Seventeen of this volume's twenty-five cuts are written in a minor key. For a compilation promising funky vibes, that stat looks odd on paper; read as a map, it makes sense: the festive side is the surface, and underneath runs a current far more melancholic than the title lets on.
The entrance is bright and brief: DJ Nirro's 'This Is House' opens in G major with the shortest cut on the record, and 'Paradise' eases the pulse down to 95 bpm in E-flat major. The descent begins with 'Infinity' in D minor, and from 'Piano Is Back' in A-flat minor onwards the album settles into a shadowy fourteen-track plain where only Supamono's 'Musica', in C major, surfaces like an island. It is the richest stretch of the landscape: the twin B-flat minors of 'Tenderness' and 'Carte Blanche', the three C minors spread across 'Get on the floor', 'Distant Lovers' and 'Like This'. The deepest trench on the map sits here too: Darren Studholme's 'Distant Lovers', 8:15 in C minor, the longest running time of the whole set.
Three clearings before the close
Towards the end the terrain opens up: 'Shining Memories' in F major, 'DAMN!' in D-flat major and 'Funk It', slowing to 90 bpm also in F major, work as consecutive patches of light. They don't last. The finale returns to minor mode with 'This Is The Night', 'Life Come Back To Me' and Salade Tomate's 'Ritual de Sal', a long seven minutes in D minor — the very key where the descent began, as if the record were closing in on itself.
Nothing But operates as a genre-by-genre compilation factory —its Discogs page lists editions running from trance to tech house— and some names travel between series: ZuluMafia, who signs 'Carte Blanche' here, also appears on Nothing But... Soulful House Essentials, Vol. 22. That crossover explains why this Funky Vibes sounds less monochrome than its label suggests: it is funky house sung in minor, and that is precisely its charm.
Sources: Discogs · Beatport
