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Rating: Imagine a movie where a lounge producer, through a space-time breach, ends up in early 20th century America and starts producing music. "What a #### movie!", you might say, and I join you, but this record would be a fitting soundtrack.
This is the first production after various singles by two Norwegian DJs (H.W.Hagen and J.P.Nilsen), who revamp sounds now seventy years old in a downtempo key, pairing them with offbeats and samples, without ever veering into the extreme, but skirting the so-called borderline with great class.
The obsessive rhythm is softened by strings and sax, the nervous jingles are mitigated by sweet double basses; their sound is a clash of different sonorities, producing a middle ground that can truly appeal to everyone, thanks to its constant rise and fall. They immediately project us into once-upon-a-time-in-America settings with "Sports, Not Heavy Crime", then bring us back to the third millennium with the beat of "Funny Bones & Lazy Legs", which might make you think of the best jazz drummer in a jam session with a violinist after a tranquilizer, "Behind The Heghtball" is the perfect mix between chill-out samples and the most relaxed fusion, "Single Stroke Ruff" is the perfect track for sipping tea accompanied by a spliff, while "Treat Me Man I Need The Reputation" is ideal for unleashing its provoked effect, and so on throughout the CD. In short, after sinking you into an armchair, they make you get up to move the coffee table and turn the living room into a Jazzy Club.
The proof of all this is that their pieces can be found in Lounge, Chill Out, Contemporary Jazz, Drum & Bass, Electronic and logically Downtempo compilations; it was liked by my seasoned jazz-lover father as well as a friend of mine who loves rave, and even if the former listens to it when he wants something lively, and the latter the complete opposite, it's still a great result, I believe.
At the end of 2003, they released another (master?)piece of which I haven't heard anything yet (also because I learned about it just recently), but after ordering it with long waiting times, I put this one back on the playlist, and it shines again like two years ago, excellent in these cold days as a background for Jamaican chats in front of a lit fireplace.
In a few words, I would define it as a brilliant reinterpretation with modern means of sounds that made history.
[Editor's note: on the (very well-curated) website you can listen to the entire discography in streaming, including the latest work]
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Funnybones & Lazylegs (04:48)
"What's wrong with naked?" "So, she went to start the car up or whatever And I was walking out the club And then he grabbed me or whatever And he was like: "What's up?" You know, whatever At the time, you know I wasn't pressing the issue or nothin' So I pushed him away or whatever But we all kick it together, you know We're constantly making passes at each other and all that So now I'm just like..."
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