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A different kind of funk

Kwesi

Kwesi

Sep 19, 2007
8,150
161
35
USA; Mitchellville, Maryland
#1
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I'm sure it's not everyone's thing but I'm diggin this sooooo hard. I imagine that this is what it would sound like if you handed Chick Corea, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock and early Sega Genesis composers a bunch of FM synths and told them to play some funky junk.

Reccomended tracks: FLAVA Bomb, Bubble Bath Aftermath, Where's My Z Pack?
 
#4
My favorite is FLAVA ... I liked the synth sound, remind me of Chick Corea

and I find it funny that almost all the tracks are made with only a synth, no real instrument there and they are more creative than people playing real instrument
 
#6
kbuschmann said:
You're kinda into a video-game soundtrack phase, aren't ya.
S'a'right. Some of that's good. Actually some of that's really good. Some of that.
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I'm picky when it comes to the stuff I dig but when I find that stuff I REALLY dig it, haha. I don't have music phases much these days I just happen to latch onto whatever whenever! Glad you like some of it!

mjac28 said:
I liked a couple of the tracks but I'm too old and too old school funk
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I feel you, man. I'm more "If I can hear the funk, I'm down" new, old, whatever. But as far as new stuff goes, I can't say I know a ton of bands that really lay it down the way the guys on this album have. I know a few, but not a ton.

Clef_de_fa said:
My favorite is FLAVA ... I liked the synth sound, remind me of Chick Corea

and I find it funny that almost all the tracks are made with only a synth, no real instrument there and they are more creative than people playing real instrument
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Yeah, man! Music can be funny like that. What impressed me a lot, I think, is how 'aware' of the bass these guys are. I don't think any of them are bass players but you listen to the bass lines and you can imagine them being played by a bassist and not some machine cranking out low frequencies. They sound real. They understand the low end (not to mention incredible song composition in general).
 
#8
I don't know how to describe my reaction... FLAVA is a cool tune and has a LOT of potential. However, I kept getting annoyingly distracted by something and it took me a while to figure out what it was.

The dynamics of all the instruments, especially the bass, are exactly the same. Attack, cuttoff and level for every note of any instrument never vary and I know that's because it's a synth, but it leaves me feeling like this really cool tune has no heart.

It's a great tune, but it only reminds me more of why it's important to use people instead of programming. If this were played by musicians who can put inflection into the voicing it'd be incredible!
 
#10
NCD said:
I don't know how to describe my reaction... FLAVA is a cool tune and has a LOT of potential. However, I kept getting annoyingly distracted by something and it took me a while to figure out what it was.

The dynamics of all the instruments, especially the bass, are exactly the same. Attack, cuttoff and level for every note of any instrument never vary and I know that's because it's a synth, but it leaves me feeling like this really cool tune has no heart.

It's a great tune, but it only reminds me more of why it's important to use people instead of programming. If this were played by musicians who can put inflection into the voicing it'd be incredible!
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It isn't different of any music being sold nowaday. I don't hear dynamics in any music outside of Jazz and Classical music. Everything else is heavily compressed and/or quantized and/or could re record a 64th of a beat just to be sure everything is exacly alike.

the thing with what the OP linked is : they are creative, way more creative than so many musician playing "real" instrument.
 
#11
Aw man, this music reminds me of long gone but glorious sunday afternoons with a SNES and some lemonade.


Kwesi, If you're into gamemusic/ chiptune/ stuff like this, you might want to try Overclocked Remix. It's a website where people remix game music from gameboy to playstation to genesis and so on, into whatever. Country. Jazz. Metal. Orchestrated versions. Some are meh, some are awful, some are incredible.
 
#13
I dig it.

A lot of folks get hung up on the voices - I've had a lot of friends reject Weather Report off hand simply because of the use of the synth. I think there's a great deal of expressiveness being overlooked simply because the interaction between musician and instrument is still so unfamiliar relative to a physical, acoustic instrument. To me, the music is as enjoyable as you let it be.

Food for thought here: Andres Segovia, who essentially made the guitar a staple concert hall instrument rather than a somewhat more obscure ethnic one, found the idea of electrifying and amplifying a guitar abhorrent. We can see how that ended up.
 
#14
aguacateojos said:
Have you listened to the band The Advantage?
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I actually have some of their music. They're pretty cool. I like 'em but I usually stay away from vgm rock cover bands outside of handful of bands I really love because it starts to sound kinda same-y.


St Drogo said:
Aw man, this music reminds me of long gone but glorious sunday afternoons with a SNES and some lemonade.


Kwesi, If you're into gamemusic/ chiptune/ stuff like this, you might want to try Overclocked Remix. It's a website where people remix game music from gameboy to playstation to genesis and so on, into whatever. Country. Jazz. Metal. Orchestrated versions. Some are meh, some are awful, some are incredible.
Click to expand...

I'm actually on OCR. Not as a ReMixer... not yet, but I'm on the forums here and there. Got a handful of friends on the site. I usually find the stuff on there pretty stale but every once in a while something will come along and totally floor me.

bass12 said:
Some of that reminded me of a mix of early Level 42 and Yellow Magic Orchestra. I'm sure HJ Freaks is all over this stuff. :smug:
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You know, I would've never made the Level 42 connection! That's pretty spot on. And I'd loooooove to se HJ Freaks (or any other bassists) take on some of this stuff. I know I plan on trying maybe some time this weekend.
 
#15
superfunk47 said:
I dig it.

A lot of folks get hung up on the voices - I've had a lot of friends reject Weather Report off hand simply because of the use of the synth. I think there's a great deal of expressiveness being overlooked simply because the interaction between musician and instrument is still so unfamiliar relative to a physical, acoustic instrument. To me, the music is as enjoyable as you let it be.

Food for thought here: Andres Segovia, who essentially made the guitar a staple concert hall instrument rather than a somewhat more obscure ethnic one, found the idea of electrifying and amplifying a guitar abhorrent. We can see how that ended up.
Click to expand...

Basically how I feel about it. There is no one aspect of music that encompasses it all. The music as a whole certainly doesn't lack dynamics (though some of the individual instrumentation might). I'm sure the way I feel music isn't the way everyone does. Something simply being electronic doesn't suddenly take the soul out of it for me.
 
#18
I'm wondering if the "Zinger" who is involved with that project is the same Zinger who was behind Galliano (the British "acid jazz" group). He has produced some pretty zany stuff and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was him...
 

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