MOVITS!

swing-jazz // balkan // swedish hiphop

“Django guitar, windy street swing; music for both art directors and for your mother” is how MOVITS! describe their sound. Well-known in Sweden, but unheard of elsewhere, they fold together elements of 1930’s big band swing, roma swing and rhythm & blues, then drop hiphop vocals on top for some serious energetic firepower. The ability to seamlessly interweave a number of genres reminds me of The Cat Empire, but while MOVITS! could relax on their catchy beats, they expertly drop variations (i.e. 2:00 in the video above) that’ll keep you smiling throughout the song.

Music for art directors and your mother
MOVITS! – Äppelknyckarjazz
MOVITS! – Swing För Hyresgästföreningen
+ Purchase/Visit

Posted by Paul Irish on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 under jazz, scandinavian.

31 Responses to “MOVITS!”

  1. Paul Irish said on April 19th at 10:48 pm :

    Thx to Vishal for the find on this.

    Btw- Natasha found the CD available on Hepcat. They ship internationally. (It’s also available inside europe at CDON.eu) I do recommend you get it, as the entire record is a beauty.

  2. Hybernaut said on April 20th at 12:16 am :

    Irresistible! Great find, Paul.

    Aurgasm looks and feels better every time I visit.

  3. Andrée said on April 20th at 7:50 am :

    Great description, one addition though: Must be heard!

  4. Peter said on April 20th at 10:11 am :

    Hey! There -is- intelligence in the universe after all.

    That’s a quick pick-me-up. Thank you.

  5. Natasha said on April 20th at 12:18 pm :

    Fantastic!

    I found this site to purchase the album, which seems to ship worldwide.
    http://www.hepcat.se/index.php?manufacturers_id=371

  6. Paul Irish said on April 20th at 5:03 pm :

    Natasha, great find! thanks. <3

  7. Vlad said on April 21st at 11:36 am :

    Thank you so much for introducing me to this (and many other) artist. They’re so much much fun!

  8. JK said on April 21st at 2:28 pm :

    It relies a bit too much on voices for me, but it’s still great! Now I just have to go learn the language so I can tell what they’re saying…

  9. Benji said on April 22nd at 11:54 am :

    This is an awesome find! My swedish friend had not heard of them. One problem…the hepcat site doesn’t seem to have the album available anymore. :-( Maybe I can persuade my friend to buy and mail me a copy. :-D

  10. Lia said on April 22nd at 2:47 pm :

    I don’t understand a word but it sounds great. That’s the wonder of Music! Cheers.

  11. HÃ¥kan Larsson / hepcat.se said on April 22nd at 6:33 pm :

    MOVIT, Back in stock soon. We only had a hand full that we got when they where playing at Club HepCat in Lund and fore some reason we suddenly ran out :O) . Thanks for refuring to us”¦ and I will eminently order more and get them back in stock next week.

    You can already order and we will ship as soon as they arrive:
    http://www.hepcat.se/product_info.php?products_id=4608

  12. Paul Irish said on April 22nd at 8:46 pm :

    Whoa! Thx for the stock update Benji.

    And thanks HÃ¥kan for hooking us up with more product! Kickass. :)

  13. Julie said on April 24th at 6:13 pm :

    I’m with Lia, I can’t understand a lick of what they’re saying, but the vibe is undeniable. I’ve got it on repeat…

  14. Jason said on April 26th at 10:58 am :

    primo stuff man. i need more upbeat stuffs like this. :)

  15. maybelately said on April 29th at 1:37 am :

    amazing! these guys are brilliant, if unintelligible.

  16. no said on May 3rd at 9:48 pm :

    beginning is very similar to this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6VrgPMLsiE

  17. HÃ¥kan Larsson / hepcat.se said on May 11th at 10:28 am :

    FINALLY! We got some MOVITS CDs. Sorry for the delay. The label and distributor where all out but I managed to get some directly from the band. Pre ordered CDs will be shipped today and a small number is again available at hepcat.se. More available as soon as the re-press arrive, but I don’t dare to promise any date.

  18. windshallah said on May 14th at 2:55 am :

    Always nice to hear something new – and this sits square in the middle of that category for sure. Good stuff – thanks

  19. Lars said on May 17th at 8:03 am :

    Really great find.
    Just for completion: You can find another song on their myspace-page
    http://www.myspace.com/movits
    And by now you can order their album (for a small fortune) on Amazon.com – though they’ll probably just order it from their record label for you.

  20. SwedishTom said on May 19th at 12:17 pm :

    Cool that you like this! I´m from Sweden and I´ve been a fan of this band for some time now.

    They are incredibble live!

    Thanks for a good blog!

  21. Garymon said on July 4th at 11:02 pm :

    Crazy fun. I must have.

  22. Krissi D said on July 27th at 11:10 pm :

    Just saw Movits! on Colbert; they’re awesome! Glad I found your site, so I can find their CD.

  23. kc said on July 28th at 12:29 am :

    These guys are great! I found some of the songs here:

    http://uploading.com/files/5MG94KHN/MOVITS.rar.html

  24. tk said on July 28th at 9:59 am :

    YES!! As a reasonably rabid Cat Empire fan, I say right on to the analysis. Good for Colbert, and hopefully, good for them.

  25. Isaac said on July 29th at 10:35 am :

    Wow. Six-string banjo?

  26. Ian said on August 1st at 3:10 am :

    Just saw that the album is on Amazon for download now:

    http://www.amazon.com/%C3%84ppelknyckarjazz/dp/B002JS7Z3Q/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1249089922&sr=301-2

    And it’s # 8 on Amazon’s Digital Albums chart. Whoa! Go Movits!

  27. Yvonne Connasse said on August 4th at 9:45 pm :

    Wonderful. Thank you so much for posting this! And a beautifully filmed video at that! Sad, that the lighting in this short clip is better than the lighting in the past five “Independent” films I’ve seen in theatres.

  28. tk said on August 5th at 2:59 pm :

    Just received the CD from Sweden (Hepcat) — smost excellent!

  29. Chris Johnson said on November 2nd at 7:30 pm :

    very nice indeed!

  30. Thos Weatherby said on December 5th at 2:11 pm :

    As Zappa would say, “Shut up and play your banjo son”. Mono tone never sounded so . . . mono.

  31. Jennifer said on January 26th at 3:38 pm :

    going to see these guys in Seattle tonight! SO STOKED. Thanks for introducing them!

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