C-Funk
Notes on "C-Funk"
Extended Play on SoundCloud (including C-Funk and C-Dub)
C-Funk (SoundCloud)
YouTube:
- C-Funk- C-Dub
Track Data
Composition tool: MuseScore, Studio One 4 ProfessionalRecording tool (DAW): Studio One 4 Professional
Number of tracks: 147
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One), TAL-NOIZEMAKER
Composition and Recording period: 9 February 2020 - 8 March 2020
C-Funk and another version
The track ”C-Funk" is FMT's 33rd piece released in March 2020, which has two versions, "C-Funk" and "C-Dub." Consisting of these, an extended play has been arranged.
C-Funk was released before Opus Number 32, even though it was completed after the 32nd. The tentative title was "Contemporary Funk."
Both versions were totally developed by FMT and Gary Rees.
Combined Motifs
As the title implies, our original concept was some form of contemporary funk music that we have hardly ever listened to. We developed a piece of motif called “Contemporary Funk”, which sounds a little bit tonal but actually atonal. This appears in the middle of the track.
At the first stage, this was it. It was just repetition of this with some developments of adding strings and drums and so on. It was okay but not exciting at all…
So we made another phrase called “Downtempo Groove Experimentalised” like this:
It was very interesting as it continues transposing up and down, and added to “Contemporary Funk” but finally was taken out. But the funky beat remains in the track.
Basically, it swings at the 5/8 timing (.63) instead of the triplet (.67). A couple of years ago we also used .594 in the track “Bangriddim 594” but this is slightly closer to the triplet.
We also supplemented another motif called “Motif for Clavichord”:
There was no intention of anything like contemporary funk here. This was just a play inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano works played on the Clavichord.
But what was made of these three motifs was still okay-but-not-exciting-at-all, we drastically restructured it - by positioning the Clavichord motif as the main and the Contemporary Funk motif on the side, deleting “Downtempo Groove Experimentalised”, and adding another:
This is what appears just after the first main Clavichord motif. We struggled this restructuring.
Like this, this aims at funk that breaks the stereotype of the “funk,” by adopting a variety of characteristic methods like the .63 swing, influence from Beethoven and atonality. Well, that’s a lot closer to FMT’s philosophy of “creating what we want to listen to but doesn’t exist anywhere” especially by treating the Beethoven motif, which is completely irrelevant to the funk, as this centre.
Besides, all our recent works have been relatively, let’s say, analogue or complex sounds, which is why we went for something closer to the digital and popular music. But anyway, it’s quite interesting that the concept includes a contradiction: the funk music should be “contemporary” but we tried to make it “contemporary.”
Inviting Gary Rees in
We worked with him on the previous work (created before the release of this song), "Themes for King Of Tokyo W", with which three of us got along.
TI sent these MuseScore data to Gary Rees and interacted with him several times. To this he added and returned three types of MIDI phrases, including a wind instrument refrain and a bass line with bassline intent.
However, we did not intend to create a “typical Funk” and tried to use these phrases elsewhere. Specifically, the tone was changed, re-harmonized, and articulation was further applied. To do this, exchange with MIDI data was effective.
His phrases are characterized by emotional phrases that we rarely use, giving the track another appeal.
His comment is shown later in this page.
Melodies and harmony
There is no single melody on this track. The first motifs were a very unemotional chunk of sound.
We wanted to treat and arrange the melodies and harmony in the same way. We didn't want them to be subordinate. We didn't want the melodies to be heard as melodies, and did want the harmony to sound like melodies as well.
This is common in most of the FURICO tracks.
The harmony and counter-melody are entangled with the melody so that it sounds like harmony, and by adding movement onto the harmony, it sounds like melody. That was our intention.
This is the same for the bassline. Especially in this track, there is no sound that is clearly positioned as the bassline. It sounds like counter-melody, or is meant to be part of a rhythm instrument.
In addition, we rarely use the style of classical music theory for creating harmonizations and counter-melody. That is just one of the options. There are already many such songs in the world, so we try to avoid them as much as possible. But we do not hate or neglect music theory. The question is “Is this really innovative?” It is used to make sure that it is a good place to go if we are really in trouble.
For harmonizing and counter-melody, TI “transcribed what sounded in my head, which is sometimes really audible” according to TI.
When theoretically created, augmented fourth, which is considered to be a dissonant sound, is stacked, two or more parts are created, their timing is shifted, and then too unnatural or natural elements are eliminated and rearranged. At times like this we refer to the music theory.
Tones
We chose the tones as much as possible to eliminate the tone that is common in the standard Funk and to be Funky.
We used human voice, strings and horn a lot because we thought it was the most effective way to make the harmony sound beautiful. Also, just getting Presonus's half-price sale for the Studio One preset sampler for orchestral expansions :)
However, in order to make beautiful sounds sound even more beautiful, adding a moderate amount of "dirty" will make more beautiful harmony. Therefore, we applied various modulations and equalizations to phrases, and sometimes to single notes.
TI was worried about choosing the rhythm sound source. Playing the same set to the end will give the rhythm a sense of stability, but it wouldn't be interesting.
However, it would be difficult to listen if you switched unnecessarily.
In the first place, the rhythm part of FURICO always has more than two types of sets, so the number of sounds is large, so you need to make sets that do not interfere with each other.
So from the beginning, I was going to combine one with a "raw drum" and another with a "rhythm box", and tried a variety of sounds and sets.
Eventually, one placed bass drums and snares, the hi-hat placed heavy heavily sampled sounds of the 80's Linn Drum, and the toms and cymbals were unmuted raw jazz drums.
The other rhythm includes a bass drum and a snare drum, a tom for a rhythm box (underlying the sampling sound of a Roland TR606), and a hi-hat, cymbal, and bass drum created with a synth.
Regarding the bass, instead of using what is thought as the typical bass tone of the funk (slap or resonance synth bass, etc.), sounds were created only with sine wave and modulations of contrabass sampling sounds were arranged.
The AcidｰHouse-like part in the middle is completely a play. We sneaked some of the famous New Wave songs of the 80's, one of our musical roots, like scams, so that we can't understand them.
However, this is also Acid-House-like, but it is important that the tone and composition are not at all. After all, this is also the rhythm, how to set the time interval between sounds, making it sound like that.
Mixing
We tried to create a mix that didn’t create a center without clarifying the role such as which phrase is the main melody.
The FURICO sound does not create a center (phrase, tone, rhythm) that focuses on the ears as little as possible. This is something that you are always aware of.
It's a sound that doesn't get along with anyone, just stays there, but as a whole harmonious.
So, what is Funk?
We like Funk and have our own ideal Funk Music, but we can't be Bootsy Collins. Of course also for Prince.
However, with the hypothesis that "Funk can be created without physicality" and "Funk is ultimately a rhythm, a time interval between sounds (" 間（Ma) " in Japanese)" that we created in this track.
We believe that the hypothesis was finally proved. We have eliminated as much of the Funk's standard sounds (tones, mixes) as possible, but we believe this is also one Funk, or at least one of the funk alternatives.
Construction
We want to try as much as possible in one song. Perhaps this song also contains ideas that would enable to make 5-6 songs. Maybe this excess is also a major feature of FURICO.
Because it is originally made with very limited equipment, there are times when you can not be satisfied with listening to one idea per track.
Mastering
We asked Gary Rees again for mastering. This time, he created four types of mastering files.
Originally, mastering is the process of leveling the sound quality and image of one or more songs to make it easier to listen to.
However, if this C-Funk has the consistent sound quality and sound image throughout one song, it is difficult to convey the goodness of the tone changes in various ways, and the places where the sound quality matches and where it is not so clear are too clear. To maximize the sound of the shifting parts, we used two mastering techniques and applied them for 40 to 90 second stretches over seven different parts of the piece. This was Gary’s suggestion and is an unusual approach, but it was quite effective. We completely liked his mastered sample and decided to release it with that sound quality.
Additional Thoughts from Gary Rees
"I’ve been really delighted to work with the FMT. I’ve never heard music like theirs before. When I first encountered their music, as a relatively new musician on SoundCloud last autumn, I was immediately enamored of the duo’s unique style and challenging songs. And yet, there was something about their music that just made sense at a gut level. Their music isn’t something one can easily hum along to. But it tickled a part of my brain like a puzzle I knew I could solve with some work. In one of our first interactions we talked about polyrhythms. Was this a polyrhythm in their piece Hyper Chase for the Ruins, or just a change in meter? A musical puzzle that I delight in solving. (It was a polyrhythm, and not a change from 4/4 to 6/8 as I’d guessed.)
I’ve made musical contributions to three FMT pieces now. It is not simple 1-4-5 writing. But each contribution has been more enjoyable than the last as I’ve come to understand FMT’s musical genius. When they proposed the idea of Contemporary Funk I was curious what this might sound like. On my first listen to an early draft I had to scratch my head. This wasn’t really what I would consider funk. Yes, there was a syncopated beat. Yes, there was a theme that bopped at times. But I was skeptical and I expressed my skepticism over the conceit of reimagining “funk” in this way. For one thing, it had no funky bass. How can one write funk without a funky bass?
I wrote some initial parts and was not entirely surprised that they weren’t incorporated into the work in progress. This was FMT. The works in progress go through a good deal of change in the writing, over take after take. The work continued until FMT declared the piece complete. I sent a teasing note saying it still wouldn’t be funk without the requisite bass. So they threw down the gantlet: write some funky bass. You don’t need to make such a request to someone like me twice. I wrote a 5-minute bass line that was part funk and part Gary, which is quirky and assertive and right on the beat. And then some magic happened.
The next version of the song completely popped. FMT took in my bass then made many substantive changes that tweaked the sensibility of the piece, which was certainly more tame before the introduction of a popping bass line. It was really a beautiful melding of sensibilities in the best nature of collaborative song writing. One element inspired another element and the music went to a wholly different place. It’s a testament to the flexible minds behind FMT and the deep creativity this pair of musician’s bring to their craft. I’m honored to contribute and surely will benefit from the experience."
Additional notes on "C-Dub"
C-Dub (SoundCloud)
Track Data
Composition tool: Studio One 4 ProfessionalRecording tool (DAW): Studio One 4 Professional
Number of tracks: 27
Sound source: Presence XT,C-Funk Original 2mix file,Gary's Wav&midi file
Composition and Recording period: 8 March 2020 - 12 March 2020
When we sent 2 mixes of C-Funk to Gary, he said, "I like it very much but I need a heavy bassline."
We were very interested in it and asked him for an additional track. This is where the collaboration is interesting and fun.
A good track can be interpreted in any way and there are many possibilities. We don't have to limit that possibility to one.
He immediately sent us the bassline Wav and MIDI files. Listening to that baseline, we added new horn, strings, and organ parts. On top of that, we chopped up the original master file of C-Funk, applied effects, and created a new version.
Thanks. We hope this to help you have more fun.
FMT