Thursday, August 6, 2009
Movits! - Fel del av gården
Lately I've been listening a lot to the Swedish hip hop /jazz group Movits!. I discovered them a couple of months ago but now they have become really popular.
Right now, Movits! album Äppelknyckarjazz is the most popular album on the Amazon.com Top MP3 Albums in Rap & Hip-Hop, before artists like Eminem, Jay-Z and Mos Def, how about that!
Movits! combines rap/hip hop with gypsy jazz and balkan rhythms. In the video clip with the song "Fel del av gården" (The Wrong Part of the Yard) you can also see dancing by the Swedish swing dance troupe The Harlem Hot Shots.
Movits! got a lot of attention when they were interviewed on the tv program The Colbert Report last week where they performed the song "Fel del av gården". In the interview they say that they were inspired to add a swing touch to their music when they heard the swing song "Sing, Sing Sing".
Do you like the music but don't know what the heck Movits! are rapping about? Here is the lyrics for Movits! song "Fel del av gården".
From a swing music point of view I like that one of the songs on the album, "Stick iväg Jack, del II" tells story about what happend after "Hit The Road, Jack".
Regarding the the name of Movits! album, Äppelknyckarjazz; "Äppelknyckare" refers to a certain kind of pants that were popular in the 1930's and 1940's. I would translate "Äppelknyckare" as "apple nickers".
The name comes from the fact that the legs of the trousers ended just below the knee and the legs could be tightened, so if you were a young rascal nicking apples from the neighbour's garden you could put all the apples inside the pants and you could run away with ease if you were discovered. Here is a photo of äppelknyckare.
In Sweden 'äppelknyckare' is very much associated with the swing era.
What do you think of Movits! and the music video for "Fel sida av gården"? Please comment.
I was looking all over the place trying to figure out who the dancers were in that video!! I'm glad you were able to shine some light on that!
ReplyDeleteI was one of the many who first saw this band on the Colbert Report, and I just love their sound. I'm often struck my the similarities between swing and hip-hop (particularly when some of my swing dance friends bust out some break dance moves in the midst of some charleston), and I think Movits does a great job of blending the two influences together.
Hi Brainiac9!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you! I tried to be as complete as possible, providing information to all of you non-Swedes who saw Movits! on The Colbert Report.
Äppelknyckarbyxor - knickerbockers. :)
ReplyDeleteKlockrent! Och klockren blog!
ReplyDelete