Why You Shouldn’t Confuse Axwell / Ingrosso With Swedish House Mafia

Quite famously, Swedish House Mafia played their final (for the time being) set together as a DJ/production trio at the 2013 Ultra Music Festival in Miami. Since parting ways, Steve Angello has signed and split from Columbia Records, with Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso partnering as the Axwell / Ingrosso tandem, signing to Def Jam Recordings, and preparing to release an artist album together. Now that visuals for their twin lead singles “Can’t Hold Us Down” and “On My Way” have arrived, it’s time to really sit down and figure out what, if anything, separates Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso’s project from defunct, globally dominant trio Swedish House Mafia.

Foremost, one must consider what Steve Angello is presently doing as a key to understanding what the Axwell / Ingrosso combination intends to create. Since the release of single “Wasted Love,” Angello has been promising “indie” and “club” sounds and has been critical of the American-led, pro-festival movement. To wit, Angello’s just-announced 2015 live dates are all club-based, proving that he’s willing to back up his very caustic and honest statements.

Conversely, we see Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso signing to Def Jam, debuting tracks at Ultra Japan, and releasing what looks to be a mini-film of video clips that, according to a statement released by the pair, required the duo to train for fight scenes with ninjas on the isle of Ibiza. Clearly, more maximal than minimal, this difference is important in understanding what distinguishes Axwell / Ingrosso from Swedish House Mafia.

Similar to Axwell / Ingrosso, Swedish House Mafia released films, too. However, Until One and Until Now are more humanizing documentaries than Hollywood-style (and Fight Club-comparable) rock ‘em, sock ‘em affairs. Axwell / Ingrosso’s continued use of film can be seen as an homage to Swedish House Mafia, but seemingly true to the desires of the twosome, it is progressing in a much different, less reality-based direction.

Track-wise is where the real differences are apparent. The first single attributed to Axwell / Ingrosso was “We Came, We Raved, We Loved,” which Swedish House Mafia played in sets for at least a year prior to their final performance at Ultra. The song reveals something intriguing about the Swedish House Mafia process: the idea that tracks were not all necessarily created by a trio working in concert, but rather attributed to one.

As a solo artist, Steve Angello’s “Wasted Love” is breezy yet thumping, more “traditionally” house than hard electro. The track could easily be a modern update of “Leave the World Behind,” the 2010 groundbreaker credited to Angello, Ingrosso, Axwell and Laidback Luke. Of course, dig back even further into Angello’s crates and find his also notable Laidback Luke collaboration: the pulse-pounding, techno-acid pop take on Robin S’ 1993 hit single “Show Me Love.” As compared to the work of his former mates, the sound and feel are noticeably different, indeed.

Axwell and Ingrosso’s two singles reflect more of the manic pop-meets-rave-meets-festival energy that led to the trio’s massive success. One listen to Sebastian Ingrosso’s 2012 and 2013 massive synth leads and thunderous, bassline-driven festival smashes “Calling” (with Alesso) and “Reload” (with Tommy Trash), and their similarities in composition and feel to the Axwell / Ingrosso material released to date showcase the harder electro, less classic house style of the Ingrosso and Axwell duo, as compared to Angello.

You’re wrong if you believe that pairing two-thirds of Swedish House Mafia just means new Swedish House Mafia tracks that don’t feature Steve Angello. The three worked as a trio because, as we can now clearly tell, they struck a classic house-to-hard electro balance. Now with Angello out of the equation, that one-time balance is clearly gone. This doesn’t diminish the music, though; it just creates a true departure from a very successful past and conceptually leaves Swedish House Mafia behind.

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