So far, we’ve kept our coverage of UKFunky at arm’s length here for a couple of reasons. In my case, a severe aversion to four on the floor drums and “happy” party music explains my general antipathy for the style of post-House that took over London’s pirate airwaves in the wake of Dubstep. You can chart a line from Dilla to Nosaj Thing to Skream and Mala but Caribbean electro-soca? That’s just crazy talk. And yet, just as Dubstep evolved out of a particularly dark strain of Garage in the early 00’s, Funky’s tougher side could well lead us to a promise land.
Take production duo Warrior One’s Bad like Jimmy Cliff: combining a martial backbeat, dubstep wobble bass, 80’s rap horn blasts, swinging snares and sampled dialogue from original 80’s rudebwoy Ninjaman…it’s one bad mother of a dance track. The secret is in the swing with the beat landing somewhere between a solid groove and a breakbeat as re-imagined by a New-Jack drum programmer. With recent dancehall stagnating or imitating America’s inglorious autotune fascination, Jimmy Cliff and other songs on Warrior One’s EP showcase a way forward for tough, bare knuckle JA inspired music, a thought as inspiring as the notion of dark, empty, reverse Jungle was a decade ago.
Download:
MP3: Warrior One – Bad like Jimmy Cliff
