Bassline + UK Funky

early to mid 2000s · Sheffield and London, United Kingdom

Two UK garage offshoots from the 2000s: Sheffield's bassline, born at the Niche club from speed garage's warped 4x4 bass, and London's UK funky, built on house tempos and Afro Caribbean percussion (Wikipedia).

The sound

Wobbly 4x4 speed garage bass and pitched up R&B vocals in the north, soulful house crossed with Afro Caribbean percussion in the south, both splitting off from UK garage in the same decade.

Listen for: Track the low end first, a warped sub or organ stab carrying the tune in bassline, then a skipping, syncopated Afro Caribbean drum pattern doing the same job in UK funky.

Things to know

  1. Sheffield's Niche nightclub opened in 1992 as an illegal warehouse party space and was a licensed club by 1995. It became the epicenter of the sound later named bassline.

  2. In November 2005, more than 300 police officers raided Niche at a cost of roughly £680,000. No club management were charged and only a small number of pills were found, but the venue was permanently shut down.

  3. Drake's 2016 hit One Dance is built on a slowed down sample of the Crazy Cousinz remix of Kyla's Do You Mind, a 2008 UK funky club anthem. Crazy Cousinz and Kyla received songwriting credit.

  4. UK funky crystallized around 2006 when London DJs from the 2-step, soulful house, and broken beat scenes, including pioneer Supa D, began swapping US house imports for tougher UK records built on ramped up percussion and bass.

Key tracks

Family tree

  • UK Garage: UK garage split twice in the 2000s, and this node covers both halves. In Sheffield, the Niche club kept faith with the harder 4x4 speed garage sound, stripped the vocals, and pushed the bass until it became bassline. In London, DJs from the 2-step, soulful house, and broken beat scenes swapped US house imports for tougher percussive UK productions, and by around 2006 that became UK funky.
  • Grime: Grime runs alongside bassline and UK funky rather than feeding into either one. All three came out of UK garage's mid-2000s split. UK funky partly rose because London promoters wanted an alternative to grime nights being throttled by Form 696 policing, while bassline absorbed grime's rougher production edge through crossover producers like T2, who fused the two sounds directly.

Go deeper