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| quote: | This isn't Spinal Tap, it's Swedish House Mafia
If Rob Reiner wanted to remake This Is Spinal Tap for the 21st century, he wouldn't have Marty DiBergi following a washed-up British rock band; he'd embed him with a European DJ crew.
This thought occurs approximately four minutes into Take One, a documentary – if you will, rockumentary – about popular DJ tag-team Swedish House Mafia. One of their number, Sebastian Ingrosso, is throwing a hissy fit because he hasn't been given his own car to take him from his hotel to a nearby festival site. "Shit fucking organised shit!" spits the portly disc-spinner in the direction of an unfortunate lackey. "I don't want to sit with 15 people; my head is in my DJ set!"
In fairness to him, all great artists probably need a bit of "me time" before taking the stage, but if Take One is anything to go by, a typical Swedish House Mafia DJ set involves little more than three pot-bellied men punching the air to an electro-house version of Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics.
These days, rock bands are extremely wary of any behaviour that could be considered even vaguely Tap-esque, especially when there's a video camera around. As a result, most rock tour films are excruciatingly dull. Take One benefits hugely from the fact that This Is Spinal Tap does not appear to be such a rite of passage among the dance music fraternity. Blissfully unaware of the hapless capers of the band who brought us Stonehenge, the Swedish House Mafia – a kind of smug DJ supergroup featuring Ingrosso, Steve Angello and Axel "Axwell" Hedfors – embrace all the old cliches of life as a touring band with commendable gusto.
Many of the situations they get into will be instantly familiar to fans of Rob Reiner's film. As well as their tantrums and over-earnest dissections of what is essentially some pretty dumb music, they have trouble distinguishing between sexy and sexist ("You wanna party?" inquires Axwell optimistically of every single female he encounters, while Ingrosso rocks up to one venue and declares, with no apparent irony, "I'm going to fuck this nightclub in the pussy"); they invoke the dance music equivalent of turning it up to 11 ("I don't wanna hear the bass, I wanna feel it"); and even find themselves booked to play somewhere called Mystery Land and having to share the stage with a man dressed as Big Bird from Sesame Street.
Of course, one crucial difference between Take One and This Is Spinal Tap is that Swedish House Mafia are currently at the peak of their popularity, so there are no awkward moments when nobody turns up to an in-store signing or one of their girlfriends insists on playing tambourine. If the film-makers return to follow Swedish House Mafia in 10 years' time, the results should be even funnier. |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/201...-mafia-take-one
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