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Stockholm night club tips: Thursday – Saturday

Five weekend club and concert tips from Kalendarium (Click links for more information)

Published: 13 March 2008 17:15 CET

There has been a lot of talk lately about Happy Nation – everything is so crazy and cool all the time that sometimes you feel a little suffocated by all the glow sticks. We probably wouldn’t think it was such a fantastic club if Kornel and Calri were not such fantastic DJs. The costumes and catwalks alone make it worthwhile, but mostly we love Happy Nation for the music. Go!

Cluster Bombs Party

Everywhere and Don’t Blame The Youth. It will be packed behind the turntables at Nalen and on the dance floor. B-more, baile funk, bass, kuduro, jihad-electro. We’re so pumped about this we’re starting to cramp. This will be the best club Stockholm has seen in years. Come in time because it will fill up quickly.

Techno with attitude

DJ Funky Tuna, DJ Gavana and DJ Mikronesien call themselves booze hags and are cool to the point of inspiration. And they know how to party with no inhibitions. On Friday Kvinnosaksklubben will be at Marie Laveau’s basement. Don’t miss it!

Kalendarium favourites Pjotr and David R dj all night long at Tvåtrettiofemett’s Thursday club T. Minimalt and MaxXimalt mixed with a lot of raspy bass. Cool!

What happens when a club known for its hot dance music invites a pop band along to play live techno? Go to Grodan on Friday to find out. When Those Dancing Days and the Le Choix Boys get together , there’s plenty of potential for an exciting evening.

Meet the Spanish rapper bringing flamenco and bossa nova into hip-hop

Spanish rapper Anton Alvarez known as 'C. Tangana' poses in Madrid on April 29, 2021. Photo: Javier Soriano/AFP

The 30-year-old has emerged as one of the world’s biggest Spanish-language stars since his third album “El Madrileno” — the Madrilenian — came out in February. That ranks him alongside his superstar ex-girlfriend Rosalia, the Grammy-winning Catalan singer with whom he has co-written several hits.

C. Tangana, whose real name is Anton Alvarez Alfaro, has come a long way since a decade ago when he became known as a voice of disillusioned Spanish youth in the wake of the financial crisis.These days his rap is infused with everything from reggaeton and rumba to deeply traditional styles from Spain and Latin America, with a voice often digitised by autotune.

“It’s incredible that just when my music is at its most popular is exactly when I’m doing something a bit more complex, more experimental and less
trendy,” he told AFP in an interview.

And he is unashamed to be appealing to a wider audience than previously: his dream is now to make music “that a young person can enjoy in a club or someone older can enjoy at home while cooking”.

‘People are tired’

The rapper, who sports a severe semi-shaved haircut and a pencil moustache, has worked with Spanish flamenco greats including Nino De Elche, Antonio Carmona, Kiko Veneno, La Hungara and the Gipsy Kings.

In April he brought some of them together for a performance on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk Concert” series, which has already drawn nearly six million
views on YouTube.

Shifting away from trap, one of rap’s most popular sub-genres, and venturing into a more traditional repertoire was a dangerous move — especially for someone with a young fanbase to whom rumba, bossa nova and bolero sound old-fashioned.

“I think people are tired. They’ve had enough of the predominant aesthetic values that have previously defined pop and urban music,” he said.

Parts of his latest album were recorded in Latin America with Cuban guitarist Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club, Uruguayan
singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, Mexican folk artist Ed Maverick and Brazil’s Toquinho, one of the bossa nova greats.

“What struck me most everywhere I went was the sense of tradition and the way people experienced the most popular music, and I don’t mean pop,” he said.

A new direction

C. Tangana started out in 2006 rapping under the name Crema. When the global economic crisis swept Spain a few years later, hard-hitting trap was
the perfect way to voice the angst of his generation. But after more than a decade of rapping, things changed.

“When I was heading for my 30s, I hit this crisis, I was a bit fed up with what I was doing… and decided to give voice to all these influences that I
never dared express as a rapper,” he said.

The shift began in 2018 with “Un veneno” (“A poison”) which came out a year after his big hit “Mala mujer” (“Bad woman”).

And there was a return to the sounds of his childhood when he used to listen to Spanish folk songs at home, raised by a mother who worked in
education and a journalist father who liked to play the guitar. The Latin American influences came later.

“It started when I was a teenager with reggaeton and with bachata which were played in the first clubs I went to, which were mostly Latin,” he said.

Studying philosophy at the time, he wrote his first raps between stints working in call centres or fast-food restaurants.

As to what comes next, he doesn’t know. But one thing he hopes to do is collaborate with Natalia Lafourcade, a Mexican singer who dabbles in folk, rock and pop — another jack of all musical trades.

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