Wonky!

pete_bubonic · Post by **pete_bubonic** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:40 pm

daggus wrote:
pete bubonic wrote: This is the only thing I don't get with journalists atm, it's Hiphop. Plain and simple, post jay dee hiphop. not wonky dubstep or wonky house or indeed wonky. It's hiphop. I don't understand why people don't just call it that?!
One reason perhaps is they dont wanna to write sentence or 2 each time they refer to it. So instead of saying its "post jay dee, bassy, wonky unquanatised hiphop" phrases like "wonky" or "dubstep" are coined. In one sense its compliment that producers tunes are considered unique enough to be singled out separated from everything else. But most seem to hate being pigeon holed.

Guess its fashion innit the balkanization of music genres

Bet Elvis in 50s was sittin munchin cheeseburgers moaning about how he thought the name rock and roll was shite

Oh yeah for sure, I agree with you, noone wants to write a sentence to describe a chair or table. But then 'wonky' is still hiphop. so what was wrong with hiphop?

oddfellow · Post by **oddfellow** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:52 pm

http://www.thisisluckyme.com

But then 'wonky' is still hiphop. so what was wrong with hiphop?

I agree with you here. I've heard/read a few peeps talking about how hip hop has gone downhill over the past few years. This is true with certain aspects of it but stuff like this is as forward thinking as it gets at the moment.

Could call it Wonk-Hop I suppose?

gimpyj · Post by **gimpyj** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:57 pm

like three years ago after a clubnight in Victoria BC we were back at my condo afterpartying a bit, when i remembered i had a ball of pure ketamine in my bedroom. so, i posed the question, off the top of my head, if anyone wanted to get 'wonky'
somehow everyone knew exactly what i was talking about even though no one had ever used that term to describe it.. so from then on, in that circle, ketamine became 'wonk' and to do some, was to 'get wonky'.

kinda funny to see this now then

i like fly lo's stuff lots.. aside from the kapsize bit i haven't found much rustie that's REALLY done it for me yet.. sounds like its something i'll have to experience live to really get the feel for..

t-woc · Post by **t-woc** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:42 pm

pete bubonic wrote: This is the only thing I don't get with journalists atm, it's Hiphop. Plain and simple, post jay dee hiphop. not wonky dubstep or wonky house or indeed wonky. It's hiphop. I don't understand why people don't just call it that?!

sinc_vision · Post by **sinc_vision** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 4:13 pm

Can a few people please make a short list of who they feel is wonky in this respect as i'm getting muchly confused these days.

I listen to guys like flylo, bullion and samiyan and i hear hip hop, nothing but. I would assume that if they're regarded in this here {wonky bracket} it's because they've become associated with dubstep music and culture via various releases, remixes and sets played at dubstep nights.

Apart from the lovely post-dilla blippedy blop blap limb jerkerking, head noddering melodies used, I don't really hear the hip hop rhythm coming through in the works of guys like rustie, zomby and ikonika.

ps. i think the term 'wonky' should remain an adjective, not a noun.

blackdown · Post by **blackdown** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:07 pm

pete bubonic wrote:This is the only thing I don't get with journalists atm, it's Hiphop. Plain and simple, post jay dee hiphop. not wonky dubstep or wonky house or indeed wonky. It's hiphop. I don't understand why people don't just call it that?!

i used to the term to describe a theme, at a given point of time running through a wide variety of genres, and tempos. some of it is definitely 'just hip hop' but the reason why the term for this musical flavour is more suitable than 'just hip hop' is because it's much broader than hip hop and included a variety of different acts that seemed, at that time to be working through loosely similar interesting ideas in the mid range of their tunes.

thinking · Post by **thinking** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:53 pm

pete bubonic wrote:It's hiphop. I don't understand why people don't just call it that?!

because the music under discussion is very far-removed from what other people might consider hiphop - how close in sound/vibe/theme are Hudmo and Jay-Z, or Busta, or Eminem? Is it really useful to group these artists together? It's a bit like trying to cram gabba in with deep house, or breakcore with liquid DnB - they may share roots but the differences have become markedly obvious.

re: Journalists, they need to be able to describe music to their readers/listeners in order to discuss and disseminate music without resorting to, as above, describing tunes in purely descriptive terms. I'm not a massive fan of 'wonky' as a term, nor is it clear as to who or what is 'wonky', but the term is already in the collective consciousness and will be hard to shake off - perhaps it's already a fact of life.

I remember a few years ago when the same discussion occurred over who/what was 'dubstep', and who/what wasn't. Some people would have preferred a more narrow, specific genre based around garage-style beats, keeping breakstep as a parallel but separate genre, but now 'dubstep' appears to have become a more inclusive umbrella term for everything that isn't grime or nuskool breaks around 140bpm.

This process is organic, relatively democratic, and quite difficult to control.

pete_bubonic · Post by **pete_bubonic** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:56 pm

ThinKing wrote:
pete bubonic wrote:It's hiphop. I don't understand why people don't just call it that?!
because the music under discussion is very far-removed from what other people might consider hiphop - how close in sound/vibe/theme are Hudmo and Jay-Z, or Busta, or Eminem? Is it really useful to group these artists together? It's a bit like trying to cram gabba in with deep house, or breakcore with liquid DnB - they may share roots but the differences have become markedly obvious.

re: Journalists, they need to be able to describe music to their readers/listeners in order to discuss and disseminate music without resorting to, as above, describing tunes in purely descriptive terms. I'm not a massive fan of 'wonky' as a term, nor is it clear as to who or what is 'wonky', but the term is already in the collective consciousness and will be hard to shake off - perhaps it's already a fact of life.

I remember a few years ago when the same discussion occurred over who/what was 'dubstep', and who/what wasn't. Some people would have preferred a more narrow, specific genre based around garage-style beats, keeping breakstep as a parallel but separate genre, but now 'dubstep' appears to have become a more inclusive umbrella term for everything that isn't grime or nuskool breaks around 140bpm.

This process is organic, relatively democratic, and quite difficult to control.

I can see Blackdown's POV, don't get me wrong, it's not beyond me. I just happen to disagree.
As for how close is Hudmo vs Jay-Z. not that close, though not far. How close is hudmo to jay-dilla/madlib/neptunes? very close. closer than anything else I can think of that comes to mind (of a previous generation). so to my mind it's not like trying to cram gabba with house, perhaps more like garage/dubstep?

I'm not saying there aren't dubstep artists using that influence, Zomby and Rustie stand out as shining examples. I can hear the off beat syncopation and obscure quantisation. 'Wonky' synths, samples and melodies. gemmy and joker? not really imo.

After to chatting to Blackdown though, I think a lot of the confusion is there are 2 distinct camps bloggin, writing and talking about it. Those that see 'wonky' as a theme, an approach to production (which I still debate whether joker/gemmy are part of), and this other group seeing it as a direct evolution of jaydee, madlib etc. Hiphop essentially.

rekordah · Post by **rekordah** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:22 pm

ThinKing wrote:how close in sound/vibe/theme are Hudmo and Jay-Z, or Busta, or Eminem?

In terms of the production on their records? Very close indeed. Infact I'd say that the production of such mainstream Hip-Hop and R'n B has been a massive influence on his stuff.

I think your vision is being clouded by disinctions of commercialism and accessibility here, ThinKing.

rekordah · Post by **rekordah** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:20 pm

x2 on the "It's Hip-Hop" sentiments.

Hip-Hop is very versitile, and has embraced experimentalism since it's inception. Drawing paralells between the concept of "Wonky" as a valid, useful and separate sub-genre of Hip-Hop and the distinctions made between different styles of Dance music is a difficult task. As Hip-Hop is far removed from from the sub-genre mania that is Dance music and the Rave continuum.

In all honesty I believe the use of the term "Wonky" to describe this strain of Hip-Hop has caught on mainly with commentators who have previously been somewhat removed from the development of Hip-Hop, and thus use such terms to try to make sense of what they're hearing.

To play devil's advocate - it could even be said that the term has caught on with people who had previously, to a certain extent, disliked the genre and are thus trying to distance themselves from it.

Post by **dubway** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:48 pm

Tomity wrote:http://www.thisisluckyme.com

http://www.thisisluckyme.com/html/mixes.html
Me Like

kay · Post by **kay** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:56 pm

Never occured to me that wonky was at all related to hiphop (but then again I don't do the genre thing particularly well). Wonky for me simply means tunes that typically incorporate video gamey sounds and more importantly odd note progressions (to me anyway) that shouldn't work but somehow do in a good but slightly bizzarre way. Hence wonky music.

flashharry · Post by **flashharry** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:59 pm

rekorder wrote:x2 on the "It's Hip-Hop" sentiments.

Hip-Hop is very versitile, and has embraced experimentalism since it's inception. Drawing paralells between the concept of "Wonky" as a valid, useful and separate sub-genre of Hip-Hop and the distinctions made between different styles of Dance music is a difficult task. As Hip-Hop is far removed from from the sub-genre mania that is Dance music and the Rave continuum.

In all honesty I believe the use of the term "Wonky" to describe this strain of Hip-Hop has caught on mainly with commentators who have previously been somewhat removed from the development of Hip-Hop, and thus use such terms to try to make sense of what they're hearing.

To play devil's advocate - it could even be said that the term has caught on with people who had previously, to a certain extent, disliked the genre and are thus trying to distance themselves from it.

x 3 ...

Post by **dubway** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:24 pm

if someone could suggest some good releases or mixes that would be highly appreciated

rekordah · Post by **rekordah** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:18 pm

You can check my BAPS or Highrise Clothing Mixes if you want dubway

Clause Four also has some killer mixes which you can find at www.clausefour.net

Heres a few myspaces you wanna check out...

www.myspace.com/clausefour
www.myspace.com/lonemusic
www.myspace.com/slugabedmusic
www.myspace.com/bullionness
www.myspace.com/mikeslottbeats
www.myspace.com/rekorder87
www.myspace.com/mweslee
www.myspace.com/the_blessings
www.myspace.com/fulgeance
www.myspace.com/dbruit
www.myspace.com/jdavey
www.myspace.com/morganzarate
www.myspace.com/djjayp
www.myspace.com/olivierdaysoul
www.myspace.com/ojobeats

In terms of releases, all of the All City Beatstrumenal 7x7 series are a must buy, Beat Dimensions Vol.1 is also a good place to start. Same goes for the Beatnicks Vol.1 and 2 on Up My Alley.

Theres a whole host of amazing new releases coming out right now, Instrumental Hip-Hop is in good health

efa · Post by **efa** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:19 pm

I used to call it Bleep Hop or Electronic Hip-hop when I started playing Dabrye & Prefuse 73 records back on 01 (what I deem to be part of the roots of the sound along with Dilla, Madlib etc)

I first heard Wonky Hip-Hop used to describe Madlib's un-quantized ("its off but its on") beats, same with certain House such as Pepe Braddock.

It is Hip-Hop but I believe it needs a term to help people find records, nights & artists etc. I'm not about finding it I'm afraid (Click-Hop anyone... no thought not)

Anyway back to Mr Dubway's request for info...

Artists to check

Mike Slott (killed it at our night last month)
Herelds of Change (Slott & Hudmo)
Herrmutt Lobby (Eat Concrete Records - check that too, lots of mix's here: http://www.myspace.com/eatconcreterecords)
Take
Samiyam
eDIT & Glitch Mob
Clause Four
Lone
Nosaj Thing
Bullion
Lukid
Ras G
Rekordah

Powell http://www.myspace.com/powellbeats
Yann Kesz
Dorian Concept

So much more as well, its another movement IMHO and is as important as Dubstep which I'm glad its cross pollinating with

Be sure to check out the Dublab Radioshows as well!

EDIT: LOL @ jinx post rek

erra · Post by **erra** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:23 pm

thedubpanda wrote:Rustie - Bad Science
Code: Select all
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=39WYUDdOqSA
TUNE!!!

Haaa this is sick

daggus · Post by **daggus** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:24 pm

dunno what to recommend outside of the obvious.

Theres this Slugabed - a ten minute beat tape. Superphreak coming soon on Stuffrecords.

http://www.northsouthdivide.com/podcast ... ecords.mp3

Also i gotta big up this Hubert Daviz - Beatnicks Tape#01. Its collection of his tracks you can get for free up here http://www.divshare.com/download/4657122-1e5

most of it is just hiphop, but there few tracks that fit the "wonky" style. The last track in particular "Fresh from the mint" is fuckin sick

http://www.myspace.com/hubertdaviz

DVRSFY · Post by **DVRSFY** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:35 pm

free tune taken from forthcoming hud mo ep on warp

http://media.xlr8r.com/files/downloads/ ... 0Blues.mp3

Post by **dubway** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:40 pm

diversify wrote:free tune taken from forthcoming hud mo ep on warp

http://media.xlr8r.com/files/downloads/ ... 0Blues.mp3

and Mike Slott - Deux Three http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2008/10/deux-three from MIKE SLOTT - Flunky (All City)

Wonky!

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