New Article... Electro-Funk - What Did It All Mean?

[Bernie]

A new article is now up in the "Disco History 101" section of DiscoMusic.com.

Electro-Funk - What Did It All Mean?
by Greg Wilson

http://www.discomusic.com/disco-hist...ctro-funk.html

UK DJ Greg Wilson of Legend, Wigan Pier and Hacienda fame gives us a look at the Electro-Funk scene and how it all came about.

[billywho]

Superb article evoking great memories for me. I was a student at Manchester in the early 80s and Greg was a legend, playing some fantastic mixes on Manchester's Piccadilly radio. I loved electro then, and I still do. Egyptian Lover wasn't mentioned in the article, but "My House On The Nile" is one of my favourite electro tracks.

Thanks Greg/Bernie.

[midas]

very good, this was (is) my kind of music.
I have on vinyl cd and mp3 around 70% of tracks mentioned on that list , and now i am searching and downloading
more (thanx kazaa).

but highlighted D-train, is this electro?

[K-Bee]

Highly enjoyable article - Thanks for putting it out, Bernie. The net doesn't offer that much quality information about a subject like this.

Guess there really is a fine line between the old electro stuff form the likes of Jonzun Crew and Planet Patrol and the more Hip Hop orientated stuff like Whodini. I always thought they were two sides of the same story

The articles overall definition of the content of Electro Funk seems to be of a technical matter. I'm not sure I agree with that - changing the instrumentation doesn't create a new musical style in my book. You'll have to change the music itself as well. Remember, disco didn't die in 1979 - they just changed it a little bit (many will disagree, I know)

Putting D-train in the electro genre seems a little far-fetched to me as well. Although Eaves/Williams used lots of electronics, it still seem way more organic and...dare I say... it "Human made" than both the sparse electro beats from groups like the Imperial Bros., as well as the more freestyle/miami Bass influenced stuff that was to be released in the following years.

I urge people to check out this article by Tim Haslett for further information about this subject:

http://www.globaldarkness.com/articl...tro%20funk.htm

[QUINNY]

Ahh! Midas and KBee. Scholars such as yourselves who weren't actually there either DJing or dancing at the time cannot possibly know how radical D Train seemed, so I for one would probably put it in at the beginning of the genre. I admit it wasn't half as hard as anything that followed, or quite as stripped down, but for its time it was all of those things and more. In the UK at least, we played the instrumental side, NOT the vocal and that was so different to almost anything we'd heard before.
The Haslett article obviously goes one or two levels beyond the Wilson one, but do all these guys write these articles to suit their own interpretation of history? The other question is why do they do it and if lotsa guys believe their every word, is history served or debased? There's a point beyond which such delvings begin to seriously distort the accepted truth and merely become figments of the writers own mind. Just imagine if everyone believed me and suddenly thought Zone - Rhythm Makers was the best record ever. No it's my own #1 for very personal, very subjective, highly individual reasons.
This is not a dig at any one writer, but I do get pissed off by history that implies I and millions of others didn't know diddly squat or that we should have been more aware.
Just like D Train wasn't electro funk to anyone who wasn't there. What will the history books say in 100 years time?

[Greg Wilson]

Good to read all your comments.

When writing about Electro most people take "Planet Rock" as the starting point, and although this was undoubtedly the pivotal release I've tried to explain that there was a movement towards a more electronic dance sound that had really begun to gain momentum following the release of D Train's "You're The One For Me" over 6 months earlier, in Nov 81. As Quinny pointed out in the thread, this was a radical release at the time, and stood out as something new and vital. This, and the other tracks I mentioned in the piece, paved the way for what we would later come to know as Electro. Remember, as the article states, Electro-Funk was originally a blanket term for a variety of styles of innovative dance music, and it wasn't until 83 that the term Electro came into general use on the UK club scene. This was the main objective of my article, to explain how the Electro movement developed via specialist club nights (catering to a predominantly black audience), up to the point when Street Sounds took the music to the masses via their "Electro" compilations (beginning late 83). In reply to Billywho, this is the reason why there's no mention of Egyptian Lover, which came later down the line.

As with any type of music journalism there's bound to be a subjective aspect, but somebody has to tell the story and having been there at the time I feel I'm as qualified as anyone to do this. All of the information I included in my own article is factual and can be backed-up (as I said, the early developments were documented by the black music press), so my conscience is clear with regards to any charge of re-writing history. In fact my main motivation was to counter the mis-information that currently exists on the subject, so people have the opportunity to make up their own minds. By sharing my first-hand experience of the period I hope to fill in some gaps for those who are interested in finding out more about Electro-Funk and its legacy to dance music and club culture.

If anyone wants to contact me direct feel free to e-mail me at electrofunkroots@yahoo.co.uk

[QUINNY]

Hi Greg! I was getting more at the Haslett piece which lists records that I've never heard of as being esssential and groundbreaking. O.K I wouldn't profess to be an absolute Electro guru or anything, but as a working DJ who played about 65% of your list, you'd have thought I would have had some knowledge of such gems. I don't really dig the one-upmanship that pervades.