blog of funk

Do you remember the old times?

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:32:05 +0000

A song called “Old”. I’ve coined a new musical genre, as you do, for this song – Plantagenet. It seemed both timely with the rescuing of Richard III from his carpark grave in Leicester and appropriate for this muse on mortality. The sounds of the clock chiming and the dog are from my childhood home. [...]

Just Like London Buses

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:34:52 +0000

Just Like London Buses, you wait a couple of decades and then two come along at once. My Bloody Valentine are by no means the most hasty of bands, with a twenty year lay off in their release schedule, but as if by magic they have produced and released a new album, tantalisingly entitled m [...]

David Bowie’s Birthday

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:40:44 +0000

I still can’t believe what David Bowie did on the 8th January 2013. Take a decade off for good behaviour, then show up unexpectedly and place the question “Where are we now?” into everyone’s consciousness. After so long a silence it is quite a remarkable achievement. Shut up for ten years, record a secret album, [...]

Which is to say welcome once again

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:16:26 +0000

Today I shall mostly be joining DJ Apecat at Radio Orakel, an FM radio station in Oslo. Live stream here, we’ll be on air at 13:00 GMT +1 It’s all streaming these days, as Mrs Noah observed shortly before they began to collect wood. Tweet this Share on Facebook

If there’s nothing new in Rock ‘n’ Roll…

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 13:57:30 +0000

The old adage, “there’s nothing new in rock ‘n’ roll” must be one of the most over-used clichés in the world, being used to excuse, to denigrate, to explain and to dismiss in equal measure. So what do I think of Janelle Monae’s new song and video? Well, though the vocal is very good, the [...]

The Great Debate

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:20:42 +0000

Let it not be said that music plays a side role in the great battle for hearts and minds. As the 9/11 anniversary coincides with a particularly shrill and vicious campaign by the American right, I bring you Burka Blue. The music sounds great, very art school frauenband, an almost industrial rock pop anti-protest. I’m [...]

Swing Report

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:13:53 +0000

How do you make a trio sound like a big band, and rock a club? Berliners Dirty Honkers played at the Old Street club I went to last Saturday, and did just that. In midday tropical heat at midnight, they bust up the joint with artful screeches and an entertaining set which veered like an [...]

I Love Electro Swing!

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:56:30 +0000

I used to run a DJ agency ten years ago, and since those crazed times, I’ve not really bothered to follow all the nuances and subgenres and sub-subgenres of dance music.. there are so bleedin’ many variations, and so tiny are the changes, except once every ten years or so, that the entire dance music [...]

Can You Stand Upon One Leg?

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:41:32 +0000

Not every comic song has the panache to carry the idea through to its musically logical conclusion, but The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannan is refreshingly un-selfconscious in this charmingly silly ditty. I recently returned from Norway and Belgium and left behind me new fans, many of whom were standing on one leg. From song to [...]

Life Without Buildings

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:26:05 +0000

This excellently odd song, The Leanover, was tipped me via Don Ratto from Unio and Petitio. You might not get it first off – as my pal Yana said, she didn’t dislike it, she didn’t like it. But I love its gently manic breathless stream of consciousness delivery. Once you grapple with them, the lyrics [...]

Spotify

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:35:58 +0000

Spotify has more or less replaced radio for me. I’ve been listening to it for the last year or so. It’s an interesting and mostly good quality service. Sound is far better than MP3 format music because it uses superior OGG encoding. Mobile, I have actually walked through a park, searching for tracks on the [...]

Bed 'O' Roses

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 11:53:45 +0000

Ian Dury is one of my heroes. He was a unique person, a true bohemian, a painter who went on to make hit records with unforgettable lyrics, punk attitude, and irresistable funk, who performed and sang like a demented music hall artist. But along with his raucous, explicit, confrontational demeanour, Ian Dury also wrote tender, [...]

Caribou

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:42:38 +0000

I’ve discovered this great band, Caribou, nine years late. Well, I’ve been busy so I have plenty of excuses – although the Residents once famously said, “Ignorance of your culture is not cool”, and it does make me wonder what happened to my once unbridled enthusiasm to seek all things new and excellent. It didn’t [...]

Satisfaction

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:41:59 +0000

Relentless rasping saw-wave with a robotic call to pleasure makes Benassi’s ‘Satisfaction’ peerlessly effective. If you don’t get it, don’t worry. It makes a lot of sense on the dancefloor. Despite my natural writing mode being a more traditional, instrument-based practise, I have enjoyed electronic music since I first heard sounds which I knew weren’t [...]

Underworld – Jumbo

deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:38:08 +0000

Some electronic music vastly exceeds its space-you-out-and-dance remit. Underworld were a rock band before they ventured into their celebrated and highly individual take on the genre and they remain (alongside Orbital) my favourite of the post-rave electronic artists. Their compositional sense elevates dance music to a sophisticated level, but their rave roots touch upon worlds [...]