Real talk from one of my favorite DJs in the UK Funky scene. In this interview by Blackdown Marcus Nasty speaks out in his traditional opinionated way about why he thinks the grime scene died and the way forward for UK Funky which he has become one of the leading DJs in. I enjoy Marcus sets because as a fellow post-grime person he is playing house but keeping it raw. I love the new UK funky sounds and have been playing a lot of it and find that it is even leading me into some of the smoother stuff but basically I still like raw, percussive, heavy tunes. Getting into a lot of what people think of as ‘normal house’ is just too far for me and a lot of the DJs coming from there into funky play too smooth for me. Marcus has (or has had, he’s sounding a little more mature now) a rep for being a big muscle-y dude who will beat you up and you can tell he’s pretty unconcerned about offending anyone which lends a certain truthiness to this interview.
in general i find the whole uk funky designation a bit funny. as a (primarily) dubstep deejay with a funky house/minimal techno background, the stuff sounds like good, grimey, house always did, even pre-2step. certain dirty house sounds of the mid-late 90s of someone like donald glaude or even derrick carter in a hot set are arguably even more fierce than the darker “funky” stuff.
this track bears a listen… even with the cheesy (uk funky-like!) vocal, the production on this track is so complex and crunchy… bear in mind, for dating, i had this record in 2001.
there’s the dancehall/reggaeton addition of that “1 a2 + ” stepping, but that’s the only modern (if you can call that pattern modern) sounding element to funky.
please educate me, someone who knows this scene better… i don’t hear the difference… at least in the ~120bpm tracks. sounds like less garagey, slightly raw house from the 90s.