Electro funk

This article deals with an electronic variant of funk music . The term is sometimes also used for early electro, which is largely at home in hip-hop, see hip-hop , for the music genre electro see also electro (style of music) .

With Electro Funk (eFunk) one of the is US originating synthesizer-heavy version of the radio , made up, in the late 1970s and early 1980s years from the P-Funk has developed (sometimes it is also considered part of the genre) and the main characteristic of the consistent use of electronic musical instruments, especially so-called "synth basses" and "vocals" alienated by vocoders .

Origins and Development

The Electro Funk took over, among other techniques former disco -Music and the radio . Electro funk exerted a great influence on the early development of hip-hop culture in the 80s, especially in the western United States , whose music often made use of the same techniques. In electro funk, raps appear in an electronic, modulated version with the help of "voice coders" ( vocoders ) and, contrary to the common perception, are by no means a rarity.

Electro funk should not be confused with electro , a thoroughly electronic style of electronic dance music that is related to electro funk, but differs significantly from it, especially in terms of rhythm . Electro is usually much faster than Electro Funk and is based on a broken "beat", while Electro Funk is kept in a steady 4-4 beat and gets its "funkyness" mainly from the bass lines.

Offshoots of ( Hip-Hop ) Electro Funk can be found primarily in the Miami Bass style as well as in the so-called Freestyle .

Present & Renaissance in German-speaking countries

The fact that eFunk itself is now a fixed part of hip-hop, even if it has sometimes been pushed into an obscure shadowy existence, can be seen among other things. a. in its popularity in so-called " Breakdance " or "B-Boying" competitions [cf. Battle of the Year], in which u. a. danced in the traditional "West Coast" manner to TR-808 generated rhythms in the style of " Popping- Locking" or " Robot ".

Since the early 1990s, isolated eFunk-inspired songs, intended to a certain extent as a tribute to the "movement", have also been found on albums by "traditional" hip-hop artists in German-speaking countries. B. Too Strong (Greatest Hits, Intercity Funk, Die Drei vonne Funkstelle et al.), D-Flame (Daniel X), Anarchist Academy (Anarchophobia) or Main Concept (Coole Scheisse) and the Soulfulbrothers.

From the mid-1990s, however, an increasing mix with the above-mentioned Electro began. Such a tightrope walk was made possible by the increasing spread of electronic production devices ( samplers ), which resulted in very rhythmically devised compositions.

The artists Dagobert , Prime Dominance and Sbassship from Dessau as well as MC T-Rock and the Knightz of Bass from Mannheim plus Funkmaster Ozone from Cologne should be mentioned as interpreters who are primarily dedicated to traditional (hip-hop) eFunk .

Sample title

Formerly non-hip-hop eFunk

• George Clinton - Atomic Dog [1983]
• Funkadelic - Electro-Cuties [1981]
• Laid Back - White Horse [1984]
• Zapp - More Bounce To The Ounce [1980]
• Vaughan Mason and Crew - Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll Pt.1 & 2 [1979]
• Herbie Hancock- Rockit [1983]

Avant-garde hip-hop eFunk (East & West Coast) of the early 1980s

• Africa Bambaataa - Planet Rock [1983]
• Afrika Bambaataa - Renegades of Funk [1983]
• Captain Rapp - Bad Times (I Can't Stand It) [1983]
• Captain Rock - Cosmic Blast [1984]
• Chris "The Glove" Taylor, Dave Storrs & Ice T - Reckless / Tibetan Jam [1984]
• Dynamic Breakers - Dynamic (Total Control) [1984]
• Egyptian Lover - Egypt, Egypt [1984]
• Future, The - Nuclear Holocaust [1984]
• GLOBE & Pow Wow - Celebrate [1985]
• GLOBE & Whiz Kid - Play that Beat Mr DJ [1983]
• Hashim - Al Naafiysh (The Soul) [1983]
• Herbie Hancock - Rockit [1983]
• Kid Frost - Terminator [1984]
• MC Fosty & Lovin 'C - Radio Activity Rapp [1984]
• Man Parrish - Hip Hop Be Bop (Don't Stop) [1982]
• Mantronix - Bassline [1985]
• Newcleus - Jam On It [1983]
• Spyder-D - Smerphies Dance [1982]
• Twilight 22- Siberian Nights [1984]
• Unknown DJ - 808 Beats [1985]
• Whodini - Escape [1984]

Contemporary eFunk

• Dagobert Basin Invasion [1996]
• Dagobert - Ready To Rock [1999]
• Knightz of Bass - Dark M-Pire [1996]
• Knightz of Bass - All Freaks Freak Out [1996]
• Prime Dominance - Pathfinder Beats [1998]
• Prime Dominance - Theme of Swift Rock [2003]
• Sbassship - Odyssey In Sbass [2000]
• Sbassship - Against The Rest [2005]
• Newcleus - Destination Earth (Sbassship Remix) [2006]
• MC T-Rock - Introducing [1999]
• Mandroid - Future Funk EP [2006]
• Computor Rockers - Tech-No-Rock [2003]
• Dynamic Bass System - Express To Jupiter [2004]
• Dominance Crushing Crew - Nothing Stopping Us [2006]
• Imatran Voima - Commando [2004]
• Funk Senator - Funk Out [2007]
• Funkmaster Ozone-West Coast Pioneers [2007]
• Elias Damian - The Vocoder Pop EP [2007]
• MC T-Rock - Introducing Electric Funk 2007 [2007]
• Funkmaster Ozone - Released and unreleased Vol.1 [2007]
• Flashmaster Ray - The Boss on Bass [2011]
• Electrodefender - Electric Nightmare [2014]
• Daree Rock - Electronic Dancer [2015]

See also

• Breakdance
• Electronic dance music
• Hip-hop (music)
• Hip-hop (subculture)
• TR-808
• Voice coder

Web links

• Afrika Bambaataa - The Unofficial Pages Interesting facts about the founder of the Zulu Nation and (next to Arthur Baker) the initiator of Hip-Hop-eFunk.
• Westcoastpioneers website about the electro radio scene of the west coast
• ElectroEmpire Website about (Hip-Hop) Electro Funk
• Sound of the eighties - electro-funk in the melting pot of many currents on retropie.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Electrodefender - Electric Nightmare. Retrieved August 29, 2018 .