Skweeel Like A Pig

The gentleman above is Eero Johannes. Here is an article about the kind of music he makes that I did for WAR:

So it turns out London’s not that creative after all. In our search for the most original bass wobbling music set to transcend Europe and get you all stomping, we found that it’s the darkest depths of Glasgow and Scandinavia that have their game in check and are bringing the noise.

 

The electro hyphy hiphop of Glasgow’s Aqua Crunk crew and the deconstructed R&B of Scandinavia’s Skweee are currently developing independently, but strikingly similarly, so much so that Skweee’s Pavan admits, “I’m not influenced or did what first but it doesn’t really matter: we’re making similar music that I’m really into”. And so it seems is everyone else. With these two scenes all ready to ‘fucking kick off’, as they say in the dance industry, we had a looksy at them to bring you the future.

 

Do you remember when you used to go to Ed Banger nights and the music was new and exciting? When you hadn’t yet realised that they play the same set every time? Back in the day it was OK, because they had a thing going on. A small community of Parisian friends had created their own genre of music and people really dug it. But it never moved on, they still do the same thing, and what was the most innovative clubbing sound is now stale.

 

Luckily enough an independent group of friends snuck away in Scandinavia have been ignoring the common misconception that making loud mash up beats is enough to get heads nodding and bodies moving, and have stuck to making music that they like, and bollocks to anyone else.  The rolling bass they produce with jerky squeaks riding over the top sounds simple but when the speakers are set to growling it creates a simultaneously banging, awkward, and funky beat.

Leading label Flogsta Danshall is run by Pavan, a nickname that translates to ‘Empty Bottle’, because he loves booze. He sees why people might compare the small community based electro movement to the Ed Banger scene but draws certain lines between the two. “They’re a bit more business minded and fashion conscious than us. Our fashion is really ‘out of fashion’ fashion. And they have really big DJs who act as faces for their label, whereas ours are not sure they’re ready to be seen like that yet. Nobody in Skweee has really come up and volunteered their ugly face yet, but we have artists who could, Eero Johannes and Daniel Savio have the talent".

 

Eero says, “People don’t really know how to dance to it at first but they just go along with it. But at Sonar last year the Spanish were so emotional: not knowing how to dance wasn’t a problem in Spain’.

 

Although the Skweee we’ve heard, particularly Johannes’ self titled album, sounds like it would go down in London’s clubs quicker than a be-tutued young beauty on DJ Mehdi, the Skweee fam aren’t keen on forcing it. ‘I’m touring the UK next year but I want to play the small places to get the atmosphere right, I’d like to cultivate a following like we have back home first’, says Johannes. But with such a powerful sound comes the responsibility to hype big crowds, so the British masses should be prepared to be swooned by his Skweee very soon.

Photo by Ville Varumo