Is this the death of electro-swing?

Electro Velvet – one part unsuccessful talent show contestant and one part lead singer of a Rolling Stones tribute band – a sure-fire recipe for disaster at Saturday’s Eurovision grand finale in Vinenna. Their song, ‘I’m Still In Love With You’, is pretty much everything wrong with this genre, beloved by fans of the whole vintage aesthetic: it’s twee, on paper the lyrics are like a reject from Cole Porter’s notebook, and it reduces the genre to an embarrassing gimmick.

The saddest part is, after the UK’s inevitably poor performance in the results tomorrow, how are European record labels going to see this niche genre as commercially viable? Aren’t up-and-coming producers going to shy away from sampling the glorious big band sound?

Perhaps electro-swing has had its day in the sun. The first time I caught wind of electro-swing on the UK airwaves was Serbian DJ Gramophonedzie’s faithful reworking of Peggy Lee’s ‘Why Don’t You Do Right?’ which peaked at number one on the dance chart in 2010. In the same month we had ‘We No Speak Americano’ from Australian duo Yolanda Be Cool, which was played to hell all over Europe (I remember being in a remote part of France and hearing the melody drifting on the wind through the valley from a distant town.) Here is a rundown of Europe’s greatest electro-swing artists, presented in classic Eurovision style:

12 points go to France

Caravan Palace claim influence from both French artists Django Rainhardt and Daft Punk and it shows. CP toured the festival circuit extensively towards the end of the last decade with their gypsy jazz-flavoured single ‘Jolie Coquine’. Their second album, Panic (2012), which received shamefully little press coverage, is my de facto greatest electro-swing album. They are notable for creating entirely original music, essentially remixing themselves (although jazz fans will be treated to scraps of the jazz canon, like Stuff Smith’s ‘It Ain’t Right’ on ‘Rock It ForMe’.)

10 points go to the UK

Mr Scruff is the earliest DJ on our list and was notable for his creative use of samples, pasting together some strange and wonderful music, which more or less comprised the soundtrack to epoch-defining sitcom Spaced. You could argue his 1999 album Keep It Unreal kickstarted the genre. It contained the single ‘Get a Move On!’ which sampled Moondog’s ‘Bird’s Lament’.

8 points go to Austria

Parov Stelar’s music is perhaps the most quintessential electro-swing sound and there is no doubt he has played the biggest hand in popularising the genre. A decade ago the BBC named him one of the most promising DJs in Europe; subsequently he has worked with some of the biggest names in pop music.

Finally, it’s “nil points” for Electro Velvet. Although there is no doubt I will have a few drinks and cheer for the UK just like I cheered for Molly last year with a song less inspiring than a high school assembly, I will try my best not to grieve for electro-swing. It will survive, I’m sure, in certain parts of Birmingham.

/Frederick