SkweeeRRL - Ultimate oriental skweeeCast (Kurpachill podcast) great Nordic skweee mix covering 2006 onward for 15 years

[Celerity]

Skweee is a musical style, with origin in Sweden and Finland. Skweee combines simple synth/chiptune leads and basslines with funk, R&B or soul-like rhythms, overall rendering a stripped-down funky sound. The tracks are predominantly instrumental.

Tracklist:

01. Wankers United - Bendz (Harmönia, 2011) 00:00:00
02. Center of the Universe - Cosmic Sleng Teng (Metronomicon Audio, 2021) 00:03:49
03. EDMX - R 100 (Uday Rmx) (Flogsta Danshall, 2007) 00:09:17
04. Mesak - Popkumm (Harmönia, 2007) 00:12:26
05. Easy & Center of the Universe - Burkina Faso (Flogsta Danshall, 2011) 00:15:02
06. Uday - Crack Crack Crack (Flogsta Danshall, 2006) 00:18:23
07. Easy & Center of the Universe - Hamada (Harmönia, 2009) 00:21:50
08. Uday - Boland Shin (Harmönia, 2009) 00:24:44
09. Easy & Center of the Universe - Yazid (Harmönia, 2011) 00:27:47
10. Easy & Center of the Universe - Bosphorus (Harmönia, 2011) 00:30:43
11. Joxaren - Log Lady (Poisonous Gases, 2011) 00:34:04
12. Easy & C.O.U. - Tashkent Skyclub (Harmönia, 2013) 00:37:44
13. Easy & C.O.U. - Khorshid Squarewave (Harmönia, 2013) 00:42:09
14. SLA - Groznyi Nightlife (Harmönia, 2007) 00:45:30
15. Ya Tosiba - Baku Hipser (Harmönia, 2012) 00:48:42
16. Daniel Savio - Jihad Akhbar (Flogsta Danshall, 2007) 00:51:08
17. Uday Iglesiaz - Pink Flesh (Huge Bass, 2012) 00:55:02
18. Daniel Savio - Isla Mopho Bic (Dødpop, 2010) 00:58:05
19. Easy & Center of the Universe - Halloumi (Harmönia, 2011) 01:00:28
20. Center of the Universe - Bassoon Is Now (Metronomicon Audio, 2021) 01:05:39
21. Coco Lowres - Dönerboxen (Karl Marx Land, 2017) 01:10:01
22. snork25 - Aeae (Skweeeterburg, 2013) 01:13:39
23. Levon Zoltar - Döner Djinn (Flogsta Danshall, 2013) 01:15:31
24. Koppen - Syri I Kalter (Metronomicon Audio, 2013) 01:17:57
25. Center of the Universe - Dervish You Were Here (Metronomicon Audio, 2017) 01:21:09
26. Center of the Universe - Mirwaiz Spesial (Metronomicon Audio, 2019) 01:26:13
27. Center of the Universe - Kashida (Metronomicon Audio, 2017) 01:29:57
28. Center of the Universe - Italo Böreği (Metronomicon Audio, 2019) 01:35:41

Scene and heard: Skweee

Hailing from Scandinavia, but making headway in the dubstep scene, this 8-bit hip-hop hybrid is as low-fi as electronic music can get without being steam-powered

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/apr/07/skweee-8bit-hiphop-electronica



Move over "funky", I have a new No 1 genre that makes me instantly cringe every time I say the name out loud: skweee. Luckily, whereas the name of this glitchy Nordic 8-bit hip-hop genre sounds like the noise a pig makes when you poke it in the ribs with a stick, the music itself doesn't. Well, most of it doesn't. The term skweee was coined by Swedish producer Daniel Savio, aka Kool DJ Dust. Savio used it to describe a new form of slightly demented hiptronica based around high-pitched synths that he was hearing on Sweden's Flogsta Danshall label, which he now releases records through. The sound is made and performed live on a limited amount of cheap hardware; Savio in fact got the idea for the name "skweee" while trying to squeeze all of the elements of one track out of a single synth, the Roland Alpha Juno 1.



Much of the early skweee output was on 7in vinyl, which, as Flogsta Danshall's Frans Carlqvist explains, was purely for economic reasons: "I didn't have any money or distribution when I started and 7ins were the cheapest. Later, I also realised that the size was handy for selling at the club and mail order. You can post five sevens for less money than one 12in." Currently, the two main labels at the forefront of skweee's progression are Finland's Harmonia (which is partly run by skweee artist Randy Barracuda, who is one half of gnarly Finnish electro outfit Imatran Voima) and the aforementioned Flogsta Danshall imprint. New labels are, however, springing up everywhere, from Norway to the US.



Skweee tracks focus on the squeaky synths, which are often mixed louder than the bass and the drums. To my ears it sounds like Rephlex Records soundtracking a cartoon about G-funk-loving psychedelic mice. It also sounds like an updated take on what UK label Clear was doing over 10 years ago. Some of skweee is blissful and delicate, other bits just sound annoying after a while. Much of the early skweee output had a G-funk influence, but recently the genre has ventured to styles further afield, like lush cosmic disco and straight-forward electro. Some of the newer skweee material contains a noticeable dubstep influence, such as Eero Johannes's We Could Be Skweeroes, which was released last year on UK label Planet Mu.



The dubstep-skweee relationship is, however, a symbiotic one. Following a lengthy thread on dubstep fan mecca, dubstepforum.com, a number of dubstep DJs are now playing skweee in their sets. Dubstep producer and generic university students' favourite, Rusko, whose lanky finger is always pressed firmly on the trend pulse, has gone as far as cobbling together a skweee remix of Kotchy's Sing What You Want. Rusko hasn't followed his dubstep template and produced any jump-up skweee with wobbly basslines and ridiculous cockney film samples yet. But that's surely only a ­matter of time ...