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ENTERTAINMENT

Stockholm club and concert guide: May 29 – 31

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

Gangsta pop

Say what you want about bellowing macho men with white cloth shoes. Embassy is one of Sweden’s best bands, despite their annoying fans. Holiday starts things off with the best from Sweden’s west coast tonight.

Turkish synthesizers

Young cultural elite from the global metropolis of Istanbul come to Stockholm on a visit which should entice many to book a trip to this city to the east. The electronic duo Kim Ki O has been hyped by Jens Lekman and does its first show in Sweden on Saturday.

Warning shot

Glasgow-based Belle and Sebastian, one of the world’s most influential pop bands, pays a visit to Lång-Kalle, Niklas, Sverrir, Teet and Terry in the DJ-booth at Indierave. Maybe singer Stuart Murdoch’s well-known voice will be heard all the way to the dance floor on Saturday.

Garden delight

It’s going down again this year. Outside, inside, the grill, the water by night, plastic cups, a grassy lawn, La Vida- Locash , Eros Video, Indie, Tough Alliance, TV-games, a summer party. Trädgården (The Garden) premieres this weekend for its seventh season.

Honey party

Hummelhonung is Maria Andersson and Josephine Forsmans summer club. Only pop hits: from Bay City Rollers to Ronsnie Spector; ABBA’s Summer Night City to tones of the hot songs from Love Affair. A perfect start to the weekend, every Thursday at Spymlan

Remix hysteria

Jesse Rose’s hefty remixes wrap around the originals in sometimes bold, sometimes funky capsules which fall apart piece by piece and spread ethereal colours across the sky. Now he’s coming to Esque!

Big band hip hop

Söder’s hottest hip hop club Yes! has called in Söder’s hottest rappers. But with a twist, of course. Hoffmaestro & Chraa strike up the big band sound and accompany Petter through the night.

MUSIC

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

Spanish rapper C. Tangana was taking a big risk when he started mixing old-fashioned influences like flamenco and bossa nova into his hip-hop -- but it's this eclectic sound that has turned him into a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.

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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