Here, we present the exclusive first showing of a new video by the Brighton/London band Belleruche. This clip for “Fuzz Face” is highly arresting, an ingenious and slightly disturbing collision of hi and low-tech, made using thousands of photocopies, and its indicative of a band who are taking some very interesting ideas into the mainstream. But more importantly from theartsdesk's point of view, Belleruche's increasing profile is indicative of a broader cultural shift in the music world.
Watch the video for "Fuzz Face" by Belleruche:
Although they have brought rock and hip-hop elements into their sound, Belleruche have their roots firmly in a loosely knit British funk movement. Of course, there has been a jazz-funk scene in the UK since the mid-Seventies at least, which has occasionally been hip but generally is seen as rather naff. This scene nonetheless abides, particularly in certain enclaves like Brighton where Tru Thoughts, the label which releases Belleruche, is based, and where it has absorbed sounds like old-school hip hop. But recently, and particularly in the last year, its influence has been seeping into all levels of musical culture.
In the pop world, Mark Ronson has shifted on from his Sixties soul pastiches to bring the funk breakbeats he has always loved back into the equation, to very jolly effect – and the ludicrously gleeful dance smash “Barbra Streisand” by Duck Sauce is, Boney M sample notwithstanding, laden with funk's rhythmic weight and priapic cheek. Meanwhile on the live circuit, retro-funk acts including Ronson's sometime backing musicians The Dap Kings, the more cosmically inclined Heliocentrics, or the Eighties-inflected Los Angeleno keyboardist Dam-Funk (pictured right) are building steady careers.
In clubland, a spirit of tempo variation and musicianly groove is permeating all kinds of scenes. Clubs like Non:Sense and Deviation in London, Donky Pitch in Brighton and Hoya:Hoya in Manchester among many others have a radical eclecticism to their musical policies, but even if playing entirely electronic sounds, funk is at the heart of that.
And artists of the post-dubstep generation are bringing the limber, harmonically complex patterns of jazz and funk into their bass-heavy concoctions – those on Kode 9's Hyperdub label and maverick producers like Joker (pictured left) being cases in point, as is the arrival of godfather of dubstep Zed Bias aka Maddslinky on the Tru Thoughts label. Likewise, the stepping of the Deviation club's Benji B into the BBC Radio 1 slot vacated by Mary Anne Hobbs is a strong illustration of this shift; a comparable show, the Saturday lunchtime slot occupied by Alexander Nut on Rinse FM, provides one of the highlights of the ex-pirate station's weekly schedule, too.
Whether this is a reaction against the rigidity of the 1980s-influenced sounds that have been dominating lately, a need for good-time grooves in uncertain circumstances, or just the natural ticking around of musical fashion's wheels-within-wheels is not clear. But whatever the reason, the musical climate from the darkest cellars to the most brightly lit upper reaches of the chart is ready for the rhythms of funk like it hasn't been since the mid-Nineties – so whether it's Belleruche or someone else like them, expect to be hearing a good deal more music ready to dip its hips and get its groove on creeping into the mainstream, and soon.
