Swedish electro pop sensation Robyn is offering her fans a first in song interactivity. To celebrate her latest single ‘We Dance To The Beat’, Robyn is hosting a unique interactive experience on her website www.robyn.com.
In what seems to be the next step on from the music video, fans can control over 100+ video clips and sounds simultaneously – all in synch to ‘We Dance To The Beat’. Users can interact with the site, manipulating the images and changing the sounds and can even save their own beats and add them to an ever growing stream of individual user-created modifications. The whole thing becomes a hybrid of a video, interactive website and live remix.
There’s only so far as we can go to describe this ourselves, it really needs to be seen to be fully understood. To get involved in the stream, head here now.
After her classic self-titled album unexpectedly rescued her from a lost decade in corporate oblivion, an empowered Robyn took control of all aspects of her career and began piling up the songs for the follow-up. Aware of the changing ways in which people are consuming music, the Swedish star decided to change the traditional album/single process by releasing ‘Body Parts’ divided into three mini-albums through the year, hoping for a more immediate delivery of her songs to her fans as soon as they were recorded.
The project didn’t exactly bring Robyn back to the top of the charts, and the third installment became a compilation of former two with a few new songs instead. However, ‘Body Parts’ has turned her into a fixture of the blogosphere, building up the excitement by virtually dropping a new song online every week or two. Among them her excellent collaborations with likes of Diplo, Röyksopp and Snoop Dogg plus three superb singles of which ‘Dancing On My Own’ was the best and most popular.
‘Dancing On My Own’ tried to capture the feeling of being lonely in a club and was inspired by gay disco anthems from the likes of Donna Summer and Sylvester as well as Ultravox’s electronic pop gem from the 80’s ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’. The song flaunts an irresistible synth beat and one of the catchiest choruses of the year. Another triumph to add to the singer’s impressive CV.
While the first of the three mini albums she plans to release through the year is still fresh, Robyn has unveiled her new single, previewing the second offering of ‘Body Parts’.
‘Hang With Me’ has just leaked online, right after the Swedish pop star appeared on the popular David Letterman show in the States and it’s just another brilliant example of the diminutive singer’s remarkable talent for writing perfect pop tunes. We were already familiar with it thanks to a stripped-down, acoustic version that was included in the first part of the trilogy, but it greatly benefits from its new electropop makeover.
The track will be released on September 6th and looks set to join ‘Dancing On My Own’ and ‘With Every Heartbeat’ as another of Robyn’s career peaks.
Five years after her astonishing comeback album rescued her career from ‘one hit wonder’ oblivion, Robyn is ready to return to our radios. After generating a string of pop classics that included ‘Be Mine’ and the UK number one, ‘With Every Heartbeat’, the Swedish star hasn’t been resting on her laurels. Instead, Robyn’s been writing tunes with such dedication that three records worth of new songs are planned to be released this year.
The content of the first album, ‘Body Talk PT 1’, is slowly being revealed. First we heard the Diplo produced and Caribbean tinged ‘Dancehall Queen’, which was then followed by ‘Fembot’. Now Robyn has unveiled ‘None Of Dem’ - another collaboration with popular Scandinavian electronic duo Röyksopp who previously worked with Robyn on the international smash, ‘The Girl & The Robot’.
The quality of this triple preview and the fact that none of these songs are the official choice as first single – an honour that will fall on ‘Dancing On My Own’ – makes it easy to guess Robyn’s fans are in for a huge treat.
You can listen to ‘None Of Dem’ here. ‘Body Talk PT 1’ and the single ‘Dancing On My Own’ will be released on June 14th.
I Blame Coco is the alias of one Coco Sumner; who has so far been mostly known for being the daughter of Sting and Trudie Styler and her previous dalliances with infamous indie urchin, Peter Doherty. However this is all set to change with the release of her debut single ‘Caesar’ – released February 1st on Island Records. The track sees the young singer team up with Swedish songstress Robyn for a cut of fast paced electro-pop. While being the offspring of rock royalty would irk some people, Coco clearly hasn’t let it affect her at all. Addressing any potential critiques with the opening line “I want to annoy… and I’m going to enjoy it”. Any fans of 80’s infused songwriters such as Ladyhawke & Little Boots will find plenty here to enjoy, while any naysayers should at least hold back their thoughts until the album is released later in the year.
With Sweden as its engine, the whole of Scandinavia has established itself as a growing force in popular music with flourishing pop, indie and dance scenes adding up to their traditionally buoyant metal crowd. From the Balearic sound revival of Studio, Air France or The Tough Alliance, to The Knife’s leftfield electronica; the Nordic countries’ growing impact on Today’s international music has reached a new high, unseen since the days of ABBA.
Shazam embarks on a refreshing mini-tour through recent and imminent releases coming from those chilling territories. Read more…
