This weekend, Julien introduced me to an interesting Nordic take on minimal techno called Skweee. It is, essentially, a happy, retro-synth loving genre that goes in for funk- and soul-powered rhythms and melodies. From what the Internets tell me, its blowing up in Sweden in Finland, grace á the label Flogsta Danshall and its producer-founder Pavan – you can checkout an interview with him over at DJMag.com.

The first track I heard was “Muni” by the Stockholm artist, Beem. It immediately reminded me of some of the late-90s output of the Swedish leftfield-IDM label, Dot: they share the same effusive, borderline-cheesy take on stutter-funk. It is, to be sure, very white on its face, but once each track is built up there is an undeniable, downtempo groove that begs a little livingroom shuffle.

Not all skweee is so friendly, however. Spend a little time with the player at Nation of Skwee, or watch some live shows on the YouTube, and you’ll that some veers towards piercingly-acid noise, some to broken-beat hip-hop pretense, and some that is simply uninspired, high-treble noodling. This is to be expected in any young subgenre, especially when one hallmark of electronic music overall is isolated, bedroom amateurs, but I’ll give the project the benefit of the doubt.

“Minimal”, as she is spoke today in France, has in my experience become such an overwhelmingly hard, funless region of unending arpeggios and unreformed fours-on-the-floor, that the goofy risk taking of a few Norseman comes as a welcome change. Flogsta Danshallis bringing a stable down to SONAR in May, and I will be curious what effect that southern exposure has on skweee’s prospects for the rest of the year.

You can download Beem’s album at his website. Enjoy!