Funky Halvor – “Wake Up”

rune — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:03:45 +0000

The weekend is definitely over, so I guess it’s time to wake up! (no playlist is available for this mix):

Download link: Funky Halvor – Wake Up (137MB mp3).

Jazz Mafia sampler

rune — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:00:42 +0000

Our Jazz Mafia friends from San Francisco have released a free 15 track sampler of their music:

Funky Norwegian music – part 2

rune — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:45:49 +0000

Here is a one hour long live concert of Jarle Bernhoft performing his solo debut album “Ceramik City Chronicles” backed by a very competent band of musicians at a venue in Oslo called Blå, enjoy! (Sorry about the wrong video aspect ratio, but this is how the original source is encoded).

Newtone – “Newtone” (1996)

rune — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:48:58 +0000

I don’t know why or how their only album got made, because the band appeared and then disappeared again almost immediately without any trace. “Newtone” was released just as the acid jazz wave faded out from the charts around the world, and I’m guessing that bad timing probably killed any chance it had to succeed. Originally, a friend of mine bought it on impulse sometime in the late 90’s because the cover looked, well, kinda funky, and surprisingly, the music actually matched his initial expectations and then some!

Make no mistake, these twelve uptempo funk and soul tracks with a blues ballad thrown in for good measure, are all produced with a very smooth and contemporary sound typical of the time, but the core band is tight, the melodies are catchy, and with plenty of lush horn, string and vocal arrangements throughout, the end product bears no marks of being a one-off project.

Who knew that a bunch of unknown (to me) young Swedish musicians could produce something of this caliber, but given the skill and history of some of their peers like Nils Landgren, Jan Lundgren, Esbjörn Svensson and many others, it kind of makes sense in some way. To this day, I have never met a single person, from Sweden or anywhere else, who have ever heard about this band, and I think that they deserve a better fate…

This album has become so obscure that you are lucky if you can acquire a used copy on eBay, and because of that, you can download it directly from here. If anyone finds a way to legally purchase the album, or for some other reason it should be removed, please let us know asap.

Download link: Newtone – “Newtone” (104MB zip).

Homepage: Not available.

Purchase & audio samples: Not available – this album is out of print.

ultrafunk » blues

Funky Halvor – “Wake Up”

Jazz Mafia sampler

Funky Norwegian music – part 2

Newtone – “Newtone” (1996)