A genre crossing and intimate mixtape from this Anglo-German electronic duo. Their recent cover of the anti-war protest song ’99 Luftballons’ is featured on the original motion picture soundtrack of “Atomic Blonde”.

“Our exploitation of the environment and our disconnect with nature are issues we feel very strongly about. The track House of Pulp is about our inability to face up to what’s happening to the environment, and the coming losses and suffering we’ll experience as a result of climate change and population growth. It’s bearing witness to the fact that we don’t take care of the ecosystems that sustain us. We build houses of pulp from cheap unsustainable materials, in a throw-a-way culture addicted to plastic, while the world continues down a path of warming temperatures and feedback loops.” – Kaleida

One part of the duo, Christina Wood, has worked as a consultant on sourcing forest commodities like palm oil and timber sustainably for 10 years, so she’s very aware of deforestation rates and their climate, biodiversity and water impacts. The tracks on the G19 mixtape all speak to the challenge of meeting our planetary limits.

Tracklist

Anohni – 4 degrees
MIA – Borders
Puma Rosa – Honey
Kenji Kawai – Uta II Ghost City (Ghost in the Shell Original Soundtrack 1995)
Heart – Mother Earth Blues
Michael Jackson – Man in the Mirror
Lakota Traditions – Song for Mother Earth
Europa Europa and The Knife – För alla namn vi inte får använda
Bjork featuring Thom Yorke – Nattura
Meredith Monk – Atlas: Part 3 – Invisible Light – Earth Seen From above

Kaleida’s new album ‘Tear The Roots’ is out September 15th on Lex Records
Photography: Lisa Rovner

Fun fact: He currently plays the drums in the house band Karen on the Late Late Show With James Corden.

If we take a listen to the songs of the trees we might hear our own voices calling back to us, reaching us from prehistoric times with a heroic cry of HELP! Our troubles have gotten the best of us. This soothes that. – Pegasus Warning

Oh and here’s also his latest single, out now on his imprint Melanin Harmonique.

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Tracklist:
Daniel Avery – New Energy
The Field – Good Things End
Schneider TM – The Light 3000
Daphni – Long
Team Shadetek – Two and a Half Months
Kindness – Gee Up
Matthew Dear – Earthforms
Tim Hecker – Virginal II
Hint – Words To That Effect
Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love For Planet Earth

Oh, and here’s their Sisters EP, released earlier this year.

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“Vivid, Fearless” is Pheeyownah’s latest single, from the EP zero9zero9 which takes its name from the singer’s birth date, September 9 1987. The EP is the first of her releases to be launched on a label other than her own. Not because Pheeyownah hasn’t been offered record deals, but because she has been firmly determined to do to things her own way. Including the writing, producing, releasing and marketing of her previous work.

“I knew exactly how I wanted it to sound, the vision was clear to me before I started” she says when we talk about her 2014 EP Under the Dock. All five songs on Under the Dock, of which three reappear on zero9zero9, were created in the way Prince likes to work, entirely recorded, produced and mastered by the artist. The music shows us Pheeyownah, simply and exclusively Pheeyownah. For a trained ear it is possible to recognize the difference between Under the Dock and its predecessor City, an EP made in collaboration with producer Daniel Markus, AKA Megaman Dee.

“The plan was that we would be a duo, Pheeyownah and Megaman Dee, but Daniel wasn’t comfortable performing on stage. After we released City he went back to school and I was left on my own, wanting to continue what we started. I started looking for other producers but I didn’t find anyone who was a good fit for me, so I decided to do it myself.”

Pheeyownah began watching studio tutorial videos to widen her basic knowledge about recording and learned enough to make the impressive Under the Dock. As a mother of two she simply wasn’t able to attend an education in music production, so her only option was to make the EP at home. I myself have always been very inspired and fascinated by people who show the world that an expensive education is secondary to passion, talent and true commitment when it comes to the creative arts. After only a few minutes in Pheeyownah’s company I see that she clearly is one of those people.

The mixtape that Pheeyownah put together for us is a compilation of artists and songs that has inspired her own musical creations. The incomparable Björk is one of her absolute favourite artists, partly because of the Icelandic singer’s ambition to do whatever she wants. She reveals that the tape contains many different musical genres and that she has always had an eclectic taste in music.

“I remember when I was younger and my cousins from England used to visit us during the summers. They asked me what music I liked and when I said that I was into Oasis they thought I was crazy. For them it was absurd for a black girl to like that kind of music, they expected me to say TLC or Aaliyah. I did listen to that music as well but not exclusively. I didn’t understand why I was supposed to listen to only one kind of music because of who I am.”

Pheeyownah is not only a singer and producer, but also a professional dancer. As a member of the dance crew JUCK (named after the Swedish word for a grinding hip movement) she tries to provoke by moving on stage in ways unconventional for a woman. During a JUCK performance last year Pheeyownah had a solo that impressed Stockholm dance venue Dansens Hus so much that she was offered a one-woman-show. The solo act SUUBI will be shown at Dansens Hus during the dance festival Urban Connection and the story behind the show is a difficult one.

“Me and my family were going through a very tough period when I got the offer but a solo show at Dansens Hus is a dream come true for me, so I couldn’t say no. SUUBI is a very personal performance, a way for me to put everything I’ve gone through behind me. I use my own music because my songs are based on personal experiences, anything else would feel strange to feature in the show. I named the performance SUUBI after my new born son, whose middle name is Suubi, which means hope in Luganda (a language spoken in Pheeyownah’s parents’ native country Uganda).”

Even though it seems like Pheeyownah’s life has been troublesome at times, she is now glowing with hopefulness. With her new born son and the rest of her supportive family by her side she is ready for the release of her next EP and the staging of her solo dance show, both in May.

Words by Filip Lindström

Vivid, Fearless is out on the 6th of May on Labrador.

Songwriters/Producers Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf are responsible for the hit retro gem “Play it on my radio” that struck the world this year. The reception of the track has been tremendous, among other achievements it landed at number one on the Swedish Student Radio list, right ahead of Florence + The Machine, who are signed to the duo’s previous label, Moshi Moshi (Niki & The Dove are now on TEN/Polydor).

Besides releasing mesmerizing pop tunes, Malin and Gustaf do the occasional DJ set with music such as that in their mix tape. “We wanted to do an all ballad tape, because it is not very usual. We started out with a song by Diana Ross but after that we lost the concept” Gustaf says before expressing a liking when I mention a ballad club, only for slow dancing, which used to be in Stockholm. “If you only are going to listen to one track off the tape” Malin says “it should be the last one, it’s great for slow dancing.” Mentioned track is “Can We Touch” by Human Body (produced by funk man Roger Troutman), a soulful ballad that could melt any heart.

The night prior to my rendezvous with Niki & The Dove I went to see a jazz concert featuring electro virtuoso Andreas Kleerup, one of the duo’s collaborators. Malin and Gustaf worked with Kleerup on his album “As If We Never Won” (2014) and they remember the making of the song “Rock U” with joy. “We recorded in the middle of the night and when we came home in the morning, he had already sent us a mix” Gustaf recalls, impressed by Kleerup’s productivity.

An interest shared by both members of Niki & The Dove is collecting and enjoying vinyl records. One often mentioned perk that comes with the analogue format is of course the sound quality, but Gustaf and Malin seem more into the honouring of the music they hold so dear. They speak with warmth about when a vinyl store opened up in their building, something that made them buy more music and allowed them to listen to it more intensely. “I rediscovered the listening” Malin says affectionately “and the love [for music] was revived, stronger than ever”. That love is highly visible when meeting Niki & The Dove and audible when hearing them. Their pop pearls are available right now, on vinyl and (“hopefully soon”, according to Gustaf) on cassette tape as well.

Credits:

Words by Filip Lindström

Exclusive The Forumist mixtape

“It was heartbreaking” says singer Kate Akhurst when asked about Hampus Nordgren Hemlin leaving the band to become a chef, not less than one month before the release of their debut album “One”, which saw the light of day on 6 November. “But it almost made our passion ten times bigger” she continues, “because this is what we really want to do.” Markus Dextegen agrees and tells me that he and Hampus has had a ten year long musical relationship, since before Kate Boy and Rocket Boy, the trio they had prior to meeting Kate.

Understandably this is an emotional subject; since they did not only part ways with a band member but also a dear friend (the band’s promotional manager Georg compares it to removing one leg from a three-legged chair.) But still, the show must go on, and the live performances will have to be adapted to two performers instead of three. Markus and Kate already played their first show as a duo with reworked songs and Kate says that “Our audience supports us as a 2-piece.”

We go on to talk about “Human Engine”, the fourth track from the upcoming debut, a song that portrays an urge to morph into something more than a human to overcome challenging situations, such as the one they’re in right now. Another angle to the tune that the duo discusses is the heart being the engine, working effectively in symbiosis with the vulnerable and beautiful human soul.

As sources of inspiration, Kate Boy has listed great names such as Brian Eno, David Bowie and Kate Bush, along with books like “New Fashion Japan”, and among them Peter Gabriel has been mentioned several times. Markus explains that Gabriel’s inspiration doesn’t come solely from his music, but from his way of making it. “[Gabriel] hasn’t tried to fit into something already done; he contributes to music by making something new.” That is something Kate Boy takes after, aspiring to sound personal, but they do see value in honouring influential music. “It is very important to tribute beautiful music” says Markus. “I would never put down anyone who tries to replicate a musical emotion” he adds and mentions the Swedish group Music is the Weapon who reincarnates the energy of the remarkable Fela Kuti.

Markus himself listens mostly to techno by the likes of Swedish pioneers Adam Beyer and Joel Mull and he calls them “sound artists” rather than song writers. The balance between those two worlds seems to fascinate him and I ask about their choice of equipment, their way towards finding the right sound. Roland Jupiter synthesizers are frequently used and due to the fragility of the old instruments, they cannot be transported from Kate Boy’s home town Stockholm, thereby making the music they have made so far a direct product of the Swedish capital.

On the cover of “One”, designed by Lee Griggs, Kate Akhurst is pictured in the same way as she was in the first ever Kate Boy picture: in a straight forward portrait. There is a striking difference between the two and Kate says that the album cover is the evolved version of the Kate Boy character, an entity that is separate from the band’s members. She concludes by saying that this open minded entity has just started to change and hopefully it will continue to evolve as it goes along.

The new Kate Boy album “One” is out now on Fiction Records.

Credits:

Words by Filip Lindström