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Stockholm club and concert guide: July 10 -13

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

Published: 10 July 2008 14:37 CEST

Megamini festival

It’s that time again. The people at Trädgården, angels that they are, have invited all of Stockholm to a free festival. Kristoffer Åhström, Boris och The Jeltsins and The Tarantula Waltz are three of the bands lined up to play before the club band takes to the stage. For heaven’s sake, don’t miss this.

DJ Lickshot is celebrating his birthday by inviting loads of his friend in behind the record players. They’ll be focusing on the UK, grim and that London vibe we have so little of in Stockholm at the moment.

Falling and laughing

Falling and Laughing tends to bring in excellent live acts and nice DJs for its club night. “Fall falling falling again, Cos I want to take the pleasure with the pain, Fall falling falling again”. At Debaser Slussen of course.

Landet — oh, how we love Landet . Telefonplan’s finest is having is very own little jazz festival. Josef och Erika, Daisy and Nils Berg are playing, as are tons of other people you won’t want to miss.

Electronic clash

There’s dance chaos afoot when the two night life mainstays Risky Bizniz and Clitspit clash in a derby duel. Hard to say how it will go but get yourself down there, get right behind your team and stand completely still when your opponent starts to take over. If you can manage it that is.

Fredsgatan has outdone itself again this summer. Famously fantastic Ibiza duo Clive Henry and Jamie Jones are coming to Stockholm and bringing with them everything that has made their club such an international household name. This is simply house at its very best.

Thorells syndrome

Thorells Syndrom give praise to the history of rock at Lasse i Parken. Friday tunes with Zinken’s finest, except in Hornstull.

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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