AWmusic

And in the blurry world of music, too often tied up with financial viability, crass commodities, mainstream pandering, and too cool for school scenester indifference, sometimes all we need is a playful, innocent, simplistic child like fun to give our ears and minds a break and just be able to dance like a 5 year old. Slagsmålsklubben expresses this much needed sound perfectly.

Slagsmålsklubben (which translates to “the fight club”) hails from Norrköping, Sweden. The band is comprised of 6 members; Frej Larsson, Joni Mälkki, Björn Nilsson, Kim Nilsson, Joakim “Beebop” Nybom, and Hannes Stenström. Their electro pop music (or synthpop/bitpop to those in the know) comes across like a fusion of video game music, pulsating club beats, and fun, silly electronic melodies. For me, the songs can evoke a time lapse image of a child genius playing with toy instruments which morphs back and forth into 8 bit computer/video games and electronic instruments.

Boss For Leader! is actually a couple years old already (2007 release) but it’s their most recent album, and it took me a little while to find a cost effective copy to buy online. Plus, I really felt like writing about a Scandinavian band as I have an informed bias about the music and bands coming out of this area of the world. Let me indulge you; I believe that some of the better music in the world is coming from Scandinavian nations, and it has been for a while now. (I don’t mean ABBA, although I do get a bit uppity and excitable when I hear Waterloo) The theory I believe in is two fold. Firstly, Scandinavians speak English better than most foreign countries, so they’ve been paying attention and fully understanding all the North American and U.K. music. Secondly, their location, close enough to the U.K. and watching down over the rest of Europe. So they have the great sense of language and geographical placement to be easily receptive of many great music sources and can use this inspiration and knowledge to make their own creative sound scenes.

The album is done up like a quirky election campaign advertisement, quite entertaining with it’s tacky yet inspiring messages written in the liner notes. The music isn’t following a similar political suit per se, as all songs are instrumental. Bottom line is that it’s a cool nerdy collection of fun electronica to immerse yourself into, and make up some new geeky dance with.

Slagsmålsklubben – Speedboats
Slagsmålsklubben – Malmö Beach Night Party
Slagsmålsklubben – Spanska Förhoppningar

Not the official video for Slagsmalsklubben’s song Sponsored by Destiny, but a very cool video/school assignment by Tomas Nilsson who reinterpreted the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood with modernized graphical information.

Tags: Slagsmålsklubben