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Stockholm club and concert guide: June 13 – 14

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

Published: 12 June 2008 14:14 CEST

Summer Fridays at Riche belong to Jes Jacobson and Kool DJ Dust. Stop by Riche, sip on a Martini Bianco & Tonic and mingle to everything from skwee to electro.

Ace challenges Stsh who in turn challenges Fight Club at Riddarkällaren. Dance to trend-electro and lovers’ pop brought to you by guests and residents.

Hug-bomb, nuh linga, socacore, trancehall. Mapei, Carli and Jexpert play mutated dance music and show off some dance steps you didn’t think were physically possible at the premiere of summer club Hug on Saturday.

Poor Hultsfred. Luger and Live Nation have come along with a dangerous competitor to prove that festivals can work just as well in the capital as in Småland. Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age and Dinosaur Jr will be kept company by Sweden’s rock royalty in the form of Sahara Hotnights, Mando Diao and The Hives on two stages at Stora Skuggan on Saturday. Rock on!

Concluding mayhem

The first season since Grodan’s return to the scene has been a resounding success. Le Choix, Groad Presents and many others have given us some of the year’s best parties. Before they shut down for the summer they’ll have one last party with a small army of fantastic DJs.

Latino Thailand

You can find the Thailand boat down at the end of Östgötagatan. On Saturday Miguel La Bamba and Diva are set to hop aboard for a fantastically chaotic evening of live timbale, soca, reggaeton and everything else you just have to dance to.

Bruce Leenus and Nasty Nate are as experience as DJs as they are fantastic. Debaser Slusser has done the right thing by giving them a slot every Tuesday evening for the rest of the summer. Drum machines, soul and house in a well-balanced mix.

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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