On a Tuesday afternoon in Stockholm, Henrik Öhberg of Tvärvägen and Kvadratvåg, Fredrik Mjelle of Beem, and Arne Barlindhaug Ellingsen of Pokal started hammering out some loose rhythms and snappy bass lines almost by chance.

There was something there, and over the course of a few months, they continued jamming together, both as a group and individually, using a shared Google folder where song skeletons gained strength and agility through a direct democratic everything-is-allowed relay.

A first excerpt from the folder, Side Snack EP, was released in May 2023 under the name Radio Banana. Drawing from their different musical universes, the group has come together in a shared love for earthy rhythms at the intersection of lo-fi jazz, funk, hip-hop, and electronica.

In the spring of 2024, follow up EP Uptempo Barbeque saw the light of day, a string of unearthly funky pearls to nod your head and (or?) move your bum to.

Petter Lindhagen of Tired Tape Machine was brought in to perform the songs live. This led to a bigger metamorphosis than expected. Petter quickly became a permanent member and the group reveled in a shared love of collective improvisation and playing together as an ensemble.

Thus large parts of the latest late 2024 album Sun No Shade are coming out of multi-tracked live jam sessions. “Sun No Shade” is an apt metaphor for the warmth of these recordings. The plethora of influences from this world and others are held together by a love of grooves from everywhere and anywhere. Call it world music, fourth world, even sixth world. It’s got the funk, the afrobeat juxtapositions, the kraut builds, the spaced-out psychedelia, the laidback hip hop. It’s organic but also with sharp edges, it’s improvised and ethereal but also cut up and flipped around.