Region specific compilations are often very hit and miss, with more misses than hits. There might be some nuggets hidden away there, but it's admittedly a dirty work finding them. Also, their main purpose is often demonstrating the musical breadth of a region, meaning they're usually stylistically inconsistent. That certainly goes for the four discs presented here.
From Dalarna in the middle of Sweden
comes this ragbag collection of blues, punk, heavy metal, post punk
pop,ska and FM rock. The best known bands are P-Nissarna (punk) and
Hellzephyrs Rockorkester (pop/rock with Janne Goldman and Arbete &
Fritid connections). Gathering Freak's ”Skywalker” is a slightly
under-rehearsed heavy metal track but still probably the best cut on
the album, featuring future metal band Six Feet Under's vocalist
Björn Lodin.
Featured artists: Steve Roper Band / Döbelns / The Pinheads / Arrows / Ma Connection / Nylle & Nallarna / Peppes / Vampires / Europa / Street Level / Boi Top / Checkpoint Charlie / Caligulas Barn / La Machine / Incontinents / Unknown artist
Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental
Probably the most interesting item in this quartet of V/A's, but also the one hardest to find as it was released on tape only. It was the first issue ever on Brute Force Records that later would morph into Garageland Records. Some names wellknown to progg heads here, most notably Steve Roper Band, Ma Connection and Checkpoint Charlie, while The Pinheads might be the most widely familiar name overall. As expected, ”Umeå Rocks, Vol. 1” is all over the place genre-wise but there's a couple of interesting tracks here. Ma Connection's ”Cascade Of Love” is a great slow blues that might be better and moodier than anything on their album ”8691” with some really heartfelt guitar playing from Jan Bjuhr. Vampires were a very obscure synth based band with bass and electric guitar augmenting the cold synthetic sound that (to my knowledge) only ever released this one track ”Stake At The Hard”, an ominous instrumental with faint krautrock traits, almost like a drowsy post-apocalyptic Cosmic Overdose. Incontinents are in a similar vein only with a lighter mood and more adept lead guitar. Not as good as Vampires but still one of the highlights of the tape.
The unknown band at the end of the tape is exactly that, an unknown band. Whoever they are, they deliver a pretty bad cover of The Who's ”Substitute”.
I don't think there ever was a second
”Umeå Rocks” volume.
Featured artists: Abcess / Paj-Cana / Snubbelfot / Omar / Luftgrop / Chronicle / Moder Jord / Akupunktur / Fladderhälarna
Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: **
Värnamo is part of the Swedish bible belt, situated in the Småland region. Although all bands on this album are from Värnamo, there's not much religion to be found here. The best known group here is Omar featured with one of their better tracks, ”Opium”. They're actually one of the most accomplished bands in this lot too, as many of the other contributing combos surely would have benefitted from a few more rehearsal hours. The emphasis is on rock sometimes reaching into punk and hard rock, although there are occasional ska/reggae influences heard in Abcess and Luftgrop. The most ambitious track comes from hard rock/prog outfit Moder Jord – actually a bit too ambitious for their technical prowess. The curiously named ”Fiskmuskler” (=”fish muscles”) is nevertheless one of the best tracks in this generally pedestrian collection.
The album title means ”first
Värnamo... then the world...” which obviously is intentionally
ironic, or at least proved to be. Except for perhaps Omar, none of
these bands reached very far beyond the city limits.
Featured artists: Articats / DR/DR / Wallraff / Glamour / Axewitch / Midwinter / Dr. Pollon / Bulldogs / Bädda / DNA / Müsk / Skenet Bedrar
Time to go to Linköping, home to Kultivator, Mendoza and Erik Aschan and an album released by the study circle Studiefrämjandet in 1982. Linköping has always been a musically active city keen to provide rehearsal spaces to young bands, and ”Linköpingsrock '82” is a testament to that. The bands are well rehearsed although the musical styles aren't particularly interesting. There's a bit of formulaic punk, dull funk rock, pedestrian pop rock and mediocre synth pop. Again it's the heavy metal kids that bring home the medals. Axewitch's ”Nightmare” has an effective riff, and they're the most professional sounding band in this collection. No wonder they actually had a career following this compilation, with several albums out during the first half of the 80s. Artifact didn't – ”A Tribute To You” is the only thing they released – but their mix of heavy metal and symphonic rock might appeal to some readers.
Musikpuls full album
Umeå Rocks, vol. 1 full album
Först Värnamo... sen världen... full album
Linköpingsrock '82 full album