http://www.factmag.com/2010/05/21/the-month-in-housetechno-3/

Really looking forward to hearing Tenement Yard, 'Rass Out' and his Ikonika mix were real gems, gritty as hell, which makes a nice contrast to the smoothness of so much funky-ish stuff around at the moment.

The article also touches on what a few people were talking about here the other day, and has made me realise what it is that gives the newer funky nowhere near as much longevity and furious energy as the early handful of scene-defining twelves: it's that a lot of it has lost its particularly British pirate sound. Roska's gone all Detroit/Chicago, the Night Slugs lot have musical similarities to US bass institutions like Mad Decent, juke influences are turning up all over the place.

The stuff that sounds most essential is the music that retains the same really heavy grime/garage edge, the pirate radio factor that stuff like Roska's 'Elevated Levels', Banton's 'Reign', Apple's 'Mr. Bean' and Lil Silva's 'Different' had. It's people like Altered Natives, Kode9, Mosca, Deadboy, Hackman and DVA who are still keeping that lineage really strong in the music, and it tends to result in far more exciting things.