From Sweden: Music Is The Weapon - Sweet Choral Motion

 Afrobeat: It’s the best answer to a small-town Swedish winter.

So says Music is the Weapon, a Nordic response to the brash message and sound of Nigeria’s Fela Kuti. A twelve-member strong team of top instrumentalists, the group’s core first formed in a remote town far north of Stockholm, and turned from a good-time one-off into Sweden’s best (and perhaps only) Fela-inspired outfit.

The band brings a distinct skill and savvy to the maverick musician’s signature sound, crafting hard-hitting instrumental originals with sing-along choruses. In a scene with few huge (and very few hugely funky) bands, Music Is The Weapon packs clubs and converts the casually curious into wildly dancing fans. Tracks like their latest single, “We Will Never Stop” rip through rousing anthems, offering a blisteringly funky alternative to the mainstream.

“We’re not fighting the same fight in Sweden as Fela did in Nigeria, of course, but I feel that in some way it’s political to play this kind of music in clubs here,” explains Christopher Ali Thorén, sax player and co-founder of Music Is The Weapon. “We give people the experience of big live band playing raw funk. For me it’s an act of resistance all its own.”

Music Is The Weapon have tapped into a previously unknown demand for something radically different and deeply funky. ”For one of our first shows in Stockholm, we thought we’d just play, and people can come if they come,” Thorén recalls. They watched the people come pouring into the club. “I realized then that people are starving for something like this.”

Music Is The Weapon

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A little left of our usual trajectory (usual direction - solid Scandinavian soul searching), we discovered a Swedish band who managed to turn our heads. With a new album out now, Music Is The Weapon have also taken a new direction.

Through a new collaboration with producer Sven Johansson, the band has been able to channel his energy through the music console. The challenge has been to refine the ideas and pick out the songs from the massive sound stage Music Is The Weapon has become known for.

Now the dynamic band’s fifth album, Sweet Choral Motion, aims to further explore the sound that was born on the last album "Moving Foundation and Outer Space". This time they have streamlined the new album which has led to a whole new sound with the string arrangements now intermingled with vibrant percussion.

The result is a creative mix of spacejazz, afrobeat and soul. The intricate layers of instrumentation should also be a perfect test of your speakers clarity.

scandinaviansoul.com

musicistheweapon.bandcamp.com

From Sweden: Music Is The Weapon - EP1

At night, Music Is The Weapon gazed into the dark. The stars became torches. Out there they found Sven Johansson at Fashionpolice Records, a producer who dynamited their minds to perceive new galaxies of sound and music. Voices whispered in every corner of the universe, in every language that ever existed. And Music Is The Weapon listened.

musicistheweapon

Tracklist

01. Black hole
02. Neptune
03. Ghost
04. Love

Check out at their bandcamp page!

Music Is the Weapon - Moving Foundations and Outer Space

The eleven-piece afrobeat machine Music Is The Weapon is due to release their second album.

"Moving Foundations and Outer Space" journeys through galaxies made up of sound, occasionally trespassing obscure sealed off areas therein where hidden bea(s)ts are to be discovered by the brave listener.

 The new set of songs is a melting pot of ecstatic percussion, wild horn adventures and psychadelic organ lines.
Music Is The Weapon is constantly challenging concepts and whatever you expect of this new release expect something else.

"Moving Foundations and Outer Space" challenges you to let go, shake that body of yours and awaken the
spirit of rhythm within, and above all, love afrobeat.

musicistheweapon.bandcamp.com

Tracklist

01. The Elk and the Vault
02. Upside Down
03. Vredens Duvor
04. Space Is Yellow
05. We Will Never Stop
06. Words
07. Horn of Africa
08. Do You, Be You
09. Riva ett fa¦èr
10. The Gauntlet


Music is the weapon from Damien Priest on Vimeo.

Swedish Afrobeat: "Music Is The Weapon"

Band

This 12 man music-collective started out as a tribute band to one of Africa’s greatest musicians ever known, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. With time, they went from exclusively playing his music and his music only to creating afrobeat music of their own.

This powerful, strong, 12 man band has moved on to being a innovative, creative band, with the same spirit as before, now even stronger with a personal sound. Taking Afrobeat music into the 21st century creating their own version, interpreting what afrobeat music is to them, giving the music Fela Kuti ones created a new sound.
Music is the Weapon is a band built on friendship, love, energy and strong musicians with passion for Afrobeat.

This January they recorded their debut album, exclusively own material. The demand for this soulful band was larger than expected and long before the album release in the beginning of May the band received a lot of attention from newspapers, blogs, radio stations (such as P3 Rytm and P3 Lab).

So far, all of Music is the Weapons performances have been crowded and sold out, and with an audience more than satisfied. Music is the weapon is now looking forward to spreading their energy, love and music around the world.

With Music is the weapon on stage, you can count on, a captivating, energetic horn section, each horn player with a different sound and character, this band is swinging for real. With magic rhythms in the spirit of Tony Allen, you find yourself dancing like you’ve never danced before, to rough, passionate, Nigerian funk.

Source



Tracklist

01. Alla måste dansa
02. Around the fire
03. The Mighty Sparrow
04. En Cowboy i Holmsveden
05. Song for Fela Kuti
06. Copyriot
07. Slå på trumman!
08. G.F.
09. Baron Trenck