Funk group. Blacklist: five Russian-speaking funk artists

Fashion & Style 18.09.2018
Fashion & Style

Such a musical direction as funk appeared relatively recently in musical culture. Like any cultural phenomenon, it did not arise from scratch. Funk music became a continuation of the soul style. Let's talk about it briefly. Appeared in America in the mid-50s of the last century. The term "soul" (in translation - the soul) was used to refer to the social liberation movement of African Americans, new music became the personification of this struggle. It combined such directions as (or rhythm-blues) and Negro choral chants, and naturally was the music of "blacks", "white" youth did not recognize it. The "father" of funk is considered to be the black pianist Ray Charles. Also the first performers were James Brown and Sam Cooke. Main characteristics of Soul:

The son of a rapper and pirate radio announcer, he started rapping at the age of 6. Tracey is one of those bets on this evolution of rap over electronics that has been so applauded in the United Kingdom. He doesn't have a record yet, but his song Spirit Bomb is raging.

He learned to play drums in church at the age of 11. He plays several instruments, is a singer and producer sponsored by rap legend Dr. Manchester post-punk band. As much protest in their guitars as in their lyrics, Cabbage doesn't come off when it comes to tipping the whole fate of their songs on political issues - like Donald Trump or North Korea. If we had to find a successor to a bad legend like Iggy Pop, we would need to write their names very closely.

  • tenacious vocals with pull-ups ("howling");
  • there are elements of jazz;
  • performed on brass instruments.

Now it is already very difficult to clearly distinguish between the direction of funk and soul, even for a specialist.

Funky music became a continuation of soul. The need for the emergence of this direction was justified by social and political events - after the assassination of Martin Luther King, riots began in the "black" neighborhoods, the struggle of African Americans for their freedom and independence became more violent. Soul performers, feeling this trend in society, could not stand aside and offered the public more harsh, aggressive music. It is impossible to name the exact dates of birth of this style - it began to appear already in the late 50s of the 20th century, but its heyday falls on the middle and end of the 60s.

He is classically trained as a pianist and is a fan of Hans Zimmer and this has been used to give it very interesting nuances and is different from the rest of current rap. On the this moment he prepares the first drive that the autodesigner, despite several proposals from drive companies.

Last year he played at the Glastonbury Festival - yes, think about how healthy you are at 16. It was in January and after a few weeks he started getting praise from artists like Skrillex or Drake. She knows how to play the harp, banjo, guitar and piano, and although she has always had an interest in folks, her trip to Europe led her to electronic music. The jewelery of the first genre, combined with the sophistication of the second, ended up surprising Pharrell Williams when he visited his class.

Distinctive features of the direction

Funk style is more aggressive music than soul, emphasizing the inner state of the performer. The lyrical heroes of the songs are rebels who oppose themselves to the world. Funk is performed on the piano (in the classical version), as well as on brass instruments (saxophone, trombone), a guitar was sometimes used, but this was only to “catch” the rhythm. The vocals are sometimes hysterical and even furious, sometimes turning into a scream, then descending to a recitative, usually male. Funk music contains more emotion and rebelliousness, it is very well suited for dancing.

That day, Farrell almost screamed in excitement in the video, which is all over the world. The song was "Alaska", the first preview of the work hosted by Williams in February. A beast that combines hip-hop, electronic and funk with a lot of power and style. She's the cousin of the fashion type in English rap, Skepta. Until two years ago, she was a store assistant, until she decided to go into music and started preparing her first songs.

31, the oldest on the list. Yes, Rory Graham's stage name complicates things. But the really interesting thing is hearing how a guy who started out in hip hop ended up turning into the blues he listened to as a kid with his dad. He has no musical training and admits that he learned to sing by watching TV videos - remember when that happened?

funk dancers

It is difficult to say unequivocally how to correctly interpret the name of this direction. Funk is also translated as “strong smell”, originally used in relation to tobacco smoke, but later a different shade of meaning appeared - the smell of the body during the dance, the smell of sweat. There is also an opinion that funk has another meaning - it is the smell of the body during sex. But there is another, more decent interpretation - in the language of performers jazz music it means "intricate, unusual way performance of a piece of music."

Yes, also from London. 18 years. The panorama of dirt in London is getting bigger, but don't forget that this is an underground genre that holds many surprises. His first mixtape will be out in a few days and will try to defend his pick on this list. From there he leaves this first promotion called "The Real Thing". Serchano to the blues and soul. The following year he publishes his first album and begins touring throughout England, accompanied by more than just his guitar.

For many years, jazz reigned supreme among the music of the American counterculture. Before becoming a virtuoso and the graceful sound with which it is associated today, jazz was the father of many of the most famous genres. Without him, there would be no rock and, of course, there would be no funk. This last term seems to be typical in the past and in a very specific context, but the truth is that funk has a rhythmic feature that has influenced rock, pop and, for many years, disco music.

Performers of "old" funk

The founder of this music was James Brown and George Clinton. Of course, they weren't the only ones.

James Brown

Also known are such funk performers as Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, the Ederly brothers, Bety Davis, Horace Silver, Jack McDuff and others. For a long time, artists such as Michael Jackson and Prince took their place on the world music scene, the first works of which were imbued with the spirit of funk music.

From the years when black workers played after work, had fun and felt like they really belonged to their lives, funk has been transformed to this day, and the importance of knowing it is absolutely essential. Funk, a word that refers to the strong smell with which whites refer to blacks, a word that they simply formed on their own.

It is important to understand funk music in order to understand current music, but more importantly, to feel the music. Its deep bass and powerful, recording voice and some lyrics that invite you to dance and little by little to something else. These are some of the most representative funk songs that will make you fall in love with this smutty genre.

Making funk in Russia is, after all, a Don Quixote (or Randle McMurphy, if you will) thing to do. Too much we love sing-song, melodic and lingering music, but all these grooves and syncopations of yours are not very respected. Nevertheless, funk in Russia has existed with varying success for 20-25 years (experts will say that it's been 50 years, but I'm talking about a stage with a corresponding culture).

"Illegal Movement" - Dokkerman and Turkish Fellas. The influence of the East is known from the very beginning, and even the slow rhythms and to some extent electronic ones are something that no one has imagined before. "What is Hip" - Tower of Power. If you think a song won't let you rest at any time, look at the musicians. Delivery is complete and shows in the song, which is up to the top at any time.

Maybe you remember an ad from a video chain, maybe you remember a movie, maybe you remember something personal. Rick James created one of the most famous funk classics. One of those songs that showcases the sexual power that music, and especially funk, can have.

As our musicians absorbed the original style more and more, the desire to play funk in the original language grew. The ubiquitous penetration of the Internet has made this aspiration practical, because today you can reach listeners from different parts of the world, and it is logical that it is better to sing in a common language in order to be understood.

Not only for his sound, but also for Walter Orange's voice. Going down was one of the phrases that were spoken in the jazz sessions, in which everyone began to improvise and speculate with their instruments. Nothing is more characteristic of the United States than the cultural appropriation of the white public. This is summed up in one of the funniest songs ever, which depicts the life of a white musician who plays funk.

"Junksta Funk!" - Convulsions of Joy. Contemporary music that seems to have come out of the funk of the early eighties. Percussion is an important part of the song, few songs have a protagonist. One feature differs from all other lists - openness and incentive to escape from the "sacred cows" and give equal weights classical and obscure. Hence the surprises and peculiarities, as well as the creation of a completely different list common place. This list of the best instrumental recordings of all time is no different. Voted over 300 instrumental records, and classical jazz divided the space into post-rock, drone metal, free jazz and electronic music.

Nonetheless, Russian funk nevertheless exists, even though it is not an easy task to put our sing-song syllable into a broken rhythm. Today I want to tell you about some Russian bands that manage to perform the musical legacy of James Brown and George Clinton in their native language.

MD&S Pavlov

Who is it: The ex-drummer of the famous Moscow rock band "Sounds of Mu" Alexey Pavlov in the early 90s decided to radically change direction and turned to modern hip-hop and urban jazz. As a result, he almost single-handedly "imported" this unfamiliar music into Russia, and at the same time established contact with such monsters of black music as Herbie Hancock and Roy Ayers.

Check the list with the top 20 and disagree. Pedro Gesualdi Japanese battle. You can argue that this is an instrumental recording, but you can't deny it. The voice is another tool, a layer of sound that artists use to express themselves. Few musicians can say they created or developed a style, and Goodness did it from the start, but it was in the Wrong final moment of this change. The Bretzmann Octet recreated jazz in brutal, uncomfortable, noisy, independent means - a real cry of resistance.

Volume and feedback are essential for a complete group experience, and Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson know that performance and disk are two different entities. Echoes of his innovation, refinement and - why not - perfection of repetitions, travel to this day. And here, on this semantic record, we have not only Miles Davis maturing in his transformations in jazz, but the band of stars themselves. Dave Holland, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Josef Zawinul and Wayne Shorter are an integral part of this album and all the shocks of the release, both before and for decades to come.

Until about the mid-90s, MD&S (Minister of Affairs and Master of Ceremonies) Pavlov was a significant force on the capital's club scene. Proclaiming myself godfather funk and hip-hop in Russia, he relied on a freakish-bright image and eccentric musical humor. Now Alexey can be seen more often behind the drum kit, including as part of various incarnations of the Sounds of Mu.

Earth 2: Special low frequency version

Dylan Carlson and his gang arrive at the pinnacle of mental divination on Earth 2, through dirty and guilty guitars provoking satanic mantras. The experience of listening to the full extent becomes nauseating. In the year following the release of the album, Dylan Carlson entered rock history in a sadly indirect way - an avid gun collector, according to legend, it was he who sold the shotgun to his childhood friend Kurt Cobain.

Black saint and sinner

To hear on the road with the glass open with high speed. This album, originally written as a ballet, creates a new and unique orchestral style that Charles Mingu has called "folk dance music". The result is a truly engaging, harmonious and engaging experience that appears to reflect the full spectrum of the human emotional palette; from joy, to excitement, from anger and sadness. Emblematic, eccentric, seminal. From its various cover art to the themes evoked during its progress, it creates a panorama of devastation through sublime sonority.

Listen first: MD&S Pavlov "I'm back" (2001)


Felix Lahuti

Who is it: Moscow virtuoso violinist playing a five-string electric variation of the instrument. He has countless concerts and recordings to his credit in a variety of genres, from funk and hip-hop to jazz, pop and electronica. In addition to his musical activities, he is also the organizer of festivals, concerts and other cultural projects.

He defined the path that post-rock would take after its release, with his influence visible across several bands of the genre. This is a simple album where the tracks show their nature with clarity and objectivity and even the occasional vocals make the lyrics easy to understand. Mr. Beast is the pinnacle of his creators' career because, scorning conceptual excess, he combines melody, distortion and subtlety to achieve a result that eludes many of his imitators: the creation of true beauty.

Here, post-rock pioneers reach excellence through economics. Julius Cesar Magallanes Orange catastrophe. By taking our attention away from the main theme, a universe of details can be revealed to us, and not just those that have been carefully hidden in these four parts, to illustrate this concept, and not any music. Its influence and that of its creator are not of a musical nature, since here the sound is only the final and perfect support of an idea made for intrigue and inspiration.

In funk, Felix is ​​positioned as a follower of George Clinton - at one time he even participated in P-Funk Allstars concerts. It is in the style of P-funk that the albums of the Lahuti Funky Land project were recorded. Currently, the violinist is promoting the UniverSoul project, which unites representatives of the domestic soul scene.

It's formulaic, but it's brilliant. Elson Barbosa Sinevava, Herod. "Film for the ears," says the phrase on the inside of the vinyl. Accompanied by a band of musicians that included the likes of old school friend Captain Beefheart and then an unknown Jean-Luc Ponty, Zappa can do the tough job of six songs that went from jazz to jazz to rock.

In addition to the title, the bold disc, considered one of the most revolutionary and visionary in the history of jazz, progressed as one of the forerunners of jazz recording with electric instruments and rock initiated on his previous disc. One of the landmarks of modern music, pioneered studio editing tools featuring musicians such as Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin and Chick Corea.

Listen first: Felix Lahuti & Funky Land "FREAKosmos" (2005)


Positive

Who is it: A metropolitan group led by vocalist Sergei Golovanov, declaring itself to be the "Hurricane Funk Orchestra". In general, from today's list, one can make a completely logical conclusion that it is in Moscow that the tradition of singing funk in Russian is alive. Most likely, this is due to the desire to speak the same language with the multi-million population of the city, while the province is more aimed at the global network public.

Over the past two or three years, the guys from Pozitiva have done a lot of work on the sound and now they really sound hurricane and tight. In fact, now this is the most stable Russian-speaking composition among domestic funkers.

Listen first: Pozitiva "Surprise" (2015)


South Band

Who is it: Yalta funk group, which, due to geopolitical changes, is now among the Russian ones. It was formed in 2013 on the basis of South Cafe - hence the name. The band is led by a very well-known person - this is DJ Scream, one of the most active funk popularizers in the post-Soviet space.

The repertoire of the South Band consists of both their own Russian-language songs and cover versions of the classic and modern funk. AT recent times Crimeans are hinting at the imminent release of their first studio album, but for now their music can be heard, for example, on the official video of the international breakdance championship Battle of the Year.

Listen first: VK-playlist South Band

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