SKWEEE

[badger]

here's wicked skweee mix with rap acapellas by dj waxtastic

http://rapidshare.com/files/129930349/m ... d.mp3.html

should hopefully be able to convert a few hip hop heads with this one

[rekordah]

should hopefully be able to convert a few hip hop heads with this one

Skweee is Hip-Hop.

[badger]

some it is; some of it isn't

either way i'm sure there's more than a few hip hop heads out there who haven't heard skweee

[skweeelicious!]

Skweee is Hip-Hop.

can't say i agree at all. unlike hiphop, skweee is not sample-based. the grooves tend to be a lot more off-kilter. really the tempo is about the only thing that's the same.

[rekordah]

Skweee is Hip-Hop.

can't say i agree at all. unlike hiphop, skweee is not sample-based. the grooves tend to be a lot more off-kilter. really the tempo is about the only thing that's the same.

You don't agree at all????

Hip-Hop is a broad palette, many Hip-Hop producers pre-Skweee were making non-sample based off-kilter beats. Many producers now are making non-sample based off-kilter beats, yet their music isn't classed as Skweee. To me, Skweee in it's simplest form is Synth-based Hip-Hop coming out of the Flogsta Danshall and Harmonia labels.

Not putting Skweee down btw, I love most of it, just a little perplexed at the fact that some people believe it's a separate entity from Hip-Hop.

[badger]

well the fact it emerged out of the scandinavian electro scene kind of proves it doesn't it. if you claim it's hip hop just because it sounds like it then by that argument dubstep must be slowed down drum and bass

[skweeelicious!]

skweee is very eclectic music it's been influenced by 8-bit video game music, electro, leftfield hiphop, dub, 70's and 80's funk, 90's techno, and of course there is the scandinavian twist.

[rekordah]

well the fact it emerged out of the scandinavian electro scene kind of proves it doesn't it. if you claim it's hip hop just because it sounds like it then by that argument dubstep must be slowed down drum and bass

So by that argument you're saying the majority of Dubstep sounds like slowed down Drum n' Bass?

I think possibly the reason why we disagree here is because I view Hip-Hop as a massive spectrum, not only defined by the music, but also it's culture and aesthetic.

To me, Skweee is very much a part of that spectrum. I've no doubt that Skweee has a proportion of it's roots in Electro, but Electro has played a huge part in defining Hip-Hop and vice versa.

To say that Skweee isn't Hip-Hop "just because it sounds like it" suggests to me that you don't view Hip-Hop as so much wide-ranging genre. And also suggests that you classify Skweee by definition, and by the labels and artists involved in the scene that operate under the banner of said term.

http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/se ... ck=ML003LP

Would you classify that as Skweee? Because I'd say it sounds completely like it could come out on Flogsta or Harmonia and be embraced as part of that sound. Yet is Débruit accepted as a Skweee producer? No. Does he even describe his sound as Skweee or profess to be influenced by it as a sound? No. He is obviously heavily influenced by French Electro and House, but his music is still very much Hip-Hop.

[oprayx]

I really like it .. well some of it.

So far, my favourite has to be this guy, Beem
Myspace -> http://www.myspace.com/beemmusic

That track Mouth Everest made me shudder when driving around in the dark a while ago, truely amazing. Reminds me alot of Röyksopp, who I personally love.

Album free to download at www.beem.se by the way, go get it.

[badger]

I think possibly the reason why we disagree here is because I view Hip-Hop as a massive spectrum, not only defined by the music, but also it's culture and aesthetic.

To me, Skweee is very much a part of that spectrum. I've no doubt that Skweee has a proportion of it's roots in Electro, but Electro has played a huge part in defining Hip-Hop and vice versa.

To say that Skweee isn't Hip-Hop "just because it sounds like it" suggests to me that you don't view Hip-Hop as so much wide-ranging genre. And also suggests that you classify Skweee by definition, and by the labels and artists involved in the scene that operate under the banner of said term.

i thought the whole idea behind hip hop was that it was a culture, and one that is made up of several parts, none of which are really applicable to skweee. there's pubs p MCing i guess but that's an exception, and for me skweee isn't really a DJ based music unlike hip hop, and i'd be surprised to see breakdancers and graf artists at skweee nights. something can sound like hip hop but not be hip hop if you ask me

it's just semantics really though isn't it? who care's what it is or isn't, it's just skweee

So by that argument you're saying the majority of Dubstep sounds like slowed down Drum n' Bass?

well, yeah. a year ago i'd have shot anyone down who said that but it's going that way unfortunately

[rekordah]

Badger, I've got to say I find your view on what Hip-Hop entails and what it does not pretty misguided and narrow. To say that none of the elements of Hip-Hop are applicable to Skweee, to me, is proposturous. But enough of this "Defining Hip-Hop" talk because it will go on for ever.

The point i'm trying to make here is that alot of Hip-Hop producers before and after the emergance of Skweee were/are making Instrumental music that contains all the elements that Skweee contains. It is not only sonically extremely similar (ie. Electro influenced, predominantly synthetic elements, of a similar tempo range and groove, and utilizing wonky and unquantized timing on percussive hits and various other elements) and created via similar methods (ie. lots of hardware, mostly progammed live, MPCs, 303s, Analog Synths etc) but also carries a very similar vibe and aesthetic - Dilla, Spacek, Dabrye, Débruit, Fulgeance, Clause Four, 1000 names, Ghislain Poirier, Mwéslee, Aadvarck, Buillion, Veebeeo the list goes on and on.

Now I don't particularly like the act of Pigeon-holing or catagorizing music, but I always understood that the need for a new genre comes along when a distinct sound emerges that is cleary different to music that has come before it in it's sonic elements, it's groove, it's tempo and/or it's vibe and aesthetic. To me, Skweee does not display a significant difference to a sound that a portion of Hip-Hop producers have been exploring for a while.

Imo, Skweee is a movement, defined predominantly by "Space and Place" rather than music. The Scandinavian wing of the Post-Dilla Beat Continuum if you will

[badger]

i'm not disagreeing that it's sonically similar because it clearly is. what i'm just saying is that it's not hip hop per se. if something made 10 years ago sounded similar to modern dubstep would you still call it dubstep? i know i wouldn't because it's not evolved in the same way and hasn't come out of the same scene, and possibly doesn't even have the same influences etc. it would sound like dubstep, but it wouldn't be dubstep

Imo, Skweee is a movement, defined predominantly by "Space and Place" rather than music. The Scandinavian wing of the Post-Dilla Beat Continuum if you will

that i do agree with

[boomnoise]

all music is folk music innirt!

[frebentos]

[skeee is] The Scandinavian wing of the Post-Dilla Beat Continuum

good definition.

[rekordah]

i'm not disagreeing that it's sonically similar because it clearly is. what i'm just saying is that it's not hip hop per se.

Well the Hip-Hop I'm talking about being incredibly similar to the sound of Skweee is not Hip-Hop "per se". It certainly isn't Hip-Hop in the traditional or even original sense of the term. But thats another completely different directionless debate. To sum it up in the most vague way possible, it all has the attitude and swagger of Hip-Hop and Skweee clearly displays the diaspora and heritage of Hip-Hop.

if something made 10 years ago sounded similar to modern dubstep would you still call it dubstep?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JESe446Wojk

There you go, that's 22 years ago. Would I call it Dubstep? Hmmmm... It certainly sounds like it could be Mala playing with an Amiga and an Akai. But on the other hand it sounds nothing like Peverelist's The Grind or Martyn's Vancouver or DJ Abstract's Touch, which in turn sound hardly similar to each other. Dubstep is a broad palette, involving a diverse range of artists, with a diverse range of influences coming from a diverse range of scenes. But (to be vague once more) it does nearly all contain a similar vibe, which I find that Brain Scan is lacking, but I couldn't explain clearly to you what exactly is lacking.

i know i wouldn't because it's not evolved in the same way and hasn't come out of the same scene, and possibly doesn't even have the same influences etc. it would sound like dubstep, but it wouldn't be dubstep

This comment basically illustrates my point. You are defining Skweee by it's geography and scene (labels, artists etc).

To me, Hip-Hop is to Skweee what the Hardcore Continuum is to Dubstep. A term that sums up and brings together the many different sounds and scenes in Hip-Hop, in which Skweee is just another scene or movement, not a genre.

[rekordah]

if something made 10 years ago sounded similar to modern dubstep would you still call it dubstep?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JESe446Wojk

That is also 22 years old, which therefore distances it's self from the term Dubstep not just by the way it has evolved or the scene it has come from, but perhaps more importantly to this argument, by the age of the track.

The question "If it were made 10 years ago" isn't entirely relevant either, as I am talking about stuff that is being made now. The Débruit EP on Musique Large I posted just a couple of posts ago for example was released early this year. So if Rob Smith and Ray Mighty were to make and release that tune in the present day would I call it Dubstep? Yes, I think I would.

[soju]

Skweee might be considered by some to be a type of hip-hop but the boundaries between hip-hop and electronica are really blurred at the moment. Producers who are recognised as hip-hop such as Fly-Lo are making music that is very similar, or often even ore left field and experimental than the music of people who are undoubtedly seen as electronica artists such as Four Tet.

The fact that this cross pollination exists, and has done for a few years, is very healthy, but it doesn't mean that electronica is hip-hop and vice versa. Genres generally, and particularly hip-hop are defined more by an aesthetic than by set rules regarding track format. This goes for Skweee as well, “You know that it’s skweee when you feel that it’s skweee” is Harmonia's slogan.

I reckon that Skweee is not hip-hop purely because it belongs to a different subculture and has a different aesthetic associated with it.

[badger]

I reckon that Skweee is not hip-hop purely because it belongs to a different subculture and has a different aesthetic associated with it.

that's exactly what i think. it doesn't really matter though, no point getting bogged down in the origins and interpretations of skweee. it's all about the music

[ballers]

skwee contains elements of hip hop and other genres.
every genre is being bastardised / innovated..thats a good thing...no point in discussing the ins and outs of it.

[dubstepjustin]

Heres what Skwee reminds me of...