The Day After The Sabbath 75 Midgarðsormr Swedish Special

The Day After The Sabbath 75 Midgarðsormr Swedish Special

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TDATS 75: Midgar�sormr ?[?Sweden 1?]? by Rich Aftersabbath on Mixcloud

For Vol 72, I concentrated on Denmark [edit: Here is Norway,  Finland and Iceland]. Here is the second in my Nordic quadrilogy, a Swedish special. The name is from Norse mythology, Midgar�sormr is the sea serpent that encircles the world, which its feared will fall apart if he ever releases his bite on his tail. Lets hope that doesnt happen in the next hour at least.

What has become clear is that Sweden has by far the largest and most varied rock history of all the norse countries, so its been a pretty mammoth task listening through it all to find the right-sounding bands for this one. Im sure there is still a lot more to find so dont expect this to be the last Svenska volume... Swedens Progg movement was one of the reasons. It can be likened in many ways to Germanys Krautrock scene; musical collectives exploring ways to use avant-garde rock music in their left-wing, anti-commercial protests against the establishment. While the sound of the Progg movement is not the driving force for this comp, it appears in a few tacks and if you want to know more I recommend a box set called "The Essence of Swedish Progressive Music 1967-1979: Pregnant Rainbows for Colourblind Dreamers".


TRACKS
01. Baltik - Leslie Briggs (1973)
       from album baltik
02. Bj�rn Famne - Vampire (1975)
       from e.p.
03. November - Starka Tillsammans (1972)
       from album 6:e november
04. Asoka - Tvivlaren (1971)
       from album asoka
05. Wildmarken - Vad Vill Dom (1977)
       from album och nu p� sjuttiotalet
06. Epizootic - Sunset, Emotion (1976)
       from album daybreak
07. EF Band - Self Made Suicide  (1979)
       single
08. Kebnekaise - Kommunisera (1971)
       from album resa mot ok�nt m�l
09. Neon Rose - Night Birds (1975)
       from album reload
10. 4 Ever - Vansiniga Berta (1974)
       single
11. The Outsiders - Inside Of Me (1968)
       single
12. Midsommar - Till Morsan (1972)
       from album belsebub �r l�s ...
13. Scorpion - Hey Girl Im Ugly (1970)
       from album i am the scorpion
14. Charlie & Esdor - Fuck The Cops (1970)
       from retrospective charlie & esdor
15. R�vjunk - Sn�sp�r (Del 1,2 Och 3) (1977)
       from album uppsala stadshotell brinner

We start with a band that has a link to Swedens most successful musical export, and to a few bands that have appeared on the blog. Baltik was a one-off studio project that included occasional Abba guitarist Janne Schaffer and Roxy Music/Quatermass/Hard Stuff/Ian Gillan Band bassist John Gustafson. Janne played guitar for many of Abbas hits and is a well known prog-jazz guitarist in his own right, he also worked with John Gustafson in the Swedish band Ablution. Baltiks "Leslie Briggs" is a great heavy opener which can easily be described as the earliest in prog-metal, though not typical of their album which was a curious mixture of folkish prog with a few heavy moments.

Bj�rn Famne e.p.

The most information I can find on Bj�rn Famnes Vampire is on oscarowskis Youtube clip : "..private release recorded in the religious Falk studios in Sweden... the rest of the tracks veer towards classic guitar (no other instruments) and it is believed that this song was recorded when the sound engineer was out to have a coffe or something... what would the "almost priests" working there have said if they found out... hahaha. Compiled on the great Who will buy these wonderful evils...."

Stockholms November have appeared here before, way back on Vol2 and here is another stunning timeless sounding track that sounds as though it could have been recorded last week by a contemporary stoner rock band, though it is actually from 1972. November really were a talented bunch and had a distinctive approach to their heavy blues-tinged riffs. Though they were only together for three years, thankfully they made three albums in that time. The awesome production job is the other aspect that belies this recordings age.

Asoka were from Malm� and their background was in older band Taste Of Blues. The sound changed a lot and resulted in their manic and unusual s/t album which had a playful air while maintaining the heaviness. Wildmarken were from the Sollefte� area. Its been hard to find info on them even though they were together for 5 years and had two albums on EMI, there is a little here on progg.se. They were pretty average commercial hard-ish rock but I do like this track "Vad Vill Dom" (Eng: What do they want?) which has a cool phased riff and menacing, grinding pace. Tomas Jansson and Janne �hman went on to Circus who made one e.p.

Next up is a couple of linked tracks; from Epizootic and E.F. Band. They both included Bengt Fischer and P�r Ericsson. Little is noted regarding Epizootic, they had one apparently self-released album called Daybreak with some multi-instrumental prog and their track here Sunset, Emotion is a heavy hammond-assited slab. EF Band (EF was derived from the first letter of Ericcson and Fischers names) were based in Gothenburg. They made some impact in the NWOBHM scene, English member Roger Marsden went on to Angel Witch and guitarist Andy La Rocque (aka Anders Allhage) joined King Diamond. They were included on the 1st instalment of the classic 1980 Metal For Muthas compilations and had three albums before breaking up in 1987. 1979s Self Made Suicide was their first single which was recorded at Red Ball studio in Shropshire, UK.

Kebnekaise (the name taken from that of Swedens hightest mountain) have quite a prominent place in Swedish rock history stretching back to the mid sixties. They evolved from Baby Grandmothers, who was one of the countrys first heavy psych bands and supported Jimi Hendrixs Swedish appearances in 1968 along with Mecki Mark Men, another of Swedens formative heavy psych acts. Kebnekaise resulted from a coming together of members of these bands and some more including Homo Sapiens and Tages, an accomplished band that were Swedens best answer to The Beatles.

The Baby Grandmothers guitarist Kenny H�kansson was the driving force of Kebnekaise and as was popular in the progg scene, folk influences crept in too. Its hard to describe the first Kebnekaise album, but its definitely unique. Theres elements of everything that was happening in commercial and underground progressive rock of the time, and plenty of extremity, but its all infused with quirky Swedish melody and personality. For instance, the track Resa Mot Ok�nt M�l is fast and brutal by anyones standards and its over-laid with pinkyn perky style speeded up vocals.

Neon Rose

Stockholms Neon Rose were a band clearly showing the mid-seventies development of hard rock into speedy heavy metal, as the blistering Night Birds demonstrates. They were lucky enough to get signed to Vertigo almost immediately on formation. After listening through all their recorded output, its clear they had the musical chops to make it. The problem seems to me that none of their 3 albums were quite consistent enough to adequately maintain the Mot�rhead-like intensity which they hinted at. A good example of where a little more quality control could have made all the difference.

4 Ever were the initial incarnation of Stockholms Solid Ground who I used back on Vol28. The strange thing is that the two tracks they recorded as 4 Ever sound a lot more professional than the album that was released under the Solid Ground moniker two years later. If anyone out there can explain, please do... Stokholms The Outsiders are up next, they only recorded a few singles and both sides of their On My Magic Carpet / Inside Of Me 1968 single are excellent heavy slices of freakbeat punk.

Scorpion

Gothenburgs Midsommar began life focusing on political subjects with their first album but the next one in 1972 was musically far stronger and rocked hard in places with hints of November vibe in the guitar riffs, and some pretty good brass backing it up. Scorpions I Am The Scorpion one-album curio was produced by american producer and cult music figure Kim Fowly, who later managed The Runaways, how it came about that he was involved in this obscutity is still for me to find out.... It also has drummer Pelle Holm who was in a late lineup of Kebnekaise. Hey Girl Im Ugly is a catchy piece of acid-bluesy rock.

Charlie & Esdor

Charlie & Esdors first recorded music appeared on the Festen p� G�rdet live album, a collection of performances from Stokholms 1970 outdoor festival, which according to Wikipedia, was inspired by the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock..... and came to serve as something of a unifying starting point for the progg leftist progressive music movement. In 1972 they made an e.p. called Gr�nt �r sk�nt and in 2005 Mellotronen released a great retrospective which shows the duos varied skills in heavy folk, blues and rock, from which Fuck The Cops is a particularly scathing instrumental.

R�vjunk

We wind up this one with Uppsalas R�vjunk, which literally means Fox Piss in english. They began around 1970 and played many of the progg movements free festivals but did not record until 1977. At this time they were in a quandary about whether to follow the new punk trends or continue with their earlier space rock sounds so their only album, the home-studio made Uppsala Stadshotell Brinner ended up as punk on one side and space rock on the other. Both are great though and they were clearly good at what ever they did.

01. Baltik - Leslie Briggs (1973)
       from album baltik
02. Bj�rn Famne - Vampire (1975)
       from e.p.
03. November - Starka Tillsammans (1972)
       from album 6:e november
04. Asoka - Tvivlaren (1971)
       from album asoka
05. Wildmarken - Vad Vill Dom (1977)
       from album och nu p� sjuttiotalet
06. Epizootic - Sunset, Emotion (1976)
       from album daybreak
07. EF Band - Self Made Suicide  (1979)
       single
08. Kebnekaise - Kommunisera (1971)
       from album resa mot ok�nt m�l
09. Neon Rose - Night Birds (1975)
       from album reload
10. 4 Ever - Vansiniga Berta (1974)
       single
11. The Outsiders - Inside Of Me (1968)
       single
12. Midsommar - Till Morsan (1972)
       from album belsebub �r l�s ...
13. Scorpion - Hey Girl Im Ugly (1970)
       from album i am the scorpion
14. Charlie & Esdor - Fuck The Cops (1970)
       from retrospective charlie & esdor
15. R�vjunk - Sn�sp�r (Del 1,2 Och 3) (1977)
       from album uppsala stadshotell brinner

Thanks for listening, Rich.

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