I totally concur with Andrew! I've spoken to Robyn a couple of times
over the years, once when she was a kid. She is an incredible live
performer, she really rips, has an amazing voice. She has totally
taken control of her own business and is v hands on. She had a major
trying to turn her into something else. She's super intelligent - her
parents are involved in avant garde theatre. Her club shows here in
Melbourne (she's toured 3 times in the last year) sold out on word of
mouth. I think the album is kinda like Madonna/ Jellybean era - but
Robyn is a superior singer. She belongs to a new wave of plucky
female acts like Santogold, MIA, who are very much striking out on
their own. BTW she wasn't as into the Basement Jaxx song but I
thought that rocked - it samples an Eastern European gypsy tune. Hey
U, it is called I think. She took the name Konichiwa from a skit by
Dave Chappelle as she is a big fan. She actually broke through in the
US with her debut album in the mid-90s and was described as a white
Mary J, but I think she felt very uncomfortable being seen as R&B at
all. She's a real sweetie.
On 13/05/2008, at 4:27 AM, Andrew Duke wrote:
Speaking of non-313 music (re: mentions of Crystal Castles and Four
Tet),
I've been thoroughly enjoying the self-titled 4th album from
Sweden's Robyn.
Am telling everybody about it I can (see more below), to be honest.
It has been available since 2005, but has only been out in North
America
for the last couple of weeks. Every track is solid; out of 14
tracks, 8 have
been issued as a single somewhere. One of the official remixes of
Snoop Doog's
recently-mentioned-on-this-list song "Sensual Seducation/Sexual
Eruption"
features Robyn on vocals as does Britney Spears' "Piece Of Me", so you
might have already heard her voice. Plus she's sung on tracks for
numerous
others including Basement Jaxx.
Anyway, if you don't know her story, she did 3 albums (since 1997)
for major labels
and struck out on her own with her own Konichiwa label for this new
album after
getting fed up with her majors. She's been writing and performing
her own songs
since she was 13; yes it is pop music, but it with a fresh take on
the music
(producers range from The Knife to Klaus Ahlund to Kleerup) and her
lyrics--again, written by herself--are a twist on the usual pap of
Britney,
Christina, et al. Example choruses that the other female pop
artists wouldn't
be able to pull off: "my new favorite thing to do/is wasting
my time with a bum like you"; "I should have seen it coming down/I
should
have f*ckin' known"; "who's that girl that you think you love/I
know there's
no such girl". She's known for performing acoustic versions of her
dance
songs, too, which you wouldn't see many doing. And she does it very
well.
I'd liken her to Neneh Cherry (a big fave of mine, and there's news
Cherry
will have a new album out by the end of the year) before I'd
compare her to
Britney, Christina, et al, actually. And she's smart about her
remixers:
Drop The Lime does a take on her current single, for example, Jori
Hulkkonen
has done a mix, etc. Her myspace page currently has her newest North
American single, a medley of the 3 remixes of it, a cover of The
Police's
"Message In A Bottle", the Snoop Dogg remix she's featured on, and
clips
from every track on the album. I could go on and on, but hopefully
if you
haven't already heard her material, you'll check these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robyn
http://www.myspace.com/robynmyspace
http://www.robyn.com/
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=robyn&search_type=
Andrew
--
Andrew Duke--sound design/recording/composition/production courses:
http://andrew-duke.com/course.html
Andrew Duke--Chain Reaction downloadable sound FX samplepack:
http://www.audiobase.com/product/SACR
Andrew Duke--Consumer vs. User album:
http://www.phthalo.com/cat.php?cat=phth40
Andrew Duke--columns/features/commentaries/more:
http://cognitionaudioworks.com/read.html
http://linkedin.com/in/AndrewDukeCognitionAudioworks
http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew_Duke/852160229
http://myspace.com/AndrewDuke
http://myspace.com/CognitionAudioworks
