The London Paper 3

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Rave and hardcore aren’t the only trends creeping back on to the London scene. With garage and grime events few and far between, funky house (other wise, but not so commonly, referred to as ghetto house), is fast becoming the night diet of choice for those lacking a staple portion of dance music with an urban twist. Classic tunes are getting a new lease of life thanks to the newly acquired punters, while even the grime artists themselves are taking inspiration, Dizzee Rascal revealing earlier this week that he’s recorded a funky house-esqe track for his forthcoming 3rd album. DJ Chewy, of leading underground music and lifestyle magazine RWD, puts it partially down to the number of girls funky house attracts. “They’re fed up with male dominated clubs. People are heading back to the dancefloors where there’s a lot less inhibition and attitude.”

Unfortunately many of the newer and smaller-scale promoters have been unable to sustain successful events, primarily due to security issues and fears that currently surround anything remotely black music related – even conscious rapper Lupe Fiasco’s sell-out gig was cancelled last week following a previous, unrelated shooting at Scala. DJ Double O, who heads up Apple which frequents a different bar for each promotion, found that despite speaking with police and securing their presence, his last event due to take place on September 30th was pulled. “It just seems none of these places want funky house nights anymore. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in a rougher area, Bank, or Clerkenwell.”

But bigger brands like Defected, a leading label and major party throwers, are lapping up the resurgence. This Saturday they are providing the ultimate funky house experience as they take over Canvas in Kings Cross, with DJ’s including Junior Jack & Kid Crème, Martin Solveig and Dennis Ferrer. They’ll also be a PA of one of the powerful tracks currently on the circuit, ‘The Cure And The Cause’ by Fish Go Deep featuring Tracey K (www.myspace.com/fishgodeep). Having bubbled away for the last year, championed by the likes of Danny Tenaglia, Liquid People and Kenny Dope, with a new found fanbase to boost sales, it looks set to do greater damage than initially predicted when Defected release it on November 27th. Toni Tambourine, Press and PR Manager for Defected sees the trend continuing to grow. “Once garage DJ’s started picking up these house tunes we noticed a difference... It’s exciting times, the big DJ’s are playing a lot of the older tunes and It’s going to be really interesting for us to see how things change at our events in the next six months.”

If you’re still up for more when their doors shut at 6am then it’s not a long wait for Wrong @ Herbal, Shoreditch who start proceedings at midday on Sunday. An all-dayer which includes a roof top BBQ, retro games and plenty of funky house, let’s hope the only thing that isn’t missing this weekend is the sunshine.