ultrafunk » disco

Jazzy Jeff & Mick Boogie – “Summertime: The Mixtape”

rune — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:52:24 +0000

To quote the original source: “49 songs… expertly mixed, cut and transitioned by two of America’s most popular DJ’s. The songs cover any and everything ‘summer’ related. From songs about summer to songs that just feel like the sunshine season, this multi-genre mix will be sure to make your already great summer even better!”

Download link: Summertime – The Mixtape.zip (144MB zip)

Funky Halvor + Rune – “Thursday Funky Stuff”

rune — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:48:30 +0000

Sorry that we’re a bit slow on the update front these days — it’s summertime here and there are better things to do than sitting inside typing away at the keyboard, but as always, we bring you some sweet music to accompany the warm and sunny weather!

Download: Funky Halvor + Rune – Thursday Funky Stuff (154MB mp3).

Rune mix 06 – “Jazz and Beats”

rune — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:53:06 +0000

This started out as a laid back jazz session that for some reason ended up somewhere completely different, which is a good thing!, all track selections guided by the solid beats (the playlist and mix download link is available by reading the full post):

Download link: Rune mix 06 – Jazz and Beats (152MB mp3).

01. Ulf Sandberg Quartet – Bolivia
02. DJ Cam Quartet – Saint Germain
03. Mark Mac Presents visioneers – Ike’s Mood I
04. The James Taylor Quartet – Fat Boy Stomp
05. The Winstons – Amen Brother
06. Stanley Clarke – We Supply
07. The Jacksons – Destiny
08. Herman Kelly & Life – Dance To The Drummer’s Beat (original 12″ mix)
09. Mother Earth – Riot on 103rd Street
10. The Poets Of Rhythm – Eulogize The Source
11. Jaguar – That’s Your Problem Baby
12. The Grits – Tramp
13. Trouble Funk – Freaky Situation
14. Gonzalez – Just Let It Lay
15. Side Brok – Brænne Brus (improvised jam)
16. Bentzon Brotherhood Play The Sugar Hill Gang – Rappers Delight (12″ mix)
17. Soulive – Cash’s Dream Remix (DJ Spinna mix)
18. Dogg Master – Can’t Live Without Music

Dogg Master sample tracks

rune — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:17:49 +0000

I don’t know who the French person behind the moniker is, but the music he creates is definitely worth checking out. On his MySpace page you can listen to a small selection of tracks, all of them heavily inspired by 80′s electro-funk artists like Zapp, Roger Troutman, Mtume, Atomic Dog era George Clinton and early 90′s hip-hop from the likes of Snoop Dogg. My favourite song (so far) is called “Bedroom Dance”, a bass-heavy boogie-disco tune with vocoder vocals that will make you move!

Funky Halvor + Rune – “Made In Tromsø”

rune — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:24:25 +0000

Inspired by the excellent performance of the funk cover band Badass Motherfunkers that was put together by Halvor for the Tromsø International Film Festival 20th anniversary party, we made this up-tempo mix (sorry, no playlist is available):

Download link: Funky Halvor + Rune – Made In Tromsø (208MB mp3).

Funky Halvor – “Motherfunkin’ Boogie”

rune — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:02:02 +0000

DJ Funky Halvor is back, this time with a pure boogie-disco mix that really kicks some serious ass — enjoy! (sorry, no playlist is available):

Download link: Funky Halvor – Motherfunkin’ Boogie (142MB mp3).

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).

Daryl Easlea – “Everybody Dance: Chic and the Politics of Disco” (2004)

rune — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:01:37 +0000

“ALERT: Yet another upper working-class white boy from Britain writes about a group and phenomena that occurred in another country when he was only 12″. It may not be the best way for an author to start a book about one of the most well known yet thoroughly underrated (disco) bands in history, and even though that statement is true, it is no way indicative of the content in this finely crafted book about the people behind the name and the music.

When Chic’s short-lived reign as kings of the disco beat ended in the early 80s, the founding members Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards went on to produce some of the most iconic hit songs and artists to appear in the last 30 years including Madonna (“Live a Virgin”), David Bowie (“Let’s Dance”), Diana Ross (“Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out”), Duran Duran (“Notorious”) and many more. They achieved all this through their combined talent, finely honed business skills, hard earned social and political savvy in the recording industry, and their ever-present unwillingness to be controlled by anyone but themselves.

The chronicle of their journey from childhood to becoming a bonafide hit machine in the late 70s and their lasting legacy is the main focus of the narrative, often told by first hand sources in the form of quotes from interviews with the core members (Nile, Bernard and Tony Thompson), as well as some of the most important ‘hired hands’ in the bands history and a number of the other artists they worked with, all strung together by the author to form a continuous story. This rather personal retelling of their history is what makes this a very good read, because you get inside the heads of the people directly involved in it all.

There are a few flaws here and there, one of them being that the author can sometimes be overly positive in his reviews of the albums covered by this book, but that is easily remedied by putting on the records and deciding for yourself, and it could also have benefited from a more rigorous editing process, but none of that detracts much from the overall quality of the writing.

Homepage: Not available.

Purchase: Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everybody-Dance-Chic-Politics-Disco/dp/1900924560/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258593809&sr=1-3

Chic live in Norway – “Everybody Dance / We Are Family”

rune — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:01:46 +0000

One last Chic clip… It’s really sad that it is no longer possible to see the original line up live with Bernard Edwards on bass and Tony Thompson on drums together with Nile Rodgers, but thankfully their music lives on (click the “HQ” button when the video starts playing to get better quality):

Chic live in Montreux – “I Want Your Love”

rune — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:36:45 +0000

Yeah, I know, posting YouTube clips is old hat these days, but I’m going to publish a review of a great book about Chic soon, and I just wanted to remind people how outstanding and alive their music still is today (click the “HQ” button when the video starts playing to get better quality):