my above rant

 

[Dustek]

I'm going to get my ass kicked for the list of subgenres I've put up in wiki.

I know the ragga jungle crowd are going to call me all sorts of names for calling it drum and bass.

 

[deadaelus]

I know the ragga jungle crowd are going to call me all sorts of names for calling it drum and bass.

or did you mean to say Fagga Jungle?

 

[Dustek]

or did you mean to say Fagga Jungle?

Adding the "King Selassie I" every 8th beat makes it a whole new genre.