vainandy said:

Fuck the labels.

The music on this one sounds pretty good but it's too repetitive. It needs some vocals or something over it with a musical intro, a bridge, and a breakdown. Something to keep it interesting all the way through rather than just placing the needle anywhere on the record and it sounds the same all the way through. I've heard a lot of stuff like this that has potential because the music sounds good. It just doesn't sound like a finished "song" though. It just sounds like a jam session.

lastdecember said:

To each their own i guess. I found great recent productions with elements of funk.

TonyVanDam said:

I think RFTW kept on releasing through the 90's, including NJS-flavored productions

Shango said:

Ready for the World tried to "be down" and their shit still didn't sell, lol.

vainandy said:

I like a jam session. I guess I'm more diverse in things. I'm not as picky as you or some others here I guess.

Oh I like a lot of instrumental type stuff but the sound changes up throughout the song. For instance, Kraftwerk's "Numbers" starts off with a funky beat and some talking, then it goes into the asian sounding music. And the instrumental of "Planet Rock" starts off with some stripped down hanclaps, then more instruments come in, then the synths kick in, then it has some explosions, then it breaks all the way down, then it comes back with some electronic talking. All these changes keep the song sounding interesting all the way through.

I used to hear a lot of the acid trance techno or whatever the hell it's called type stuff in the white gay club a few years ago. A lot of it had a great sounding beat in it but it lasted for five or six minutes and never changed up at all. It sounded like an endless loop. It would have been great for mixing another song on top of it but to listen to that long loop for five minutes all by itself, even though it sounded good, got boring after awhile.
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[Edited 6/22/09 22:50pm]

vainandy said:

Oh OK I gotcha, lol. I don't know, I mean I just find myself addicted to shit like this (and the stuff you're talking about). I'll say it's similar even if it seems repetitive. Then again, repetitiveness is not a bad thing. If it was me, I would've changed it up a bit too but I know how it is...

brooksie said:

What is so wrong about progression ? Why is it such a bad thing ? I aknowledge & respect the roots of origin in funkhistory and people having preference for a specific genre,
but why can't it be both ways and all genres within funk respected for what they are ? Why has progression to be talked down in favour for an earlier funk-era, which impression i'm getting by reading this topic ? I don't get that logic or motivation.
I personally felt that for example Me'Shell Ndegeochello contributed a great share in the 90's of funk evolution, and with her versatality of different releases, she's aknowledged and grown as a prolific artist as well.

vainandy said:

Basicly, during the mid to late 80's the "quiet storm" genre became popular with Whitney & Anita Baker as a few examples who won awards and setted the standards for that genre.
Nevertheless there were still releases coming out with fast rhythms such as Janet Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Shanice Wilson, side-productions by Jesse Johnson, etc, and slowly this evolved to new jack swing.
Toni Tony Tone who started as a njs-band were one of the first bands in the early 90's who began recording songs with a touch of classic soul and more slowjams added to the album mix, so this was the new progression with less
funk elements to some degree, even though a handful of artists kept mixing funk in there 90's releases and side-productions (Chuckii Booker/Lo-Key/Mint Condition/etc). Eventually, the mix of hiphop & r&b became more poular.

During that time, there was also a mix of funk with house with groups like M People, Black Box, and Lonnie Gordon which was mainly underground club music (well gay club music). Funk with house, now that was progression...taking funk and bringing something new into it, all the while keeping it fast. If anything was going to take over at the time, this should have been it. Slowing everything down to the point where no mainstream music is uptempo isn't progression though. That's going backwards to the days of dorky elevator music. The early rock and rollers had to fight long and hard to get rhythmic music on the radio and the 1990s come along and undo everything they did. If it weren't for the profanity in today's music, the old fogies that fought to keep rock and roll off the air would have loved this slow Lawrence Welk tempoed music these days.
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[Edited 6/22/09 23:49pm]

I wanna thank everybody in this thread especially the motherfunkin pimp TIMMY84!!! YOU DA MAN!!!!!1

What can I add that others haven't already commented on; I agree with both sides of this argument, I feel that FUNK as a genre is dead, all these bands sound good(except for that wack band on the first page) but they don't sound innovative the way I'ms ure JB sounded when he was doin his thang in the 60's, or the way P-FUNK were or Sly Stone. Not many have a distinct sound that seperates them from the others the way a WAR did(except maybe Quantic), they're all playing very 1960's-ish DEEP FUNK or a jazzy/funky mesh that is pleasing, or that teh ghey 80's style funk. What I have noticed though is these new bands have little to no vocals, possibly because they realize they can't genuinely imitate the vocals of funkateers of time passed, possibly because that is just the emerging trend. Funk is great as an instrumental, but Vocals add another layer to FUNK that really make you feel the music.

Now I'm stuck in a dilemma, do I download these bands' songs illegally(because I"m damn near broke in these hard times) or do I support these musicians trying to play music, [img]decisions decisions[/img]

Buy the music of these artists so they can make sales. However, downloading isn't a bad thing either. Just don't do it with good artists (unless you can't find their stuff for sale ). Download all the shit hop that you can for your kids, neices, nephews, and their friends also. That will prevent them from going out and buying it and will prevent some shit hop sales. Every little bit helps. Help the good stuff get sales but don't just sit back and tolerate the bullshit either. Help it go broke and maybe we'll get a style change.
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[Edited 6/23/09 0:14am]

vainandy said:

LOL I like your style Andy.

Sandino said:

Whatever happened to constructive critisism ? I can understand that you don't dig Slapbak, but why push them in the ground for that ? Their aknowledgement by Verdine White is imo a cool nod to their work.
[Edited 6/23/09 4:34am]

Timmy84 said:

WHATTTTT YOUR UP ON QUANTIC !!!


MY FAVVVV is Time is the Enemy !! Departure sure is FUNKY !!!!

vainandy said:

That's cool, man, we had that discussion before. You like the later Funk. But you can't dis the New Funk, because these artists stick to the original formula. But then again, that's your taste. I find later Funk - 80s Funk and Disco infused Funk - incredibly insulting. Especially when artists started to use drum computers. Drum computers??? How can you call music Funk when you use a computer to make it? The word Funk should be a synomyme for the sound of this music ... and much of what you are referring to simply doesn't have that anymore.

brooksie said:

I disagree with you here ... once you have to find a new name for it, it isn't Funk anymore. Many musicologists argue that Funk had evolved into Disco and eventually Hip Hop. There you have it.

The new Funk artists don't want to tread on new territory. They love and admire the old territory. That's why they prefer to even record and relase vinyl over CDs. It's an attempt to re-capture the feeling and energy of an era that most Funk lovers consider to be Funk's greatest.
[Edited 6/23/09 11:30am]

brooksie said:

But Blacks have their Rollings Stones. James Brown died in 2006, but he was around even longer than the Stones, and he stopped evolving musically more than 25 years ago. The Platters are still touring, and they were formed in the 1940s. There are many artists from back in the day who are still doing their thing.

MrSoulpower said:

Perfect example
The Dells They have been together over 50 years and never split or had new members and still touring.

brooksie said:

This claim is definite proof that you are not connected with the new Funk movement at all. Thousands of people in Europe, Japan, Australia and the American bigger cities have been dancing to Funk music - old and new - for years now. The revival is on. The world has never before seen so many Funk groups from all over the world. There are big name Funk DJs who tour all over the world and who play nothing but Funk.
Funk records are being re-issued like crazy, on vinyl and CD, and rare originals fetch sometimes 1,000s of $$$ on Ebay. There is a huge market for recrds that nobody wanted to buy 30 or 40 years ago.
If Funk is dead, how do you explain me? I've been in the business for over 15 years, and I've made a living of Funk for almost ten years now. I've DJed to crowds from Japan to Finland to Greece to Italy to England ... in more than over 30 countries. Some crowds were small (maybe 100), but my largest one was over 10,000.
I've worked and toured with many new Funk artists, but even more so, with old Funk legends who would all passionately disagree with you.
Whoever claims Funk is dead is out of his mind. Like you said yourself, you're more of a Blues guy ...

And now go ahead and download my latest radio special about New Funk --- it's free. Enjoy it and then come back and try to argue how Funk is dead.

http://wrir.org/x/modules...ryid=10143

IAintTheOne said:

I think Brooksie is refering to artists "at the top", so he has a point ... because even JB didn't play large crowds like the Stones in his later years. But once again, that's a cultural thing ... white folks embrace their older musical culture, while black folks often move on to something else. This explains why most people at James Brown shows in the past 20 years were white ..

MrSoulpower said:

That is true. Good point people do like to move on alot. Hence why I cant get past JB's later catalog. that whole " Hustle double bump" Movement was a trainwreck.

MrSoulpower said:

Yes. Just ask the owners of Numero Group. They have an extensive body of work so far and a load of contributors and followers. They go out to abandoned record studios from the 60's & 70's and search for the goods. Warped 45's, dusty masters and moldy casettes...and bring them to life. I wish I can do that..it would be a dream come true. There is even business in old funk today.

vainandy


Its working! Soulja Boy's releases havent even went gold...and you see hip hops sales (especially young rappers) have been dwindling since the past 4 years. People may still bump the singles they release and coporations give all their good earned money to radio for them to play ....and the young public don't even care about them having an album out. It's their own fault they are not selling. Don't nobody want to buy that ish.
[Edited 6/23/09 6:57am]

Paisley, Ness, Shango, Utopia and MrSoulPower (Pari), y'all are definitely right!

You can have the blues, you can have the '80s funk, I love the instrumental funk too. The funk is alive and poppin', baby!

A group from DC

Fort Knox Five - The Brazilian Hipster


[Edited 6/23/09 10:10am]

2elijah said:

Thanx for posting!

Timmy84 said:

No problem! Here's another and their myspace link:

www.myspace.com/fortknoxfive



[Edited 6/23/09 10:29am]

This funk may not be for SOME OF YOU, but it's groovy, I like it:

http://www.imeem.com/peop...go-sunset/

I wasn't shitting on it by no means. I was being nice. I just simply said that it didn't appeal to my taste and explained why. Believe me, if I was shitting on it, you'd know it because I can be very brutal and have no shame with it.