Another “Catching Up”-post, today with a hip hop theme. I don’t receive that much hip hop; not that surprising since there are other colleagues that do a better job with it; but what I do get is good:

Rebstar – “Safe Safe”

The versatile Rebstar has released the first single from the upcoming album “Girls Like Nicole”. It’s called “Safe Safe” and is a tribute to Rosengård (neighbourhood in Malmö) and Zlatan.

Adam Tensta (ft. Spoek Mathambo) – “Head Trippin”

The likewise creative Adam Tensta has been collaborating with the producer Carli resulting in the three-track EP “Black Taxi Joints”. The three songs will be released one at a time each week on the blog Discobelle. First up is “Head Trippin”, including the South African artist Spoek Mathambo:

Saint – The Devil Is Alive (ft. Rebstar)

Joined by Rebstar, Saint has created his version of Rick Ross’ “The Devil Is Alive” in this remix/cover:

Östblockarn – “Original Oregano”

Östblockarn takes us back to the eighties and runs around like Leisure Suit Larry in his morning gown in this video. Funny enough a game in the same spirit, with Östblockarn as one of the characters, is being created by NMRosta, who’s also responsible for this video.

Skuggan av Svampen med Östblockarn – “Dirty” -video

Skuggan av Svampen launches the detergent Dirty! “- People are tired of walking around smelling of tussilago. There’s a need of going back to something primal and dirty, Skivling says. Dirty works just like any other detergent, but with the opposite effect.”

Today I’m starting a series of posts with music from 2014 I haven’t had the time to publish yet. Well, new releases and even some older from last year will join the ride too. The stream of new music to my inbox has increased dramatically since a year back and it feels like I’m only scratching the surface. Rather than letting them go I feel I want to present as much as I can of this music, music I love just as much as everything else I’ve showed you earlier. So, less text and more music for a while now, which is hardly a problem I believe. I’m starting today with electro pop and music in the vicinity of this genre.

For BDK – “For Body Drugs & Kicks”

The duo For BDK  with a dark, melodic and grand electro pop. They released the debut album “For Body Drugs & Kicks” May 30th. Here are two earlier tracks:

Sameblod – “Suddenly”

Here’s a new single from Sameblod, “Suddenly”:

Me The Tiger – “As We Really Are”

The trio Me The Tiger’s latest single “As We Really Are” is one of the songs that has affected me most this year. I can see in the singer Gabriella Åström’s eyes what the song is about; in the resignation, in the discomfort as she walks across empty school yards, in the sadness. When the chorus starts, marked with distorted tom punches like echoes from a broken soul, it’s like being punched by frustration and anger, punches that make their way to my heart and turn into sympathy. The strongest I’ve heard so far from Me The Tiger. The band write about the song:

The band’s songwriter Tobias has been working several years with young people who have dropped out of school and that have lived with various forms of mental illness during large parts of their lives. ”As We Really Are” is their story about being outside the normal society, about being tossed between authorities without any results and about being seen meerely as a number in the statistics with little hope for the future.

Albakin – “Open Casket”

“Open Casket” is the name of the band Albakin’s beautiful debut single, a “tale about lost teenage dreams and a longing for getting out in the world”.

Iberia – “Iberia” – album

The producer duo Iberia, Alexander Palmestål and Maja Milner (singer and songwriter in Makthaverskan), released their debut album earlier this Spring. Here are two songs from the album:

Callenberg – “Obie, I Hope You’re Right”

Playful, laidback synth pop from Callenberg in the single “Obie, I Hope You’re Right”:

Till Death – “Wasted Roses”

Instrumental rock electronica from Till Death:

Urban Ninjas – “At Night I Dream”

Soul vibes from the eighties in “At Night I Dream” from Urban Ninjas:

Dödens Dal med Jenny Wilson – “Under lager av is”

Dödens Dal have invited their favourite singers to add vocals to Dödens Dal’s songs from the latest album “Korsa Jord, Luft, Is”, which will end up in a new album to be released in the Autumn. First up is Jenny Wilson in the song “Under lager av is”:

Social Ambitions – “Judgement Day”

More great synth pop from Social Ambitions in the latest single “Judgement Day”

Awesound – “Let the Rain Fall”

Peter Wickström isn’t just good at interviewing artists or at being a great singing coach, he’s also an artist and a songwriter to be reckoned with, which he shows in the latest single “Let the Rain Fall”:

I’ve added playlists now on Spotify, Wimp and Rara with the music I presented here on the blog in May.

Meadowmusic, May 2014 – Spotify

Meadowmusic, May 2014 – Wimp

Meadowmusic, May 2014 – Rara (the playlist is available on Rara’s page for recommended playlists)

There’s no question that there is an imbalance between men and women when it comes to recording artists. If you look a little deeper than the top lists it’s even worse: looking through the numerous Swedish pitches I get I estimate that around 10% come from female artists or band with female members. I have no simple answers to why it is like this, but I think that it’s one of the most important challenges for the Swedish music scene, to change this, and most certainly for other countries as well. There is some hope, though; this year I’ve received more music from female artists than ever before, if that counts for something.

Hip hop is a genre that’s often in the line of fire in discussions about the lack of women. I’m not going to dig deeper into that here, since Meadowmusic hardly can be seen as representative for this genre. Instead I’m going to present a couple of great women in Swedish hip hop, because they do certainly exist, here below in the shape of Cleo and Rawda. In interviews with Peter Wickström from Awesound they tell us what’s been important for their musical careers, about songwriting, and other stuff.
(I’m afraid these interviews are in Swedish without subtitles.)

Awesound TV

This post is also the start of a collaboration between Meadowmusic and Peter Wickström from Awesound TV, where we aim to present some interesting interviews with artists and others. Most of the time as video interviews, but we may vary with other formats as well. Besides making interesting artist interviews Peter also runs Awesound where he offers song coaching for artists, choirs, well anyone who wants to take their singing ability to a higher level.

Cleo

Nathalie “Cleo” Missaoui is a fascinating artist and person. She creates fantastic music both as a solo artist and in numerous collaborations; with Looptroop  Rockers, Adam Tensta, Syster Sol, in the Swedish-South African music project KWAAI last year and presently together with Kristin Amparo, to mention a few. Everything shoe does is also permeated with a passion for social issues; against rasism, social injustice and violence, on stage as well as off stage. She’s the kind of person that doesn’t ask permission, a doer, while most of just sit in the TV sofa muttering something about disagreements. Here are a few songs and a chat she had with Peter Wickström.

Rawda

Rawda is a young interesting hip hop artist. She kickstarted her “official” music career in the Autumn with the cheeky single “Backspegeln”/”Bli inte sur”. Here she is in an interview where she tell us about her career so far, about songwriting etc. You’ll also find the music video to one of the songs from the single, “Bli inte sur”.

Cajsa Siik – “Relentless Delight”

Cajsa Siik is on her way with her second album which is called “Contra”. The single “Relentless Delight” is the first taste, a single that promises a lot for the album.

Little Children – “Impala” – video

Here’s another song from Little Children, “Impala”, expressed through this brilliant music video signed Ted Malmros. The song is taken from the single “By Your Side” and will also be a part of the album “Walk Within”, to be released in the Autumn.

Marigold – “Last Days of Disco”

Marigold describe their latest song, “Last Days of Disco”, as “a sarchastic but loving punch in the face of the modern house scene, a kind of antithesis to the overcompressed samplings”. And just like the song title suggests, this is a disco, classic disco with a touch of indie pop.

AstroMike Gordon – “Ministry Song”

Cristoffer Csanady and his AstroMike Gordon continue to fascinate me with the new single “Ministry Song”. The debut album is out on the 11th of June!

Jonas Schwartz – “Music For You”

Jonas Schwartz is also on his way with his second album, and have also presented the first single from the album. The song is called “Music For You”, a song that takes him in a quite a different musical direction than the first guitar based album “Six”. Exciting.