cafebabel.com

Fever Ray, Peter Bjorn and John: Swedish music right now

('Alexandra Baxter',) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:28:07 -0000

Famed in the nineties as the capital of pop, Scandinavia doesn’t seem to have exhausted its creative vein just yet. With a legacy of pop artists such as Aqua and Ace of Base, the northern European music scene is opening up to new sounds, experimenting with new technology and ambient tones, whilst never forgetting its musical past

Ólafur Arnalds, Trail of Dead and Turin: your music for September

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:00:00 -0000

We’ve rattled up the format of our monthly music tips for the autumn. Catch our Iceland-flavoured album of the month, the top five tracks in September as voted for by our boys and girls in Turin, and an album tip from a correspondent from our network. This month, we hear from Berlin

Warp records' Steve Beckett: ‘I was certain guitars would die out and electronic music would be everywhere’

('Mohsin Patel',) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0000

For over two decades, Steve Beckett, 45, has been at the very forefront of electronic music. His independent record label 'Weird and Radical Projects' is home to the likes of Aphex Twin and Plaid, and has overseen the birth of some of the now finest names in electronic music over the past 20 years

Music: South London's Speech Debelle and Revolver

('Annie Rutherford',) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:07:43 -0000

Two American musicians who play for a better world and are displaced in Scandinavia, the newest female London hip-hop sound, plus a trio of French heartbreakers named after a Beatles track. This month's music picks also feature Peter Broderick and Mark Johnson

Music in March: Killed by 9V Batteries and Extraperlo

('Andrew Christie',) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:00:00 -0000

Paris-Berlin machine rock, continental breakfast from Barcelona and Austrian pot-washers –spring is blossoming in many ways on the music scene! Café Babel’s music diary for March

Miss Platnum: 'women are like sticks and go to the gym in a frenzy every day'

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:15:37 -0000

Swathed in wacky colours, the Berlin-based Romanian singer, aka 27-year-old Ruth Maria Renner, raps about forced marriages and staying down to earth. Plus, why you should give her food

Sweden's Lykke Li: heartbreak leads to electro pop

('Ed Saunders',) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:00:00 -0000

Lykke means 'happy' in Norwegian. Li's debut album has led to a European tour, and she’s hyped as one of 2008’s biggest new stars. But chart positions don’t make the 22-year-old singer happy

Music in May with The Fratellis and Paul Weller

('Sarah Turpin',) — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:31:09 -0000

A freakshow from Germany, Scottish guitar rockers, an Italian in California and the return of the Woking Modfather – the best music to catch this month

Music: Portishead, Hooverphonic and the Lo Fat Orchestra

('Sandra Wickert',) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Where do these bands get their names from? We sweep the UK, Belgium, Switzerland and France for our monthly music pick this April

Zhenya Strigalev: 'London's jazz scene is more open than Moscow's'

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

At 28, the prodigious composer and late-night jam-session organiser is the only Russian alto-sax player active on the London scene. We catch him at the launch of his new fusion set ‘Findamorale’ at the London jazz festival

Jean-Benoît Dunckel: 'the English are a hard audience to win over'

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Ten years since the release of Air's first album 'Moon Safari', one half of the French duo, 38, talks Czech audiences, being a vanguard of the European electronic scene and why Air are not like Radiohead

British band The Cure are back

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:52:00 -0000

Plus charming French-Finnish duo 'The Duo', a tasty Swedish morsel of Jens Lekman, chic Danes 'The Fashion' and slightly unusual Italians Avvolte Kristheda - the best bands in March

An Pierlé: 'Downloads kill the industry'

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

The Dutch compared her to Tori Amos. In fact, the 33-year-old Belgian connoisseur of ‘kitsch’ French songs and pop is a theatrical musician who plays the piano sat on a big transparent ball, jumping about whilst tightly clutching her accordion

Music: Morcheeba, Brisa Roché and Moi Caprice

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

San Francisco feelings, Danish bands with French names and a rap collective named after a freedom movement: Europe's best music crop this month

The eastern punk Svieta Songako

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Art is politics. The fourth and last chapter of our portraits of artists who are attempting to resist the ‘cultural Chernobyl’ in a Belarus that is in Alexander Lukashenko’s stranglehold