So what about the funk?

I love the funk. I love to play it, listen to it and go to funk concerts. But I wasn’t always a funk fan, and if you read this blog regularly you may remember some of my previous posts about metal and also being a closet reggae fan. I didn’t care much for funk in my teens – it was all about prog, metal and fusion back then.

The key moment for me was the first time I saw Tower of Power in concert. It must have been in 1990 or 91 and the venue was a small club in Stockholm. I was standing less than 10 feet in front of the horn section and was literally blown away what came out of those horns (both in terms of sound and otherwise, yuk!). Since then I have seen them live five or six times, and they have never disappointed me. Rocco Prestia’s pumping 16th-notes, the distinct “BAUPP” sound of Doc Kupka’s baritone sax and of course the accented snare ghost notes by David Garibaldi. I love Tower of Power.

Another huge influence is of course James Brown, the godfather of soul. He recorded so many great songs that it seems almost silly to mention just one or two of them, but some of my favorites are Get On the Good Foot, Mother Popcorn and Funky Drummer (which features the most sampled drum groove ever, played by the great Clyde Stubblefield). I could go on.

Another funk highlight was seeing Parliament Funkadelic (or P-funk Allstars or whatever George Clinton decides to call the band. Or bands, whatever…). Songs like Red Hot Mama, Super Stupid, Good to Your Earhole, Standing on the Verge of Getting it On, Get off Your Ass and Jam and of course the epic Maggot Brain are regulars in my iPhone.

Then there’s The Meters, Prince, Defunkt, Sly & The Family Stone, Graham Central Station, the fusion funk of The Brecker Brothers and also disco-funk such as The Brothers Johnson and EWF. And the Acid Jazz movement that ocurred in the 90’s. The list goes on.

OddGrooves Funk Drumming sound clips

You may or may not have guessed that this blog post is part of a pre-launch for a new OddGrooves product (Attention: Subtle pitch coming up 🙂 ) The product is called OddGrooves Funky Drumming and features a selection of funk drum loops played by session drummer Magnus Brandell. It will be released in the first half of April 2011, and you will be the first to know if you either watch this blog closely or subscribe to our newsletter. As always, newsletter subscribers get a discount and if you’re not a subscriber I recommend you enter your name and e-mail address in the green box on the top right side. Here are the sound clips:

138 BPM Funk Fusion
115 BPM Popcorn Funk
112 BPM Funk
111 BPM TOP Funk
95 BPM Funky Magnus
91 BPM Funk
86 BPM Funk Shuffle

Free funk drum loops

Anyway, we got some free funk drum loops for you right here. As with all OddGrooves loops, they are royalty free and may be used in your productions without credit.

Download free funk drum loops here

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Do you like the sound clips? Do you like the free loops? Do you like THE FUNK? We’d love to hear about it so please leave a comment below!

Cheers,
Per