Kapten Röd "Fläcken som aldrig går bort" (2011)

Fläcken som aldrig går bort
release date: Jul. 6, 2011
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]
producer: Björn Nilsson
label: SwingKids Productions - nationality: Sweden

Track highlights: 1. "Ju mer dom spottar" (4 / 5) - 2. "Saknade vänner" - 3. "Pantad & såld" - 4. "In kommer ting" (4 / 5) - 6. "1.000.000 nollor" - 9. "Ett snedsteg bort"

2nd studio album by Swedish band Kapten Röd, which practically means Björn Nilsson and his backing group. The style is typical dancehall and ragga with lyrics in Swedish. It's nicely produced and it strikes me as one of the more successful contemporary dancehall releases.
To me, this sounds much like a mix of the Danish bands Bikstok Røgsystem and Bli'Glad, sometimes more hip hop-styled, at other times more reggae-inspired but mostly just plain dancehall and just so plain positive and warm-fuelled as possible.

M.I.A. "Arular" (2005)

Arular [debut]
release date: Mar. 22, 2005
format: cd (XLCD 186)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: various
label: XL Recordings - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 2. "Pull up the People" - 3. "Bucky Done Gun" - 4. "Sunshowers" - 8. "Bingo" - 9. "Hombre" - 13. "Galang"

Studio debut album by M.I.A. [birthname: Mathangi Arulpragasam] produced by Paul Byrne, Cavemen, Diplo, KW Griff, Richard X, Switch, Anthony Whiting, and Wizard. Before this, she was involved in documentary as a way of expression, and she was hired by Elastica - through her friendship with guitarist and vocalist Justine Frischmann - to cover the band's live tour in 2001. It was then Frischmann who let M.I.A. play with a Roland MC-505 sequencer on which she recorded several demoes that was eventually used to pursuade XL Recordings to invite her in to record some of her own music.

M.I.A. is both a reference to her birth name - often shortened to Maya - and to the abbreviation for Missing in Action. I didn't come across this album until around 2010, and only regret not to have heard it when it was released. Her following two albums are named after her parents. This one has its name after her father's political code name in the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS, a resistance group fighting for a free state, Tamil Eelam, in Sri Lanka).

I really enjoy her aggressive style, sometimes making me think of a more contemporary Lil' Kim, but with more sophisticated lyrics and music. The sampling and glitch pop tone is just another positive element and fusioned with electropop and grime, it's a nice and original cocktail. What's really impressive about M.I.A. is her involvement in her own music. She hasn't got a bunch of songwriters and composers but basically makes everything herself. The story is, she send a demo tape to several labels with XL Recordings being the only label to invite her in. Alledgedly, she knew from the very beginning exactly what she wanted and was so lucky to actually have it her own way. She also did her own cover art.

[ allmusic.com 5 / 5, The Guardian, The Independent, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Pharfar "La´ Mig Rulle Dig" (2014)

Wafande feat. Kaka: Gi' mig et smil