“Hi, see you next week, we’ll think about the album”. This is what I and the other producers of Kano told each other in 1983 after the making of “Queen of Witches”. Then? Then life, commitments, work, making music for others and dozens of other things made us  postpone and postpone again…

2020: The world stops. Life is paused. Work forced to stop. And silence. The silence which is one of the main parts of music has left me free to listen to myself and, why not, free to compose. Even in such a particular moment, everything is possible.

I have a lot of musical souls and I started again from funky. So, in six months I turned those musical memories into 9 tracks. After the recordings I listened to some tracks of Kano from the 80s along with tracks from other artists and again along with the new tracks and you know what? It works!

I liked what I created and someone suggested that I had finished that 1983 album: the new Kano album. “No Cents…Go Funky!” finally out now.

Buy No Cents…Get Funky! on Beatport. 

Kano – Turn it Up

Many years ago we had interrupted the route during the second sonic path of Kano, the more electronic one. I wanted to go back further, to the first period where our sound was more funky and less electronic (even continuing using electronics heavily).

This song opens up the album “No cents … Go funky” and it seems to me the right opening to entice the listener to go on along the path. The memory goes back there, to that unforgotten past but the hands play here, now! The structure of the song is full of references but it is also immersed in a sound so current, aware of today’s techniques.

Kano – Unconditional Lover

With this song I wanted to reproduce a precise sound referring to the end of the 70s. The feeling of celebration and choralism supported by a precise rhythm is evident. The story is about a great love and a great lover, even a God in case but without any reference to any religion. A higher one, what we live during every moment of our life: everything that surrounds us. Here I sing together with Glen White, featured in the Kano project since the second album and the unforgettable voice of “Another Life”.

Kano –  I Will Be There

There is always room for a good time where you can relax a bit and, why not, maybe fall in love! And one always feels good vibes when trying to put those moments into music. Soon after two rhythmic and funky tunes here we got into a quiet one , a pure ballad: “I Will Be There” is about a sweet love story and combines the lyrics with soft, dreamy sounds, built on a precise and steady rhythm section.

Kano – Dock Of The Bay

Let’s go back to funky! Inspired by Kano’s first single “I’m Ready” here I use a Vocoder. It was like taking a trip on my virtual “time machine ”, definitely jumping back in time to 41 years ago and then finding myself here, today, again while creating this new Kano’s tune. I’ve tried to use the same elements that marked that first 1980 Hit: in addition to the vocoder I’ve used other electronic instruments mixed with analog ones and my falsettos along with the backing vocals mixed with Glen’s voice.

Kano – Around The World

This was actually the first song I composed for this new project. It was just like a test to me, in order to check if this was the right path to follow. I often create the melodic lines to the rhythm of my steps and indeed, while walking the phrasing of the brass came to my mind and remained obsessively in my head until I wrote a suitable rhythm section to let it come alive. As the whole instrumental structure and the main riff were still in their early stages, I overlapped some lead vocals without words and let them settle for a couple of days. Then I listened again and I must say the result amused me so much that… I started my journey “Around The World”.

Kano – Everybody Get down

This song is a “happy party”, a hymn to the certainty that soon we will all return to play, dance and finally be together, totally free. Fast-paced rhythm and guitar riffs. I’ve added some 70’s flutes in the instrumental phrase to the brass section. Being Kano a “Project” and not a “Band”, vocals have always had different origins. In this song I sing along with Glen and Benny, my wife who wrote all the lyrics on the album.

Kano – Get Started

I’ve always loved the “soft funky” of the  ‘75/’85 decade. “Skinny” songs that seemed to be apparently poor if we think about their rhythm sections but actually they were so complex and not easy at all to produce. Here I tried to reach that “complex simplicity” and through to a particular harmonic texture embellished by Glen’s voice I feel like I’ve reached my creative goal.

Kano – Street Funky

As I previously said, Kano is not a specific person or a group. It is indeed a project within which there is always room for different experiences. Instrumental music also belongs to the project as our previous albums contained instrumental takes such as “Cosmic Voyager” in the first one and “Ikeya Seki” in the third, “Another Life”. “Street Funky” keeps the same sonic mood you can feel all alone “No Cents…Go Funky!”

Kano – Born to dance

This ends the album. Perhaps the most complex track of all for the quantity of instrumentation and vocal intertwining. A strings section is added to the electronics and the brass section. Falsettos and choirs mix with the Vocoder and everything is made so homogeneous under the lead voice. Let the party continue!

Kano’s No Cents…Go Funky! is out now. Buy it on Beatport.