Crate Diggin’: DJ Pioneer and Distro Present their Guide to UK Funky

If you’re swerving the festival mud this weekend, you’ll know that the FABRICLIVE summer season continues this Friday with Roska Kicks & Snares taking over Room Two. Spearheading a blend of garage, dubstep and house via UK funky, Wayne Goodlitt’s label has more or less been synonymous with the UK’s most killer strains of bass music. As we prepare for an insight into the musical world of Roska and his peers, we invited DJ Pioneer and Distro to present their own guides to UK funky ahead of their appearances.

DJ Pioneer

Siegalizer – Apple

This was one of the first UK funky instrumentals, produced by the godfather of UK funky. It still gets the same reaction now as it did in 2005, absolute banger!

Quicktime – DJ Naughty

Soon after Naughty had made this track back in 2007, he brought a CD copy to my flat with a few other tunes for myself and Supa D to have a listen to. He wasn't too sure about it at the time as he'd only taken 30 minutes to write it, but we loved it and started playing it immediately. To this day, I still play the unmastered version as it has the best sound to me.

Feeline – Mentor Roska

A classic from the man himself, Roska. I believe this was his first UK funky production. I was the only person with it for a while and it was a crowd favourite. It's a great track to mix on top of vocals as it's such a banging instrumental. I still love the simple but very effective way this was produced.

Party Hard – Donae'o

Back in 2009, I remember playing an instrumental called We Belong to the Night by Suges at the arches in SE1. Donae’o called me the next day and started humming the track down the phone to me asking what the name was. He called me back about a week later and played a new version down the phone, this time with vocals and bass added. This is undoubtedly one of the biggest funky tracks ever!

Cheerio – Isagen

I'm impressed to know Japanese producers are making funky, it shows how far the genre has spread across the world. Despite being a new track, this has all the elements of something old skool: nice breaks, good drums and a clever bassline melody.

Distro

Make It Funky For Me – Attacca Pesante feat. Shea Soul

This is a brilliant summer track! The soft Rhodes chords take influence from garage, and are a great stylistic feature of UK funky’s roots. The majority of funky-style tracks I play now can be very heavy and bass driven, which is miles away from its soulful beginnings. It’s nice to inject some contrast into sets with something like this.

Planet X – Lobster Boy

Planet X is a bass-heavy crowd pleaser. I find this kind of extended build-up is a useful tool for DJing. It helps to create more anticipation and a big crescendo like this exaggerates the drop. I love the rigid drum loops and simple yet infectious bassline, the combination really gives the track a huge driving force and makes a huge impact on the dance floor.

Siegalizer (L-Vis 1990 Edit) – Apple

A new twist on an old classic. I’m playing a lot more alternative club-influenced music nowadays but this track is brilliant example of how the two styles can fuse together extremely well. The thumping percussion and choir samples L-Vis uses in his edit are a superb addition and only help to revamp this all-time funky favourite.

Neighbourhood (Roska Remix) – Zed Bias

I still play this track regularly in my sets, it’s getting on for 8 years old now or something, but I just think it’s a wicked club-friendly twist on an anthemic track. Roska’s bad boy bongo bassline still kills it!

Mood Swings – Dismantle

Mood Swings is still possibly my favourite Dismantle tracks to date, the staggered punchy bass stabs get my head bopping every time I hear it! The breakdowns hint towards influences of Dutch house and other similar genres within the global bass music scene so it’s a very versatile song to play in sets.