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Stockholm night life: Thursday to Sunday

Check out this weekend’s club and concert tips from Kalendarium (Click links for more information)

Published: 26 March 2008 17:14 CET

Clowning around

Send In The Clowns has grown to be one of the best indie clubs in town ever since Sanna and Erik took over. You can enjoy their clown fiestas at Pet Sounds Bar and Debaser Medis.

Cool French Disco

24:hours have brought the fatally hip Dirty Sound System all the (relatively short) way over from Paris. Not for the first time, a fabulous Thursday party is to be expected at Tvåtrettiofemett.

Els Pynoo is the coolest person in the world. There, we’ve said it. Vive La Fête are coming to Nalen with their thick catalogue of French-language electro pop. Great moves, rock hard bass and lyrical caricatures. What more could you want? This is the most highly anticipated concert of the spring.

Friendly Noise is the record label that, with a steady hand, takes care of all our favourite bands. Differnet, Testbild! Most Valuable Players and Action Biker, all of which have made rich rich contributions to indie history, will be on stage at Debaser on Thursday evening.

When our club editor wanted to write about the Noice gig in Tyresö, tears began to fall on the keyboard. The band’s history was just like a film and now they were ready to get back on stage despite two of their members passing away in tragic circumstances. Go see the guys who sang about teenage dreams and evenings on the subway.

We have a legend in town! Robert Hood invented the minimalist techno that has hit Stockholm and the rest of the world with maximum effect. Dance to your heart’s content with visuals in all directions – don’t miss Structure at Clustret.

Shopping on Sunday

After an action-packed weekend it can be nice to stroll around stalls, flick through fanzines and top up your record collection with some obscure 7-inch single — just like in the old days. Sunday means Distro at Lava, including live performances from Watercase, Oriel Jones and Chris Beach.

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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