Anger as a source of energy: introducing the charged club music of KABLAM

KABLAM has been rocking dancefloors as a DJ since 2013, specialising in the underground, mashed-up, genre-inclusive, cut-up style popularized by artists affiliated with labels like Fade To Mind and club nights like Janus. She’s also one of the residents of the latter and cut her teeth at its Berlin parties alongside the likes of Lotic and M.E.S.H. Now she plays all over the world.

As a producer, the 28-year-old has just completed her debut release, the 'Furiosa' EP, which comes courtesy of the nascent Janus label. Like her Janus associates, her sound is born out of club aesthetics and energy, but takes it to an altogether more unexpected and interesting place. Gregorian chant might rub up against drilling drum hits, or drones may form the basis for soundtrack sensibilities with unidentifiable percussion sources, expanding on the possibilities of the dance.

These days, the Swedish artist has taken everything she learned from her years in Berlin back to Stockholm, where she currently lives and is actively involved with the city’s own burgeoning electronic music scene. Lisa Blanning spoke with her via Skype for an inside perspective of her homeland as well as a peek into her burgeoning career and the forces behind it. We've also got the first play of EP track 'Intensia'.

Right now, Sweden is actually having a bit of a moment in terms of interesting music, especially Stockholm.

I used to have no musical connections here, but like you said, the city is actually having a bit of moment. There's Staycore and also I'm part of Drömfakulteten, an all-female, non-binary studio collective. So I met all these people that are making really cool stuff. Now, the Swedish music scene has a bigger impact on me than it used to.

The perception of the country is that it’s this great place that has all of these social democracy benefits. Certainly one of the most progressive places in the world that I can think of when it comes to gender parity, but what was it like growing up in a country that's so white?

This image that people have of Sweden is not very accurate. Sure, Sweden’s been progressive in some ways when it comes to the welfare system and gender politics, but it’s still very racist. Also the Social Democratic party had this idea about folkhemmet, which basically means a type of “good home”, a standard, for everyone. But this was for white people. Roma people for instance, didn’t fit into this. There’s this whole fucked-up history of racism in Sweden that not many people know about. I’m just recently starting to learn about it. And as you might know the current government [Social Democrats and Green Party] closed the borders for refugees. And the racist party Sweden Democrats are bigger than ever.