Album Preview: Swede:Art – Emotional Colors
Like its wonderfully abstract album cover, wunderkind Swede:Art’s debut release “Emotional Colors” provides a plethora of musical colors. On this Tokyo Dawn Records release, tracks like the futuristic “Underpurpled” and the hip-hop beat heavy “I am A R.O.B.O.T.” add even more diverse tones to the canvas.
The variety of sounds heard on “Emotional Colors” is its strength. “Linguisitcs,” featuring Stray (Swedish producer/singer/song writer Mattias Axelsson) provides a soulful hip-hop beat and would make a perfect first single off of this record. Then the next track “You Live Forever” changes the tone from hip-hop to acid jazz/blues featuring some bluesy guitar and trumpet parts over a downtempo beat.
The rhythmic and poetic stylings of Cait Meissner make an appearance on “A Room of Prayers” which is followed by another change of pace to more of a dance track. “Mosambique” has a thumping bass intro, (reminded me a bit of Goldfrapp’s “Ooh La La La” or “Strict Machine“) and there is some great work on the keys/synth. At times, the various electronic sounds reminded me of what I used to hear in an arcade in the 80’s. Like the record as a whole, this track features some dramatic tempo changes and is just a very fun instrumental track
The album finishes on a darker, more somber note with the eerie “Samklang.” Swede:Art invokes some bluesy keyboard on top of a repetitive piano part that reminded me a lot of Clint Mansell’s work on the soundtrack for the film “Requiem for a Dream.”
The just 20 year old Swede:Art (a.k.a. Joachim Prügl) from Passau, Germany has a very promising future in Electronica and I eagerly await his next offering. His pseudonym is quite appropriate as he is truly an artist of sounds. You can check out the debut album on June 23rd.
-Chris
