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Gothenburg club and concert tips: August 21 – 23

Where to go out in Gothenburg this weekend? Monthly Magazine has the answers (Click links for more information)

Published: 21 August 2008 13:56 CEST

Have you been working hard all week and missed all the treats at the Theatre and Dance Festival? Well, it’s time to suit up for the night and get those shiny dancing shoes on. If you head for Storan on Friday night you’ll be brought back to the roots of street dance. Elements of Ninja will be showing their best vogue moves. (Yes we’re talking the dance Madonna immortalized in Vogue). The documentary “Check your body at the door” will be screened, giving you a glimpse of what has influenced the club/ house scene in New York since the early 90s. The evening will end with a chance for you to slide those dancing shoes across the floor. Club Soul Step will play house till the early morning.

Grolsch Block Party

It’s time for the Grolsch Block party to hit Magasinsgatan. A mini festival with a true urban vibe in collaboration with Vice Magazine. Bonjour Recordings, Trunkfunk Records and Caviar are hosts for the different stages on and around the street. Get yourself a takeaway box at Lokal and go on an evening-excursion in the hood!

Love is the codeword this weekend. Röhsska hosts the obligatory after party for the Theatre and Dance festival. Friday night with Erna Òmarsdóttir and the Talking Tree. Expect tales of weird and sad creatures in unknown territories with a mission to change the world. Saturday night is the grand finale with DJ Marathon featuring Sara Atari among others.

Don’t miss JayStarSevens´ “Footprints” at Nefertiti this weekend. As exciting as first day in school. Get wired up on soul, jazz, Latin and funk. Pete from BBE Records will be spinning real music for real people. The outdoor terrace will be managed by Rikard Masip from Raw Fusion, who will be turning funky Latin inspired grooves!

Gay Straight To Hell move in to the superb backyard of Magnus & Magnus. It’s gonna be a crazy queer night that will bring you back to the early days of GS2H. DJs will be spinning your favourite tunes while you dance the night away.

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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