Italy lacks of raw materials, and needs to import them; this is the reason why its economy is one of transformation. Therefore its people need imagination for producing something radically new and appealing. But the Italians have got style, and that's the key: Bugatti and Ferrari, Rota and Morricone, Fellini and Antonioni, Raffaello and Tiziano, the fashion industry, food & drink, the bridge over the strait of Messina, and so on.
Possibly Les Jeux Sont Funk have digested some of this food and breathed in some of this sensibility; hence they're proposing a personal mixture of ingredients: funk, electro, soul, Indian and Brazilian flavours. Anyway, the common denominator of their music is groove, that is the abstract energy releasing and emanated by body-movement.
People say
Chris Joss (ESL Music): “Their music’s right up my alley, they’ve got a hit in their hands with Chapati. What a track! They’re Italian, based in Berlin, and have a French act name, not only in French but with a good pun! Now that’s today’s Europe.”
Claas Brieler (Jazzanova): “The way LJSF approach funk and soul is very forwarding, that’s the future groove, always evolving and still well rooten onthe one. I can foresee great things to come…”
Señor 45 (Popshoppers): “Chapati is a great tune: they’ve really got the groove!”
Bill C. Leikam (also George Clinton’s manager, permanent member of Stanford Friday Night Music, writer) “They have that funk dancing in the back. This music is exciting. I can really funk to it but at the same time it’s different and fresh.”
Neal Sugarman and Gabe Roth (Daptone records, Brooklyn, NY): “LJSF music sounds really cool and fresh, we hope for the best of luck to them in the new year, and we know we won’t be disappointed…”
Bernd Roesler (Compost Records, München): “Really funky stuff!”
Les Jeux Sont Funk - The producer
Behind the pseudonym stands Carlo Nardi, who made his first steps in music touring as the guitar player of a funk band called Tabasco in and out Europe: Pistoia Blues, Porretta Soul, Berlin Film Festival, Schwerin Kunst Festival, Bosnia, Palestine, Hamburg, Prague, etc. After the disbanding of Tabasco he got into DAW production; his first accomplishment include: under the nom de plume Can Am, inclusion of a song entitled ‘Outfit’ in a compilation published by Italian television broadcaster RAI (28/11/2005); music for Sisley website (still online); music for an exposition at the museum of modern art MART (February 2006). Afterwards he dedicated himself to music for modern dance and theatre; in this context, he produced and performed the music for a multimedia show entitled Impronte (November 2006), which among other things featured the employ of 10 independent mixer-outputs, in order to create an unusual surround effect. In the meanwhile he found the time to get a PhD in "Sciences of music" at the Universities of Trento and Berlin, Humboldt with a research - Playing by eye - concerning music practice, considered as an intersensorial experience, in connection with the employ of digital technology. At the moment he lives and DJs in Berlin, proposing his personal choice of party grooves, boogaloo freaks, cold sweat and electro-funk in clubs like Fire Club, Rosi's, Delicious Doughnuts, Cassiopeia, ZMF, Sanatorium, Intersoup, Privatclub, Lovelite, Klub der Republik, etc.
Les Jeux Sont Funk - The band
Actually most of the efforts converge in the live band equally called Les Jeux Sont Funk, whose aim is extending studio experimentation to the live act in front of an audience. Hence, their electro-groove might be defined as a fusion between club culture and the energy of a funky performance. Nevertheless the purpose is not that of making a concert that sounds like a record, but rather that of interacting in real time both with the audience’s moods and with all the instruments that technology offers: the computer, sound processors and effects, synthesizers, mixers, and – why not? – acoustic stuff as well. The outcome is never predictable, thanks to software which enables to treat samples and effects intuitively and dynamically, so that pre-existent material is recreated right here, right now.
Les Jeux Sont Funk DJ - House of Funk n3
01 Bushy - Don't mind if I do (Groove Armada 100 club mix)
02 Tipper - Gong show
03 Studio R - Clapz (Slope remix)
04 Red Astaire - The wildstyle
05 Mr Scruff with Quantic - Donkey ride
06 Sidewinder - Ego riot
07 Chris Joss - I want freedom
08 The Bamboos - Happy
09 Sleeve - Put ya hands up
10 Omegaman - Disco love
11 Hint - At the dance
12 Jimi Tenor - Total devastation (Maurice Foulton mix)
13 Funk weapons - Monkey
14 Neighbour + DJ Soup + Hoola Hoop - Bro chant (pt.1)
15 Sunsetsoul prs. Da Wiesel - Soulfood (Feature Cast remix)
16 The Fort Knox Five - The spirit of '75
17 Les Jeux Sont Funk - Chapati
18 Soopa Soul - Brand nu
19 Maelstrom - Makossa
20 Ellen McIlwayne - Born under a bad sign
Les Jeux Sont Funk DJ - Utrasonique n1
01 Booka Shade - Memento
02 Cassius - Cactus
03 Trentemøller - Killer kat
04 My My - Propain
05 Ame - Rej
06 Modeselektor - Dancing box (Sleeparchive remix)
07 Minilogue - Space
08 H-Man - 51 Poland Street (Extrawelt remix)
09 John Tejada & Arian Leviste - Word problems
10 Sebastien Leger & Chris Lake - Aqualight (Bodyrox remix)
11 Entonelli Electr. - Dragon
12 Les Jeux Sont Funk - Grenzen
13 Feadz - Offroad camping
14 Paul Woolford presents Bobby Peru - Erotic discourse
15 Siriusmo - wow (Modeselektor edit)
16 Icube - Prophetization
17 Markus Enochson - Club possible
18 Slope - Gemini
19 Dzihan & Kamien - Before (Herbert remix)
20 James Holden - Idiot
21 Soulphiction - Prison song
Les Jeux Sont Funk - Late night philosophy
Carlo loves to state: “After all, and beyond all the mystifications, I can only try to select the finest sounds I hear in my head and mix them with the most interesting soundscapes I cross. As far as I am concerned, paraphrasing Malcolm X, for all the good music that I produce I have to give thanks to the masters, while the mistakes are just mine. Paraphrasing Thelonious Monk, I can add that I hope I will always make the right mistake”.
