Brit Funk - History

History

Brit funk has its roots in North and East London. The pioneers of Brit funk were Hi Tension, a band from northwest London, which started as Hot Waxx in the early 1970s. The Real Thing, Heatwave and Gonzalez were also pioneers from the late 1970s, adding their own slant to the American melodic funk and R&B sounds of the post-disco era. However, the first time the term was use was in reference to bands such as Light of the World, who were obviously influenced by the funk scene from the USA, but were happy to acknowledge their UK roots without the need to adopt American accents on stage.

Groups such as Light of the World were among the first after Hi Tension to have major hit records in UK and international charts. After their split, the most notable part was Incognito, who released one of the definitive Brit-funk era albums called 'Jazz-Funk' plus a couple of notable singles such as 'North London Boy'. They reformed 8 years later on Gilles Peterson's Talkin' Loud label in 1990. The duo Linx should also get a mention as being one of the quality acts following their eponymously-titled sparkling debut album from 1981 which included 'You're Lying' and 'Intuition'.

One of the most influential and commercially successful bands was Level 42. Mark King, their lead singer and bass player, took up the slap and pop style created by artists like Larry Graham and Stanley Clarke and developed his own sound. The band's self-titled album and tracks like 'Turn it on' and 'Love Games' were unique and spurred US interest in remixing their tracks for club use. They produced three albums that were associated with the movement: 'Level 42', 'The Early Tapes' (released a few years later following their rising success), and 'The Pursuit of Accidents'. A visual example of this period is 'Rockpalast', recently released on DVD and representative of a band at its peak.

Record companies and music press of the time wanted to change the face of Brit funk, so the Soul Boy movement started with bands such as Haircut One Hundred sounding very Brit funkish and Wham! as a way to commercialize the music. The sound had out-stayed its welcome by 1985 with the rise of the stripped-down 'house' music sound, and so Brit funk died out along with related forms of Soul, Funk, and Boogie, although the best music remains classic today.