UK Funky
Congas, a broken kick, and a bar that refuses to sit square.
The pattern
2 bars, sixteenth notes. Loops until you stop it.
The kick is the point: beat 1, the a of 2, beat 3 and the and of 4, with bar two adding one on the a of 3. It never sits square, and the plucked bass is meant to fill what it leaves. Clap on 2 and 4 as an anchor, with a ghost on the and of 4 in bar two. The congas run a two bar figure, open tones on the and of 1 and the and of 3 and slaps on the e of 2 and the e of 4, resolving with an extra hit on the a of 4. Hats stay quiet, a tick on the beat at 56 and a ghost on the a at 42, with open hats on the and of 2 and the and of 4 in bar one and only the and of 2 in bar two.
What it is
London, around 2008: DJs and producers who had come up through garage and grime wanted something to play that was neither. It took soca, soukous and South African house percussion and put them over a kick pattern with holes in it. The tempo sits around 130, faster than house and slower than garage, and the defining feature is that the congas are the melody: a track can consist of a conga part, a bassline and one vocal line and be finished. It burned bright for about three years, fed straight into afro house and UK bass, and is why a great many British dance records since have a conga in them.
What it sounds like
Percussive and springy. Congas and bongos in a repeating two bar figure, a kick that lands on 1 and then in places you would not guess, a clap on 2 and 4 that is often the only conventional thing in the arrangement, and hats that stay out of the way entirely. The bass is usually a short plucky synth playing a riff rather than a sub holding a note. Vocals are either a full song or one shouted phrase, with very little in between.
Key elements
- A kick with holes in itBeat 1, the a of 2, beat 3, the and of 4. It never sits four square, and the bassline gets written to the gaps it leaves.
- Congas as the hookA two bar conga figure with an open tone and a slap, doing the job a synth riff would do in any other genre at this tempo.
- A conventional clap2 and 4, straight, dry. It is the anchor that gives everything else permission to be broken.
- Sparse hatsA downbeat tick at 56 and a ghost on the a at 42. The percussion lane owns the top end and the hats are only there for the pulse.
- Plucked bassA short synth bass playing a riff rather than a sustained sub. It has to be able to move around the kick without smearing into it.
How to get them
- KickProgram beat 1, the a of 2, beat 3 and the and of 4, then check it works with no other drums playing. If it does not, move the a of 2 rather than adding another kick.
- CongasTwo samples, an open tone and a slap, at different pitches. Write two bars rather than one and let the second bar resolve the first.
- ClapDead on 2 and 4, dry, slightly clipped, dead centre. Add one ghost clap on the and of 4 in bar two and nothing else.
- Swing0.56. Enough to lift the congas off the grid, not so much that the kick pattern loses its edges and stops reading as broken.
- BassA saw with a fast filter envelope and a short release, playing eighths and sixteenths in the gaps the kick has left.
- Keep the hats downUnder velocity 60 for everything except the open hats. The congas are the top end here, and a busy hat part buries them.
Reference points
Crazy Cousinz, Roska, Marcus Nasty, Cooly G, Lil Silva, and the Kiss FM and Rinse shows that carried it. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements.
The pattern is a starting point rather than a rule. If you want the theory underneath why any of it works, Battuto measures it.