Funkula - By B-Jam / DJ Hype
TITLE: Funkula (DJ Friendly Mix & DJ Hype Remix)
ARTIST: B-Jam, DJ Hype
GENRE: Jungle / Drum & Bass
MOOD: Bouncy
SIMILAR TO: DJ Krust, Deep Blue
Today’s slab of wax is "Funkula," a 1996 jungle release from B-Jam on No Smoking Records.
B-Jam’s original ‘DJ Friendly Mix’ on the AA side jolts out the gate with a sharp think break before it draws in a rather substantial, and assuredly funky, sample from Warren G’s "So Many Ways." Then B-Jam drops the arrangement down to nothing but the phrase ‘ultrafunkula’ and vaults the listener into a squelching square bass drop. There isn’t much to it, but the simplicity speaks volumes.
Taking on the remix, DJ Hype switches things up, promising us “The funk, the whole funk, and nothing but the funk”. The simple two beat steps along to light and carefree G-Funk chords, a moment of bliss in a tune that soon switches to a heavier bent. Hype’s bassline is near soundsystem wrecking, a mishmash of Gene Russell’s double bass on “Get Down” and an ever popular pitched 808. Not one to leave a track in spirals of repetition, Hype keeps the arrangement tricky, evolving and unique, an early sign of the genius that has put him near the front of the drum & bass scene.