- It’s summer time and we all need a little bit of sex, happiness and perhaps even the odd piano in our lives right about now. For a certain subset of Londoners heading off for the beaches of Ayia Napa in 2008, this dose of all the good things in life will be coming from the new, and misleadingly named, "Funky House" genre. (Alternative names include just plain "Funky" or even "Wonky," fact fans.)
The genre emerged in reaction to the seriousness and drabness of the grime and dubstep scenes, and pulls in influences as varied as broken beat, soca, African music, and US house. It’s a sound that’s so new that it’s barely possible to buy—aside from things like Supa D’s Rinse FM mix CD, DJ NG’s ‘Tell Me’ and this one: Crazi Cousinz’ mix of last year’s bassline hit ‘Do You Mind.’
The Crazi Cousinz mix has a warm thick sound, but it's also full of teenage hormones and end-of-the-week euphoria. There’s nothing terribly ‘classy’ about the double-snare soca rhythms or the canned bongos, but that's a good thing: there's a genuine sense of excitement around this new idea of what house should sound like. It feels like music for small rooms full of dedicated dancers, where the air is alive with desire and kinetic motion. Crazi Cousinz are quite rightly shooting to local stardom in London with productions like this one. They have an instinctive grasp of body rhythms and (perhaps just as importantly) are great fun—an element that seems to be missing from much of the supposed ‘underground’ these days.
Once you listen to the bassline mix by Rekless and the uncredited ‘club mix,’ you'll begin to realize just how far Crazi Cousinz took this track. The source material is unremarkable bassline with stiff beats and wobbly bass, and neither mix does much to transform it. What's most interesting, though, is how sexless the vocals sound when compared with the Funky mix. Control S's mix is MC-driven 2step, reminiscent of the days of So Solid Crew and, as such, has a refreshing rawness and energy to it. A shame, then, that it's probably too dated-sounding for most people to want to play.
But all of the rest doesn't matter much. Crazi Cousinz' mix is a great introduction to a new sound, and a great summer anthem on its own terms. Snap up 'Do You Mind' now and say you were there at the beginning.
TracklistA1 Do You Mind (Club Mix)
A2 Do You Mind (Control-S Remix)
B1 Do You Mind (Crazy Cousins Remix)
B2 Do You Mind (Rekless Remix)