UK funky

UK funky (sometimes known as UKF or funky) is a genre of electronic dance music from the United Kingdom that is heavily influenced by deep house, Afrobeat, soca, electro house, broken beat and UK garage. It often gets confused with funky house in America, which is mainly disco and funk oriented.

Typically, UK funky blends beats, bass loops and synths with African and Latin percussion in the dem bow rhythm and contemporary R&B-style vocals.

Characteristics

UK funky uses tempos of around 130bpm and often has a prominent "4 to the floor" kick drum. The drum patterns commonly also include percussion playing African inspired rhythms. Instrumentation varies widely, but drum machines and synthesizers are common. There are similarities to garage in rhythmic, musical and vocal styles. UK funky is highly influenced by the tribal, deep, soulful and bassline house subgenres. Similar genres include Afrobeat, broken beat, electro and garage.

History

US house producers such as Masters At Work, Karizma, Quentin Harris and Dennis Ferrer could be said to have a strong influence over the development of UK funky. Karizma's song "Twyst This" and Dennis Ferrer's remix of Fish Go Deep's "The Cure and the Cause" were important records in the development of the genre and Dennis Ferrer's "Hey Hey" was a massive hit in the scene.

Alter ego

An alter ego (Latin, "the other I") is a second self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. A person who has an alter ego is said to lead a double life. The term appeared in common usage in the early 19th century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists.Cicero was the first to coin the term as part of his philosophical construct in 1st century Rome, but he described it as "a second self, a trusted friend".

A distinct meaning of alter ego can be found in literary analysis, wherein it describes characters in different works who are psychologically similar, or a fictional character whose behavior, speech or thoughts intentionally represent those of the author. It's also used to designate the best friend of another character in a story. Similarly, the term alter ego may be applied to the role or persona taken on by an actor or by other types of performers.

The existence of "another self" was first recognized in the 1730s. Anton Mesmer used hypnosis to separate the alter ego. These experiments showed a behavior pattern that was distinct from the personality of the individual when he was in the waking state compared to when he was under hypnosis. Another character had developed in the altered state of consciousness but in the same body.

Funky house

Funky house is a subgenre of house music that uses funk samples, a funk-inspired bass line or a strong soul influence, combined with drum breaks that draw inspiration from 1970s and 1980s funk records.

Like most variants of house, the genre makes heavy use of synthesizers, samples and soulful vocals, although unlike in more electronically bent Chicago and deep house, presence of acoustic instrumentation is much more common. Notable producers and artists that have worked in this genre include Basement Jaxx, the Freemasons, Soul Central, Armand Van Helden, StoneBridge, Seamus Haji, Moto Blanco, Bag Raiders, Olav Basoski, Les Rythmes Digitales, Cassius and Mikey High Jinks.

The genre is commercially popular, with record labels such as Defected Records, Ministry of Sound, Hed Kandi, and Fierce Angel all releasing compilation albums dedicated to the genre. It was particularly successful in the early and mid 2000s (decade).

References

UK hard house

UK hard house or simply hard house is a style of hard dance music that emerged in the 1990s. It often features a speedy tempo (around 150 BPM), offbeat bass stabs,hoovers, horns and crowd cheering samples. It usually contains a break in the middle of the track without drum. UK hard house often uses a long and sharp string note to create suspense. Most of the time, the drops are introduced by a drum roll.

Subgenres

Hard bounce

Hard bounce (or more originally known as bouncy hard house) is a style of UK hard house which first emerged around 1999. Unlike other hard house genres, it features an upbeat, energetic sound and heavily focuses on the 'pipe' sample as an offbeat bassline, which usually represents a 'donk' sound. In recent years, hard bounce has come to refer as style far less uplifting trance orientated than the original Scouse house genre, which also utilizes the same sample but takes a slightly more commercial approach.

Hard dance

Hard dance is a cross over genre between hard house, Eurodance and hard trance. This first appeared in the UK around 1998-9. Unlike the classic hoover sound of hard house and the rolling basslines, hard dance incorporates strong synths, percussion and echo effects from Eurodance and a lot of pitched up trance music and is generally regarded as happier sounding music than pure hard house.