The Tough Alliance

Consisting of boyhood companions Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund, the Göteborg pair known as the Tough Alliance, or TTA, shaped their singular mix of pop, electronica, dub, and Caribbean elements across several EPs and albums issued by the local Service imprint, home also to Jens Lekman and Studio. In 2006 the duo launched their own imprint, Sincerely Yours, thereby positioning themselves at the heart of Sweden’s independent music community. Having come together in 2003, they issued their first recording the next year: the Make It Happen EP, whose bright synth-pop title track sat beside a reworking of 50 Cent’s “Many Men” and “Take No Heroes,” a brisk survey of their tastes that opens with Ice Cube, Brian Wilson, and Jackie Wilson before sweeping through an eclectic roster of punk, soul, reggae, Britpop, and rap figures whose collective spirit hints—albeit loosely—at TTA’s overall approach.

That same year’s modest Holiday EP signaled their fondness for twee by reinterpreting Primal Scream’s “Velocity Girl”—the well-known opener of the legendary C86 cassette—under a gender-altered title. Their debut album, 2005’s The New School, delivered buoyant, melody-rich synth pop laced with understated electronic twists. The following year’s New Waves EP, the first project on Sincerely Yours, maintained that spirit, most notably on the buoyant, tropical-tinged “Silly Crimes,” whereas the limited-run LP Escaping Your Ambitions took a different tack, offering a seafaring set of atmospheric yet tuneful electronica.

Through Sincerely Yours, which also issues music by kindred acts such as Air France, the Honeydrips, and Jonas Game, and which assigns catalog numbers to videos, MP3s, blog posts, and one-off apparel or stenciled merchandise, the Tough Alliance promote an innocent vision of uncomplicated beauty, journey, discovery, and, above all, sincerity. Their concerts, however, sometimes clash with this image: the pair have been known to lip-sync over backing tracks while brandishing baseball bats, a reckless stance that has drawn charges of romanticizing violence and hooliganism, partly tied to their self-aware embrace of hip-hop attitudes. The group answered such criticism directly in “Neo-Violence” (“Truly sorry, thought you’d get the wink/It’s in our nature to be out of synch”), a track from their warmly summery third album, A New Chance, which climbed to number 13 on the Swedish charts. Wider notice arrived in 2007, fueled by strong notices for the record and its lead single “First Class Riot,” together with the first U.S. availability of portions of their catalog via Summer Lovers Unlimited.