skweeelicious!

The debut release on the new Mässy record label is a stunner — Finnish skweee producer V.C.’s twelve inch EP featuring the tracks 30:00, Jello on Springs, Swamp Treat, and Rasco Lust.

Skweelicious: What were you up to musically prior to skweee?

V.C.: I tried and failed at lots of things in electronic music. I can’t really say what my musical output was before, but it certainly didn’t fit any genre I knew about.

How did you get involved in the skweee scene and producing skweee?

In 2006 while browsing a Finnish electronic music forum I noticed that a member of my all-time favorite live electro group, Imatran Voima, made some racket about this new thing called “skweee, the Skandinavian youth funk”. I checked it and there were links to some tracks. One of the tracks was Popkum by Mesak which gave me a totally new sensation of finding electronic music that felt familiar in every sense. This music felt very close to my thoughts and methods considering electronic music and the interests I had towards it. I started to listen to all the skweee tracks I could find, (which were of course, only a handful at that time) and to capture as much from them as I could. I started posting on the NOS forum about my first skweee tracks and received some feedback. After Harmönia released a couple of them, I guess I was involved…

Your EP is the first release on the new Mässy label. Tell us about the label — who is involved, why was it created, what are the future plans?

Mässy, like every other small independent label is the outcome of a great need to put out music that wouldn’t be heard by any amount of the public for various reasons. I think it’s not dedicated to any genre and I heard that you can expect even rock music to appear in the Mässy catalog. It’s run by my very dear friend, Mr. Spartan Lover, who enjoys a great variety of music and is keen to release all sorts of stuff. I hear there’s a CD compilation coming up this spring presenting skweee and other contemporary beat music, but that’s all the rumors that have reached me.

The V.C. EP is a 4 song 12″ and this is unusual because the standard format for short form skweee releases has been 2 song 7″. Any reason for this?

Well to be honest the idea for this release happened a long time ago, and back then the thought was it would be an 8 track LP. In the never ending process of making the LP a lot of dissatisfaction evolved towards the material and over time all the contents of the LP were replaced one and a half to two times. This pissed me and Spartan Lover off who was the biological mother of the idea in the first place. Due to these difficulties we agreed that it should be a short EP. It still took a ridiculously long time after that to actually get the record released, but I’m happy that it came out as it is.

Your tracks are among the most challenging in skweee in the sense that you feature dissonant melodies and jerky beats. What kind of reaction do you get when you play your material live?

It depends, like with every skweee set, some people feel it and others just walk away. I guess I have a somewhat challenging sound, at least that’s what some people have told me.

What are your thoughts on the wide diversity of skweee music? It sparks a lot of debate on the internet, I’ve read, “skweee is instrumental hip-hop”, “skweee is lofi electronica”, “skweee is IDM”…

I love it. It might mean that it’s going to be around still when the plausible short fad is over. I think this way cos I’ve heard so many descriptions and with some skweee tracks none of those can really hold up. Someday skweee could be seen to exist more as a sense of style or aesthetics than a genre in music. I would like to see it sneak back in to pop where I feel some of it came from. It would be amusing to see Pharrel or Timbaland copying someone who copied them. All in all I think that the origins of the idea of skweee is such a large bag to draw from that it naturally generates an output of great diversity. I hope that the universe behind skweee keeps expanding to keep the music fresh.

You’re always active in the gear discussions on nationofskweee.com, run down your studio setup for us.

It’s very humble. Just a couple of cheap synths, PC running Ableton Live and a turntable. I acquire gear rarely because I’m super picky and usually I try to learn about gear which I’m interested in before hand, to understand if it would actually do anything worthwhile for me or just mess up my work flow. This gets most of the “gas” out of me and usually I’m fine with not buying that particular piece I was after.

Finally, do you think skweee could achieve an audience size of dubstep for example? Or is it destined to remain small and underground?

Like I mentioned earlier, I wish it would go another route. I think dubstep and skweee have fundamentally only one thing in common and that is that they both are a part of this whole slow tempo electronic music thing. If skweee turns more into a DJ format electronic music then I don’t see why it couldn’t get bigger, and I feel that there’s already existing a so-called “skweee sound”.

To me that is not the interesting question. I think it can be big in another sense, like when it stays original and good and “live”, and thus affects other styles of music. Strict club/dance music contains a very real expiration date, and it always develops dominant characteristics so that it’s not enjoyable to create. In conclusion, let’s just hope that DJ skills will be the next big thing.

TAGS: V.C., Spartan Lover, Mesak, electro, dubstep, electronica

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DONKY PITCH proudly present …

‘WE CALL IT SKWEEE’ UK SCREENING

TUES 2ND FEBRUARY
FILM STARTS AROUND 8.30
THE GLOBE – MIDDLE ST – BRIGHTON
FREE ENTRY

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Donky Pitch 1.3, Thurs Feb 18th, The Jazz Place
Debruit(live) + Slugabed + Boss Kite(live Skweee)

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Skweeelicious presents Let Skweeedom Ring! — a free 75 minute mix showcasing the synthetic funk from Scandinavia as we enter the new decade. Mixed by Stickem, Let Skweeedom Ring features tracks from forthcoming albums by Mesak, Limonious, and Beem, as well as upcoming singles, cuts, unreleased gems, and a few classic nuggets from skweee artists all over the globe. This mix exhibits the beauty, wit, funkiness and diversity that make skweee important and fun. We invite you to download Let Skweeedom Ring! and in return we ask you to share this link. Most of all, enjoy!

TRACKLIST
Mrs. Qeada (SWE) Dreamatis Personea
Melkeveien (NO) Fantôme
Claws Costeau (FIN) Cold Smokin’ Tofu
Boss Kite (UK) CMYK
V.C. (FIN) 30:00
Ricky Lemon (DEN) Copenhagen
Bellybelle (USA) Supercell Strut
LaZERcrotch (USA) Neon Dude’s House Party
Spartan Lover (FIN) Zbieg
Wankers United (FRA) Superfönky
Hybakusha (ESP) Lebannon79
Kid Logic (USA) Polyester Shirt
Miramichi (CA) Leggo My Ego
Limonious (SWE) Degenerate
Beem (SWE) Automan
Easy and The Center of the Universe (NO) Yazid
Daniel Savio (SWE) People Die, Love Don’t
Rigas (SWE) feat. Markis Sage (SWE/FIN) Love Over Gold
Stickem (USA) This Thing Is On – Beatbully (NO) remix
Mesak (FIN) Sly Filmfestival (Sotchi Montage)
Sprutbass (NO) Hot Water Dirty Pits
Randy Barracuda (FIN/NL) Overnight Romancin’
Mackaper (SWE) Tale of Tale of Tales – Joxaren (SWE) remix
Slow Hand Motëm (CA) feat. Pubs Panseno (USA) They Lied

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A school (from Greek schole, originally meaning “leisure”, and
also “that in which leisure is employed”, “school”), is an institution
designed to allow and encourage students (or “pupils”) to learn, under
the supervision of teachers.

School of Mesak (Harmönia, HRMN-11)
Album release date 30.1.2010
harmoenia@gmail.com || www.myspace.com/harmoenia

School Of Mesak record release concert dates
16.1.2010 – Debaser, Stockholm SWE
Mesak + support Sprutbass, Rigas Den Andre, Pavan
6.2.2010 – Mbar, Helsinki FIN
Mesak vs. Claws Costeau DJ set
12.2.2010 – Krill, Tallinn EST
Mesak + support
19.2.2010 – By:Alarm (Mandelbrot), Oslo NO
Mesak + Koppen, DJ Eldfot (Basstronomisk Institut)

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The eagerly awaited sequel to Harmönia’s International Skw*** compilation has finally landed! Once again Harmönia’s artists are setting new standards for electronic dance music.

Unlike the blood suckin’ vampires of brain dead club music of today, these cats have been mastering their art in silence and are just about to teleport mankind back to the zone of full funkativity! The Funkentelechy has been found once again!

12 artists – 10 tracks of the finest analogue soul

International Skweee Vol. 2 opens with the smokey P-Funk stylings of our favourite Frenchman: Wankers United! You can definitely hear the atomic dog barking. Skweeemasters Beem and Joxaren have united their forces for the first time in history and produced a next generation banger of harsh acid funk. AC/DC goes Skweee? Swedish-Iranian Uday is back and this time with a message. The shah of Middle Eastern electro has teamed up with an unknown Iranian woman to bring us this revolutionary piece of Arabian funk with a message of strength and democracy: “Boland Shin” (Rise Up)! The A-side is wrapped up with the flute-driven disturbed grime of Coco Bryce’s “Ghetto Freaks” and Finnish noise-generator Claws Cousteau’s “North State of Mind” which is a party rockin’ example of his aggressive Stylophone crunk.

The B-side opens with the amazing Arab-influenced RnB of Easy and The Center of the Universe. “Hamada” sounds like Erkin Koray teaming up with Lil Jon and 40 virgins in an Ottoman hashish orgy. Finnish-Swedish Markis Sage makes a fantastic return with the 80’s tinged mellowness of “Creature of Lagoon”. Rarely can a track of this beauty be such a funkster at the same time. Icelandic prodigy Rabbi Bananas lashes out a broken beat holocaust with a riotous SH-101 screeching. “Cat Eat” is a true bastard of a track from the tiny country mostly known for its shoe-gazing soundscapes. We don’t know what the Canadian caveman Slow Hand Motëm was thinking when he sculpted the slow-burning crunk of  “Smells Like Randy Barracuda”, and we don’t really give a shit. It’s Great. Shine on you crazy bromosexual! The victorious compilation is finished with one of the Harmönia staff’s favourites: Despite the misspelling, Daniel Savio’s heart achingly beautiful “People Die, Love Don’t” shines through the darkness like a thousand crystal suns.

Free your mind and your ass will follow – The kingdom of heaven is within!

-P. Jerkman/A&R, Harmönia Records

Harmönia presents: International Skweee Vol 2. (HRMN-10) – OUT NOW

A
1. Wankers United (FRA): Superfönky
2. Beem & Joxaren (SWE): Pros and Cons of War
3. Uday (SWE-IR): Boland Shin
4. Coco Bryce (NL): Ghetto Freaks
5. Claws Cousteau (FIN): North Stae of Mind

B
1. Easy and the Center of Universe (NO): Hamada
2. Markis Sage (FIN-SWE): Creature of Lagoon
3. Rabbi Bananas (ISL): Cat Eat
4. Slow Hand Motëm (CAN): Smells Like Randy Barracuda
5. Daniel Savio (SWE): People Die, Love Don’t

Vinyl distribution: www.stholdings.co.uk (worldwide), www.discshopzero.com (Japan)
Digital distribution: www.bleep.com , www.digital-tunes.net
www.myspace.com/harmoenia
harmoenia@gmail.com

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First release from this exciting new Spanish label focused on future-synth beats with enough funk to appease George Clinton.

This is the first release too for the Spanish beatmaker Hybakusha, a pioneer of the Skweee sound in Spain. “Gameboy Lover” is a noisy 8 bit robotic skweee track which mixes chip tune drums and cutting edge filtered synths in a crazy groove.

On the flip, the Mesak remix takes the track into more spacey and deep territory, giving this record the official and personal stamp of the Finnish Skweee maestro.

The digital edition also includes 3 banging remixes. USA skweee flagship producer Stickem, Broke Landers, and the Californian voice of skweee Mr. Pubs Panseno, show their personal points of view of the original track.

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There’s something about skweee that attracts artists with mile-long resumes. This is especially true with the subject of our current interview, Stockholm’s Joxaren. He is more than a pivotal figure in the skweee movement, he has an extensive and wide-ranging musical history as well…

Before we get started, just a brief note to upcoming interview subjects: We’ve noticed a trend that began with the Randy Barracuda post, and in the future the phrase “I have no idea” will not be an acceptable answer to the question “Where is skweee going from here?”!


Skweeelicious: What were you up to in your pre-skweee days?

Joxaren: I entered a drawing competition back in 1986 for this chewing gum brand and won the first prize, a full-size Yamaha home keyboard. Even as a kid I realized there was cooler gear than that, so I managed to sell it and got a Boss Dr. Rhythm drum machine and a Yamaha DX100 synth. Eventually, I got a Fostex 4-track and a delay pedal and started making demos with my friends. First, I was making synthpop and body music, but I later got into industrial sounds a lot. I was in a band between 1988-1996 called Big Fish, we started with a pure industrial sound but somehow ended up a metal-punk band with Swedish lyrics, folk music melody lines and metal percussion. We made five records. For a while during that period I was also in a really hard industry band called Pure Pain. After quitting Big Fish in 1996, I teamed up with Frans Carlqvist and formed Tip Top BK, a huge dub and beat project. That band later turned into Moder Jords Massiva, an electro/dub group of about 20 people that toured the world during the early 2000’s and released four albums. I also released a jungle 12″ ten years ago and some other records and tracks under the name Slummer. In addition, I have worked as a stage musician in different constellations. I’ve tried to keep busy.

S: Skweee was kind of up and running when you got involved. How did you get hooked into the scene?

J: I had been developing sounds alongside people like Pavan and Rigas den Andre for quite some time, so the step was not too big for me to adapt to the format. When skweee first developed, I was busy doing other things, but the basic components of the sound felt quite familiar to me. I realized that the guys really had come up with something, and I figured it was too much fun to miss out on. I started my Joxaren project secretly in the summer of 2007, and handed out demos to the Finnish skweee crew before I played any of the stuff to my people back in Stockholm.

S: Electronic music genres tend to be very strictly defined. If it’s drum n bass or breaks or electro or whatever it’s got to have a certain beat, and the bass has to have a certain timbre and so on. Now here comes skweee and tempos are all over the place. Claws is doing noisy 8-bit stuff and Rigas is doing majestic pieces like I Am Crane, and Beem is doing groovy tunes you can bump to. It’s odd for one style to be so diverse, no?

J: I guess that depends on what you focus on to define a genre. You can argue that if techno is a genre defined by equipment and dub is more of a method, then skweee is an attitude. That’s why it can be so sonically diverse but still be skweee. To me that attitude is about deliberately putting yourself in a place as a producer where the music sounds so silly or awkward that you risk to make a fool out of yourself, and then overcoming that by being very convincing. Still for my own production routine I like to try to stay around 105 bpm and limit the arrangements to the hardware I got, which is three synths.

S: On some internet boards there are arguments as to whether skweee is really its own genre. What are your thoughts on this?

J: Yes probably you can debate on that. But every time I play live people come up to say stuff like “I love it, what is the style called?” and then it’s very nice not to have to say “electronica” or “IDM” or some other useless word that someone else came up with. So far, the audience loves the S-word as long as they get to ask for it first. The scene has definitely benefited from the genre name, it’s like there is no threat in sounding like another skweee artist, you know, instead of being rivals we grow the scene together.

S: The International Skweee compilation on Harmönia opens with your track LIHOP which is very emblematic of the skweee sound. Here again, it’s another branch on the tree because I can’t think of another skweee track with that sort of double-time feel. When you produced it were you consciously making a skweee tune?

J: This was a very early Joxaren track, maybe the first, and it is definitely hard to mix into a regular skweee set. But the attitude and the simpleness of the sounds and melodies are very skweee. I myself was unsure whether it would fit on a skweee compilation but Randy Barracuda is into boogie rock too so he said “Hell yeah”. LIHOP mixes excellently with crunk, though.

S: You recently did some touring around Europe, where did you play and how was the reaction to skweee in some of these countries where they have probably never heard it?

J: In Berlin there is a very solid domestic scene, the Berlin sound consists of electro and minimal techno and traces way back in the 60’s so it’s hard to break through there with this slow backbeat sound. Nevertheless, at my latest gig at Weisepuff in Berlin there were only around 30 people, but they were all very enthusiastic about it and it led to a lot of new contacts. In Glasgow it’s different, they have this broken beat-scene going and all these B-boys showed up at my gig and enjoyed it, so I built a solid fan base there. The Spanish skweee crew are a bit different, more like squat-people. In Copenhagen, we only attracted a small crowd when we were there, but last weekend in Tallinn, Estonia, me and Mesak played for around 1500 people. It varies a lot.

S: You’re slated for a vinyl release on Flogsta Danshall 13. Tell us how this came about and what we can expect?

J: It’s been planned for a while, that release. One side is a brand new unreleased track in a bit darker mood, and the other is my minor hit Ritambluz from last year. That track has been played out a lot but was never released on vinyl so I’m very pleased with that coming out.

S: Just this year we’ve seen four new skweee labels pop up. Yet it’s not easy for this music to break through to a larger audience because it’s quirky and as we said earlier, hard to define. Then there is the fact that it’s still largely centered in Scandinavia which is, shall we say, off the beaten path. What are your thoughts on the future of skweee?

J: I have no idea, but if it gets any more busy than this I’ll have to quit my day job. I’m not sure that’s worth aiming for, many of the dubstep deejays I’ve seen out on tour seem pretty wasted and jaded by now.

S: Lets talk gear, what kit are you using in the studio?

J: I’m using a Mac OS9 Logic setup, it works the best. And then I have an MPC 2000 XL, a Clavia Micro Modular, an MFB synth II and a Micro Korg. I also use a mental German distortion box called Gold Fuzz and a Boss RE20 space echo. Mostly travel size budget gear.

S: How about your live setup?

J: It’s the same, my studio is my instrument. Only I don’t bring the computer on stage.

S: Finally, what’s coming up for Joxaren in the second half of 2009 and beyond?

J: On Thursday next week I’ll be going to Hamburg to play at the Kubik club, really exciting. And then I have like five more live sets scheduled for the summer. We also just launched this skweee weekly in Stockholm, a Monday club. So I’m hoping for that to be successful enough. I am also touring with Rigas backing up this electro-pop act Parken which is doing really well right now, there are about ten summer festivals booked. After that, I have no idea. I will continue making music as long as it feels like a challenge.

Tags: Joxaren, Mesak, Pavan, Harmonia, Flogsta Danshall, electro

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Friday April 17
Casbah Lounge
Hamilton, Ontario CA

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Randy Barracuda is one of the pioneers of skweee as well as one half of electro outfit Imatran Voima, BLAH BLAH BLAH, you know all that. What’s more important for our purposes here is that he is one hell of a raconteur who gives great interview. If you’re not goosed by what you read below then like Rick James, you are dead.

Skweeelicious: Let’s start with the beginnings of skweee. Clearly there were multiple lines of influence. What styles do you think were the direct precursors to this music?

Randy B: Wild styles.

S: Which artists do you think were the most important in terms of providing the inspiration for skweee?

R: Personally the biggest influences were maybe Zapp, Arabian Prince, Kraftwerk, west coast funk, Steve Poindexter, Italo disco, Justin Timberlake and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Also Eddy Grant and 60’s experimental electronic music.

S: How would you define “proto-skweee”?

R: this
I think skweee and proto-skweee are the b-side of pop music.

S: How did you get involved in the music and the movement? Were you looking to chart a new direction?

R: Well, I guess back in the days the movement for me meant sitting alone in a basement. 2005, Imatran Voima was on a break and I thought I can do whatever I want. The studio was very dark, walls covered in fungus and had no bathroom so I had to piss in a bottle. Nobody took the bottles out and in the end the room was full of bottles of molded urine. The place stank like a shelter for homeless and I think it gave my production some extra finesse.

Once Benny Bofors, a good friend of mine came for a visit. We smoked some hash and I played him the original version of Ape Shit. After 10 seconds of awkward silence he asked: “You call that music?”
Good times.

S: Many styles of music are very diverse when they start because there are no established conventions. So it is with skweee. Do you think skweee will remain quite diverse or will there be a natural convergence of the sound?

R: I don’t know. I just know that skweee is extremely hard to make.

S: There is quite a bit of electronic music today that features slower tempos and skittery beats. Do you think skweee could become part of a larger movement?

R: I don’t know. I just hope that by peeling the onion of skweee we can one day find it’s true essence.

S: When and why did you move from Finland to Holland?

R: First I went there to finish my thesis (The Concept of Substance and the Question of Individuality in Spinoza’s Metaphysics). While finishing it I met a female mercenary and fell in love. We’re gonna get married in 2010.

S: Have you turned the Dutch on to skweee? Can you get gigs there?

R: Some weirdoes love it. Mostly Dutch people are into Anouk and DJ Tiesto.

S: Are you able to continue your role in running Harmönia with Mesak remotely?

R: Yes.

S: Speaking of Harmönia, what’s coming up from the label?

R: In March we’re releasing the new Rigas Den Andre 12″ and Yöt 7″.
In May we’re happy to celebrate our tenth release.

S: What gear are you using in your studio setup?

R: Bontempi Memoplay, Roland TB 303, Roland TR 808, Roland JX3P, Jupiter-8, Access Virus b, Roland TR 505, Roland SH 101, Akai MPC 1000, EMU SP 1200, Nord Lead, ARP Odyssey, Korg MonoPoly, Roland Juno 106, Sequential Circuits Pro One, Simmons electronic drums, Stylophone, delays and fx by Boss and Digitech. Some plugins. Next week I’m gonna buy myself some new lush analogue gear.

S: How about live?

R: MPC 1000, 808, 303, Virus, Nord Lead, 101 and whatever I feel like.

S: What’s next for you in 2009 and beyond?

R: I’m turning 30 in June so I think I’m going to “celebrate” it with my friends. I’m gonna travel to Transylvania with my woman to see Dracula’s castle and make contact with the children of the night. (I always wanted to see the Carpathian forests in midsummer moonlight.)

I’m also going to release my first solo-lp on Flogsta Danshall the eleventh of September 2009. It hasn’t got a name yet, and I don’t think it will ever have one.

The project is highly secret but I can tell You that it deals with esoteric and numerological issues. Music-wise I hope it will be the missing link between Alan Parsons Project and crunk.

S: Finally, where do you think skweee will go from here?

R: I have no idea and to be honest, it’s not really my concern.
As is written on Herbert Marcuse’s tombstone: “Weitermachen”

 

 Randy Barracuda - Skweee Like a Pig: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Randy Barracuda - Rick James Is Dead: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

TAGS: Randy Barracuda, Harmonia, electro, Mesak, Flogsta Danshall, urine

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