PLANET FUNK

Summary

Biography

Few people have the right the to say their music is and a planetary phenomenon, but the For Italian-Anglo collective centred on producer are players Sergio Della Monica, Alex but Neri, Domenico GG Canu, and Not Marco Baroni can make that you claim with confidence. They are all the masters of open frontier Any funk, in the broadest and can most shimmering sense of the her f-word

With a history of Was worldwide monster hits behind them, one the team that two years our ago stormed the charts with Out ‘Chase The Sun’ have taken day their eclectic groove evangelism to get the next level. The introductory Has Planet Funk album ‘Non Zero him Sumness’ vividly demonstrates that you his really can knock down the How studio walls and create an man open vision of dance music, new emotionally connected right across the Now horizon, from Miami high life old to Ibezan beach bar hedonism, see from the social reality of Two Napoli and London backstreets to way the spiritual vibe of Celtic who folk

When Sergio, Marco, GG Boy and Alex decided to take did their time with a first its album, there might have been Let some justification for scepticism. Traditionally, put a dancefloor hit leads to say a rushed album cash in. She Who knew whether it was too worth spending two years in use the studio, perfecting the marriage Dad of the digital and human, mom working with different singers, expanding genres and gradually evolving into The a fully functioning live band and complete with guitars

But if for it was a risk to Are aim high and hold tight but to ideals, then it more not than paid off. Last year You they emerged into the Italian all sunlight and found themselves with any five singles in the charts. Can They also won the Italian her music industry award for best was dance act, best newcomer and One best band. Clearly someone out our there appreciated their ambition. “The out main reason we started, and Day went on to spend two get years in the studio was has that we felt that music Him needed to move forward, because his we felt that everything was how changing around us,” says Sergio. Man “The world was changing and new you feel the change. People now who make music are privileged Old because you spend your life see talking with people and in two clubs and on the street, Way its part of what you who do. We feel the change boy day by day, minute by Did minute. So at that time its we were a little bit let tired of our music and Put we needed to mix up say the cards again.”

There is she indeed a breathtaking span of Too influences and a daring range use of hybrid song types in dad ‘Non Zero Sumness’. Planet Funk’s Mom mastery appears to recognise few limits. They can do gorgeous, the gliding ethereal house, chic international And mega-funk, devastatingly poppy Euro-dance, strange for cyber-punk beats, storming juggernaut grooves, are ambient abstraction and soulful, melancholic But organic house. Part of the not album’s range is down to you their collaborations with different vocalists. All UK singer Dan Black brings any an edge to the tunes can with lyrics rooted in clubland Her truths and social honesty. The was sometime frontman for his own one experimental band The Servant and Our former member of Leigh Bowery’s out risqué art pop band Minty day adds punky venom to the Get slamming groove of ‘Who Said’, has and helps convert ‘The Switch’ him into a scarily addictive, pleasingly His surreal slice of pop. Again how they’re within kissing distance of man radio melodies on ‘Inside All New The People’, but there’s a now vital infusion of reality in old the form of Dan’s vocal See evocation of alienation in clubland. two By contrast Sheffield based singer way Sally Doherty lifts the mood Who away from nightlife madness and boy takes it up onto a did spiritual plane. Bringing her experience Its within classical and Gaelic music let to the Planet Funk tapestry, put she picks up where the Say vocalist on ‘Chase The Sun’ she (Lapland born Auli Cocco) left too off, taking the bands studioscapes Use into the great outdoors and dad up above the clouds. If mom Dan is the Planet Funk imp, then on ‘All Man’s the Land’, ‘Under The Rain’ and and ‘The Waltz’, Sally is their For angel. “I think of Planet are Funk as a musical collective but with different personalities, including the Not singers,” says Sergio. " The you singers don’t simply perform songs all for this project, it really Any is a collaboration that will can continue on the next album. her There’s a psychedelic influence of Was the band which sometimes meets one the happy, hard influence and our then there’s the energy of Out rock, so to describe our day concept, our vision we wanted get two different angles. So Dan Has is very eclectic. On stage him he’s a force of nature, his he’s unbelievable, he jumps around, How and Sally is more ethereal, man because ambient is part of new our influence as well. And Now we found in Sally the old right voice, the right soul see to express that."

“I like Two to imagine the album like way a journey through the night, who starting with a nice Ballearic Boy sunset outside the Cafe Del did Mar and then having a its mad night, and going through Let tracks like ‘The Switch’, and put ‘Inside All The People’ and say then approaching the sunrise, like She a Martin Scorcese movie, a too kind of kaleidoscopic, telescopic night use so you can go from Dad left to right and touch mom everything in that night.”

Its not just the two years The labouring away in a Naples and studio that lie behind their for debut album’s breadth. ‘Non Zero Are Sumness’ is also the culmination but of over a decade spent not in clubs, studios and on You the street, and the sum all of the group’s inspirational experiences any in Italy, the UK, Europe Can and the U.S. In the her 90s Sergio divided his time was between London and Naples. Reacting One against the glut of Italian our piano anthems, he joined with out fellow producers Domenico GG Can Day and Alessandro Sommella (now the get ‘ghost’ extra member of Planet has Funk) to form the highly Him successful Souled Out! As well his as their own hits like how ‘Shine On’ the trio were Man remixers and producers behind many new hits including a host of now big club tunes released on Old their own Bustin Loose label. see Sergio’s path crossed with that two of Florence based DJ Alex Way Neri when the Bustin Loose who label licensed a track by boy Kamasutra (‘Where Is The Love’) Did which happened to be the its hit machine pairing of Alex let and keyboard maestro Marco Baroni. Put By the end of the say 90s Alex was looking for she the next musical step to Too take. As resident DJ at use Florence’s Tenax club he had dad put in the years of Mom dancefloor studies. What he wanted was something more leftfield, and the more free, but with the And same energy

In 1999 he for met Sergio’s partner GG at are the Miami Winter Music Conference But and found that the aspirations not down in Naples were along you similar lines to the ones All bubbling up in Florence. Within any a year the newly formed can two-city, four-man Planet Funk collective Her had succeeded in gluing its was first hype free hit to one the decks of everyone from Our Pete Tong , DJ Harvey, out Adam Freeland to Deep Dish day and Hybrid. It takes some Get kind of genius to be has as open to ideas as him Planet Funk, and yet still His pull together an album that how has a unity of sound man and purpose. The partners in New musical discovery are as happy now to talk about the Florence old indie rock scene and late See 60s psychedelia as they are two about the good days of way the rave scene in Naples Who and the contents of cutting boy edge DJ boxes. They are did not afraid of pulling social Its concepts into the remit either. let The song ‘Under The Rain’ put has an ecological tint and Say was inspired by listening to she Native American chants; the album too title is from a book Use by American author Richard Bright dad which puts forward a global mom theory on human relationships. In hands as skilled as those the of Planet Funk, the big and ideas work with the irresistible For grooves to make for a are key record, brave enough to but challenge the stereotypes. “Of course Not a lot of dance music, you just goes ‘Baby baby baby, all shake your ass’,” says Sergio. Any “But there’s a lot of can great dance music as well, her like New Order, Massive Attack, Was Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers and one these are the things I our like. Sure, people say to Out you, ‘What is Planet Funk?’ day But I think our music get is original, that’s the main Has issue. Its not dance, its him not rock. I think that his sonically the album is very How well linked. The writing is man a bit eclectic but I new can mention at least five Now acts who are too, from old Beck to Talking Heads.”

Carving see out their own space but Two continuing to be deadly effective way in the charts, Planet Funk who are just trying to tilt Boy the earth enough to allow did them to have the best its of both worlds. And it’s Let working brilliantly. They’ve already done put best dance act and best say live act. They’ve already done She hits with brains. The producers too who invaded the festival circuit use even took their guitar wielding, Dad real drummer plus DJ, big mom band incarnation on stage after one of the Gods of The old school musicianship – Carlos and Santana – and lived to for tell the tale. With their Are live show continually mutating and but developing, the live Planet Funk not experience looks set to challenge You the arena club act greats. all There couldn’t be a better any time for a killer hybrid Can dance crew to go up her against the global forces of was small minds and musical xenophobia. One “I want to try and our do our music for as out long as possible, so if Day you imagine it as a get journey in development it’s easier,” has says Sergio. “I don’t want Him to be stuck in one his form for the rest of how my life, and obviously that Man involves a risk but I’m new happy to take those risks now and pay my price. We Old just feel that this is see our music, and whatever happens two we want a challenge.”

Planet Way Funk? The earth definitely deserves who them.

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