All mixed up: Electro funk all-stars

I've been at it again, mixing music using Mixmeister Express, the poor man's amateur DJ software. This time, I've come up with an "electro funk all-stars" playlist. Here goes:

1. Morcheeba featuring Big Daddy Kane--"What's Your Name?"
2. Melanie B.--"Feels So Good"
3. Olive--"This Time"
4. Toni Braxton--"He Wasn't Man Enough" (extended version)
5. Kylie Minogue--"Obsession" (produced by Kurtis Mantronik)
6. Pizzicato 5--"Love's Prelude"
7. Army of Lovers--"My Army of Lovers" (Concrete Ghetto Mix)
8. Vanessa Williams--"Happiness" (samples Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait")
9. Mantronix--"Got to Have Your Love"
10. M.I.A.--"Galang"
11. Mariah Carey--"Fantasy" (samples Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love")
12. Peter Brown--"Do You Wanna Get Funky with Me?"
13. Nu Shooz--"I Can't Wait"
14. Kurtis Mantronik--"Push Yer Hands Up"
15. The Orb--"Little Fluffy Clouds" (Orbital Dance Mix)
    
16. Röyksopp--"Eple"
17. Richard X vs. Liberty X--"Being Nobody" (samples "Being Boiled" by the Human League while featuring the lyrics of "Ain't Nobody" by Rufus and Chaka Khan)
18. Annie--"Chewing Gum"
19. Change--"Change of Heart"
20. Jamelia--"Superstar"

Whether this is true electro funk is debatable, in part because I'm only half-sure what electro funk is. According to Wikipedia--as we well know, my chief source for all wisdom--electro funk is commonly referred to as "electro" and is "an artistic musical form in the wide world of electronic music culture."

Oh dear. That sounds like a much loftier concept than my playlist warrants.

The article goes on to describe a music I barely recognize--"vocals are delivered in a deadpan, mechanical manner," "rhythm patterns tend to be electronic emulations of breakbeats, with syncopated kick drums, and usually a snare or clap accenting the downbeat"--although it does make mention of the likes of Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, and Mantronix, a triple threat of favorites of mine. That sound was what I was after with this mix: Funked up versions of electropop that the likes of Afrika Bambaataa and Mantronix generated, using Kraftwerk samples as backgrounds and key components of more hip hop- and R&B-oriented fare.

See, we really can all just get along.

This isn't a true electro mix, whatever that may be. (Only a real DJ or a British club kid might understand the nuances of various electro styles--certainly not peu vieux je.) There are a variety of pop styles in the mix, with "This Time" by Olive being more trip hop (or trip-pop) than anything, a musical style now more than ten years old and one, obviously, I never quite got over. M.I.A., who made an appearance in one of my "cod reggae" mixes, is one of my favorite contemporary pop musicians, although I would be hard-pressed to classify her sound. Mel B.'s "Feels So Good" is simply 1960s mutton dressed up as very tasty Y2K lamb. And some tunes, such as Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait" and Change's "Change of Heart" are just pure '80s pop/r&b/dance/party music. Electro funk before electro funk was cool.

The only two songs that I think serve as exemplars of electro funk, at least insofar as I understand the genre, are the Kurtis Mantronik/Mantronix and Richard X vs. Liberty X tracks, which couple a certain crunchy, electro rhythm (consistently clocking in at under 110 bpm) with a funky bass and a soulful vocal. The Mantronix track, "Got to Have Your Love," was released around 1990 or so; the Kurtis Mantronik track, "Push Yer Hands Up," was recorded in 1998; and the Kurtis Mantronik-produced "Obsession," performed by Kylie "Ive Since Lost the Plot" Minogue, was recorded in 2003. The Richard X track was recorded in 2003, but is based in part on a song by The Human League recorded in 1978, as well as a song by Rufus and Chaka Khan from 1983.

So there may well be nothing new under the sun, at least from 1978 onward.

When I listen to this mix, I can't help but think of Washington, D.C., where I lived through much of the 1980s. Funny that, as I've spent a fair amount of my adult life trying not to remember my years in Washington. I was young, in my 20s then, and practically fresh off the farm, a small-town Southerner living in a very elite Eastern city. Lots of social faux pas, lots of stupid choices, lots of twisting myself into a pretzel of logic and culture while trying to fit in and not look the rube, only by 1991 or to say "fuck it," chuck it, and get back to my roots.

Any similarities between the me of 1984 and the me of 2008 are purely coincidental I can assure you. However, it's still painful to think about those days, to recall my goofiness, ineptitude, and, yes, even heartbreak. Nonetheless, in retrospect, maybe the times weren't as bad as I recall. If nothing else, I have happy memories of being in a city filled with good music--classic "quiet storm" R&B, '80s electropop, early hip hop and rap on WPGC, and splendid alternative music like The Smiths, The Cure, and everything else that WHFS used to play, at least when it was still an independent radio station.

Ah, the dreams of a middle-aged, middle-class, Anglo hip-hopper into obscure genres of dance music. Just call me DJ Funky Fresh Market, which is a joke only a North Carolinian might understand.

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Acceptable in the '80s

Speaking of the 1980s, my current fave song is "Acceptable in the '80s" by Calvin Harris, which was released sometime in 2007 but has only recently bubbled up into my consciousness. You can watch the video here via the magic of YouTube.

I'm not sure I can fully explain the video, by the way, except to think it's some sort of wannabe commercial for The Body Shop or the Anti-Vivisection Society. That or someone gave a video camera to a gaggle of drag queens and said, "Here gals, do your best. I'll give you an hour."

I think this song may be as good an example of electro funk as anything, although, personally, it kills me that this guy Calvin was born in 1984, way too young to even remember the decade. His other stuff leaves me a little indifferent--it's just all a little too "laddy" on the loose with a mix console and his parents' record collection. As far as Anglo-Saxon funk goes, I much prefer the likes of The Streets or Just Jack.

Still, it's such a good tune, especially with that metallic "wow wow" hook after nearly every verse, that it may just have to make an appearance in Electro Funk All-Stars 2.

So coming soon . . . another mix.

Come on, you didn't think you were getting off that easily, did you?