Skweee is a musical style, with origin in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Skweee combines simple

synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...

leads and basslines with

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

, R&B or

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

-like rhythms, overall rendering a stripped-down funky sound. The tracks are predominantly instrumental.

Origins

The name "skweee" was coined by Daniel Savio, one of the originators of the emerging sound. The name refers to the use of analog synthesizers in the production process, where the aim is to "squeeze out" the most interesting sounds possible. Producers can vary from high-profile to new talent from the Scandinavian

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

environment.

Recognition

The major outlets of skweee music are the Swedish record label Flogsta Danshall and Finnish record label Harmönia. Norwegian Dødpop, Canadian Ancient Robot, US Losonofono, US Titched, US Poisonous Gases, Spanish Lo Fi Funk, Finnish Mässy, and French Mazout have since been added to this family. The preferred media format of skweee enthusiasts is the

7" vinyl In music, a single is a type of release of a song recording of fewer tracks than an album ( LP), typically one or two tracks. A single can be released for sale to the public in a variety of physical or digital formats. Singles may be standa ...

record. Early releases were exclusively released in this format. More recently, however, a series of 12" vinyl records, digital releases and CD compilations have been released through these outlets as well. The increasing notability of the skweee genre has resulted in releases such as the ''Eero Johannes'' album on Planet Mu. Producers such as Rusko, Gemmy, Joker, Zomby, and Rustie have given their take on the sound, resulting in several releases on the boundary between skweee and

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

References

External links

Interview with skweee pioneer Pavan

John McDonnell's (''The Guardian'' UK) blog article about skweee

Article in ''Spin'' magazine (April 2009) as a PDF file

Article in ''Clash'' magazine

Article in ''The Wire''

Podcast featuring live recording of Harmönia vs Flogsta battle at the Norberg Festival 2009 and an interview with most of the main artists of these labels
{{Funkmusic 2000s in music 21st-century music genres Chiptune Electro (music) Electronic dance music genres Music of Finland Swedish styles of music