I mentioned my love for Electro Swing in my last blog where I talked about how I discovered the jazz musician and composer Bix Beiderbecke. But what is Electro Swing and why do I like it so much?
What is Electro Swing
I originally explored Electro Swing, also known as Swing House Music, as a musical genre in a post for Our Arts Magazine. In that article, I explain that Electro Swing is a way of combining old and new by sampling of earlier music (particularly 1920s and 1930s) and film dialogue soundtracks into dance floor music. Specifically, mixing them into hip hop, house and EDM (electronic dance music).
It makes for good foot tapping and is dance-floor focused music. I have been known to paint in my studio to this music too. Mind you, it leads to long pauses between brush strokes at times while I dance around. Even the dogs are used to me dancing around the kitchen while cooking to this music.
Electro Swing Artists
My favorite artist of this genre is Parov Stelar who is one of the pioneers of this music genre, but I also like Caravan Palace and Dimie Cat. The music they make is an interesting combination of extracts from earlier music/dialogue, traditional jazz instruments and DJ mixing techniques.
Electro Swing Dancers
There is even a dance movement that has sprung up to go with the music known as ‘NeoSwing Dance’. It is a combination of a mix of dance moves from the Lindy Hop, the Charleston, Jive and many more dances. A well known dancer is Sven Otten who is also known as ‘JustSomeMotion’. He is also well known to us here in Italy as he is the brand ambassador for TIM the Italian telephone network and we see him all over the advertisements.
Example of Electro Swing Music and Dance
This video gives a good illustration of the music and the dancing. It combines Sven Otten with Parov Stelar.
Parov Stelar Samples Bix Beiderbecke
And just to bring this all back ground in a neat circle, I found a Parov Stelar track called ‘The Phantom’ which samples a 1927 Bix Beiderbecke piece called ‘At The Jazz Band Ball’. You can listen to both tracks on whosampled.com and see where the extract came from and how it was used.
But I will leave you today with one of my all time favorite Electro Swing tracks which just happens to be called ‘Catgroove’. By Parov Stelar, of course.
Before you go
My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.
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Thank you for reading!
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