Sweden: IKEA, blondes and house music.

What do Steve Angello, Spotify, Abba, Pirate Bay, Max Martin and Marcus Schossow have in common?

They are all Swedish musical phenomenons. Some famous for their brilliant music making and some for their sharing of music, both legal and illegal.

According to the latest IFPI figures Sweden now has the world’s fastest growing music market.

The country of the blue and yellow vikings is the third biggest exporter of music around the globe.

Schössow as a kid, planning world dominance.

And while people in the rest of the world  stopped buying albums, the Swedes in 2009 increased their music sales for the first time since year 2000.

Right in the center of this attempt for musical world dominance we find the Swedish House Mafia, Marcus Schossow, John and Jesper Dahlback, AN21, Eric Prydz, Avicii and loads of other talents defining the sound of the dancefloors.

The Swedes has long ago taken over house music.

Listen to this radio story about the subject, done by reporter Sinead Garvan for BBC 6 Music.

Over 80 great chillout tracks for you!

What music gives you that special summer feeling?

It is of course an individual thing, but for me good downtempo sounds like summer. I mean, I listen to slow beats all year long, but there still are some tracks that suits better to sun, smiling people and lazy days.

I’ve made a Spotify playlist with a bunch of tracks I would define as chillout classics. Some obvious picks, like Bent – Swollen and Moby – Porcelain, but also pieces from artists like Jon Hopkins, Røyksopp, Orbital, Air, Boards of Canada, Thievery Corporation and Sebastién Tellier. And many more, of course.

Click here to listen to the playlist “Chillout classics”.

Here’s a video that will make you smile. But it’s also a slap in the face to all those serious faces behind the decks. Loosen up and skip the cool look. This guy sure makes his crowd happy.

A big thank you to Bjørn for the tip.

Check out Oliver Englafjord – a new and undescribed act from Iceland. There’s not much info to find on this guy, other than the dark, slow and tight sound on a couple of YouTube clips. It’s the soundtrack of Eyjafjallajökull. And since the economy is flat out broken, this might be Icelands way of giving something back to frustrated flight passengers.

Check out our Spotify playlist.

We’ve made a Spotify playlist for you. It contains a bunch of more or less new electronica albums that we think you should check out.

Subscribe to Innotune Album Picks May 2010 at Spotify

The new version of Spotify with Facebook integration works quite nice. It’s easier to share your playlists and discover new music through your friends. If you’ve got Spotify, try our fresh playlist and share it with your homies.

At Innotune we feature a lot of single EDM releases through our podcast, but we also enjoy a couple of longplayers every now and then. This playlist gathers some of the most interesting albums of 2010 so far.

Massive Attack and Booka Shade recently released new albums. They are both in there. Orchestral breakbeat masters Hybrid are out with their fourth album Dissapear Here. It’s a neat piece of electronic music, so be sure to check it out.

Since we’re EDM Vikings and all, we had to include a couple of Scandinavian picks. Familjen is a brilliant Swedish act. The guy is out with his second album Mänskligheten, and it’s a great mix of 303s, electro beats, 80s synth stabs and no-way-understandable Swedish lyrics. The Danish compilation Sound of Copenhagen Vol. 4 is an album with fresh electronica from the capital of Denmark.

The Basement Jaxx released Scars last year, and later they gave out what was meant to be the second part of a double album. They decided to split the goods, and the follow up EP Zephyr was a reality. This is the nemesis to Scars. More chilled beats and almost no lyrics, but still as playful as a Jaxx release should be.

And last but not least, Groove Armada is out with Black Light, a darker and more rocked up album than their previous longplayers. The first single Paper Romance stands out as the peak.

Subscribe to Innotune Album Picks May 2010 at Spotify

The five Innotune bloggers.

Time to do a small sum up.

If you’re up for retro EDM, check out Håkon’s post about mind.in.a.box and their album R.E.T.R.O. Ville Lope wrote about performing electronic music live. Pick up a few hints from Ville and Steve Helstrip. We’ve also posted news about a new label from Joonas Hahmo. Marcus Schossow created a sick and quite different track that he decided to give away for free to all Innotune readers. Download Tone Diary – Psykopat.

The podcast episodes of March and April gave you loads of kickin’ dance music and trance heads Airwave and Darude in the mix. No need to hesitate, just download and share now.

Schossow hast angst. Download Psykopat!

Innotune brings you a special treat from Uncle Marcus.

This is your chance to grab a free download of Psykopat. It’s a brand new and unreleased track from Innotune resident Marcus Schossow. And yes, it sounds just as sick as the title implies.

Here’s his own words about the tune: “If you don’t feel sick, you will when you hear this. Anxiety all over.”

Download, enjoy and share.

Get the MP3 here: Tone Diary – Psykopat

Just right click and choose “Save as”. While you’re at it, be sure to download and check out our podcast.

Alt+F4 was signed to trance super label Anjunabeats while Avanto was released under a small finnish independent label Electric Sauna Records.

Soon Joonas started to seek for a new sound and his first solo single The Fusion, released on Andy Moor’s Ava Recordings in 2006 gained a lot of attention from trance and progressive trance jocks around the world. But it wasn’t until he got signed back to Anjunabeats, this time on their Anjunadeep imprint until he got lifted to the big league.

After releasing seven tracks in Anjunadeep it was time for Joonas to seek for new ways to distribute his music. Being closely involved with Electric Sauna, setting up a new label holding his own name wasn’t too difficult a decision. Hahmo Recodings was born.

The labels first release is understandably Joonas’ own production again showing his unique sound combining various different genres in electronic dance music.

Visit the label’s brand new website to hear the previews of the two track EP. Here’s a direct link to Brainflush / Now Or Never.

R.E.T.R.O.

Innotune aren’t known for reviewing all sorts of albums and releases from every corner of the world. When we like something – we put it in our podcast.

However, every now and then something special, different, and fresh pops up. That’s exactly what reached my ears today, and it’s called R.E.T.R.O. by the group mind.in.a.box.

It’s like everyone wants to make retro sounds these days, and then copies some supersaw stabs and arpeggios from back in the 90s. Some of it works, but it’s not what I would call proper retro. Proper retro for me is chip-music, trackers, 8-bit tracks and squeky sounds. If you know what “FT2″ means, then you know what I’m talking about. If not: Go get a history lesson in electronic music production.

Mind.in.a.box is a band consisting of two guys from Austria named Stefan Poiss and Markus Hadwiger. They originally created computer games, but decided to move into music production in 2002. Their sound isn’t exactly what you would call “2002-ish” but that’s what’s great about it! It’s full of 8-bit sounds and oldschool tracker-inspired sounds.

Their brand new album R.E.T.R.O. is just what it says: Retro. If you’re lucky enough to have access to Spotify, you can listen to it right HERE. If not, well, you’ll figure it out…

I strongly suggest you to check out the track “8-bit”, and here’s a snippet of the great lyrics – which is some of the best lyrics I’ve heard in a while:

8 bits are enough for me,
this is not where I should be.
my life is more than information,
I want a life beyond emulation.

Five vikings ready to give you more EDM content.

Our electronic music blog and podcast has been around for six months! Here’s the best of Innotune until now.

Top 5 most read:

1. Dj Mag Top 100 backstage
   A video to cheer you up, posted by Håkon Lofthus.
2. When you put things into perspective
   Marcus Schossow wrote about his everyday life as a travelling DJ. An interesting read for any aspiring producer or DJ.
3. 5 great iPhone apps for music production and inspiration
   Quick reviews of five apps you should own to boost your musical creativity whilst on the move. Written by Endal.
4. What is podcasting?
   This is our view of the phenomenon podcasting. Written by Endal right after we had to shut down the MP3 feed of our podcast.
5. OHM 64 – Yet another MIDI spaceship?
   The first thoughts of Marcus Schossow after trying the OHM 64 MIDI controller.

Our own picks:

• Originality and superstardom
  Ville Lope wants more originality in EDM.
• The evolution of the lazy DJ
  DJ math – the numbers behind modern DJ-ing. A funny read from Thomas Sagstad.
• Are you a DJ or a controllerist?
  Computer DJ-ing is pretty much like controllerism, writes Endal. Or is it?
• Top 7 acoustic covers of electronic music
  Håkon Lofthus has found great acoustic remakes of legendary EDM.
• PLUR – Peace, love, unity and respect
  Thomas Sagstad reminds us about the PLUR of dance music.

The podcast episodes:
Our six audio episodes has all featured tracks we believe you should check out. Plus DJ mixes by Marcus Schossow, Mark Knight, Way Out West, Ville Lope, Thomas Sagstad and AN21.

Thank you for your support. We look forward to serving you more EDM buzz in the future.