Stylistic origins Soulful house
UK garage
Afrobeat
tribal house
electro house
soca
broken beat Cultural origins Mid-2000s, London, England Typical instruments Sequencer
turntables
samplers
drum machine
personal computer | ||
UK funky (sometimes known as UKF or funky) is a genre of Dance music from the United Kingdom that is heavily influenced by Soulful house, Afrobeat, soca, Tribal house, broken beat and UK garage. It often gets confused with funky house in America, which is mainly disco and funk oriented.
Contents
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, soulful and bassline house subgenres. Similar genres include Afrobeat, broken beat, electro and garage.
History
US house producers such as Masters At Work, Karizma (with "Twyst This"), Quentin Harris and Dennis Ferrer (with a remix of Fish Go Deep's "The Cure and the Cause"; and with "Hey Hey") have had an influence on UK funky.
Hits from this genre include the Crazy Cousinz songs "Do You Mind", "Bongo Jam" and "The Funky Anthem", and Fuzzy Logik featuring Egypt's "In The Morning". Popular songs have also produced dance crazes, such as "Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes", "The Tribal Man Skank" and "The Migraine Skank". Other notable artists include Apple, Marcus Nasty, Tribal Magz, Donae'o, KIG, Roska, Champion, Ill Blu, Lil' Silva and Funkystepz. DJs and MCs that have played a role in UK funky include DJ Pioneer, Supa D, MA1, NG, MC Spidey G, Coldstepz, and Dogtaniaun & Versatile.
Popular singer Katy B duetted with Ms. Dynamite on a track called "Lights On". It reached number four in the UK Singles Chart and was the first UK funky track to chart in the UK.
Other artists known to have produced singles in the UK funky genre are Clean Bandit with "Extraordinary", Redlight with "Lost in Your Love" and in 2016, "One Dance" by Drake. "One Dance" samples "Do You Mind" by Kyla with a dancehall and afrobeat inspired beat, and it later reached number one in several countries including the USA.