MATS GLENNGÅRD – Violin Race (Bastun, 1980)

Instrumental, English vocals
IRG: **

The expression ”don't be fooled by the name” has rarely been as appliable as here. If you expect anything close to Kebnekajse violinist Mats Glenngård's first solo album, the lovely ”Kosterläge” from 1972, then you'll be sorely disappointed. This is closer to Kebnekajse's last album ”Vi drar vidare” which had Glenngård at the helm as Kenny Håkansson had left the group by then. ”Vi drar vidare” is an insult to the band's once glorious name, with limp fusion jazz, and that goes for ”Violin Race” as well. This is an equally bloody awful piece of shit, with fretless basses (and ”funky” slap bass), appalling keyboards and even electronic disco handclaps, featuring members of EGBA, Häxmjölk, Wasa Express and Hörselmat. It's almost scary thinking that this is what an ex-member of one of the greatest Swedish progg bands really had in him.

I hate this album so very much.

Full album playlist

BEFORE PROGG - A SPECIAL FEATURE ON SWEDISH 60'S POP, ROCK & PSYCH

It is of course very convenient declaring the two Gärdet festivals the starting point of Swedish progg, but as with any 'movement', progg is the result of what came before it. There's not one thing that appears completely out of the blue with no ties to the history. Besides, claims of the Gärdet festivals as the real beginning of progg exclude bands such as Hansson & Karlsson and Baby Grandmothers from the equation which needless to say is plain revisionism. But the roots of progg go deeper and further back than that too. Several prominent and important characters of progg or, if you will, 'the music movement', were in bands long before progg was a thinkable concept. Therefore, and despite the 1967-1982 scope of this blog, I think it's time to go back a bit in history and shed some light on what went on in Sweden in the 60's.

I don't think anyone actually ever counted how many active bands there were between 1962 and 1968, but likely several hundreds. Some of them hit big while others had just a single or two released, while others in turn never rose above the amateur level playing to friends and rehearsing in their parents' garages and basements. Needless to say, it's impossible to mention even a fraction of all those bands here, why this is merely a small overview of some of the domestically better known bands. Bands familiar to Swedes but not necessarily to anyone outside our borders.

Just a linguistic note before plunging ahead: Swedish 60's bands rarely used the grammatical article 'the' in their names. It's ”Namelosers”, not ”The Namelosers”; ”Mascots”, not ”The Mascots”. While it may appear inadequate to English speakers, and although exceptions exist, I've decided to keep in line with the original and most common band name procedure.

As in most Western countries, the impact of The Beatles were massive on the Swedish youth. Through pirate radio stations such as Radio Syd ('Radio South') and Radio Nord ('Radio North'), and through national broadcasting radio show Tio i topp ('Top ten'), the new melodic sounds from the UK reached our domestic listeners. A pop band craze took on swiftly, although those new amateur bands from all over the country were called twist bands early on. A wimpy name but truth be told: many of the bands were pretty wimpy sounding anyway. Some started out even before The Beatles broke big, but The Beatles and, to a not negligible extent, also The Rolling Stones and The Who had a huge impact on the majority of the Swedish beat groups.

TAGES

With limited knowledge of the English language (including some truly awkward pronunciation) and a not necessarily natural penchant for songwriting, many of those bands relied on covers of UK bands and American rhythm & blues standards, but some creatively fortunate bands featured good songwriters and above-average skills. Most notably Gothenburg's Tages (pronunced 'tah-gehs', not 'taygs'). After a weak start with a couple of less than impressive 45's, they got the chance to record and release an impressive amount of five LP's before disbanding (or rather evolving into Blond who also had one full length disc out, in 1969). Tages won a battle of the bands contest early on and became known as ”The Beatles of the Swedish West coast”. Soon freeing up a considerable amount of songwriting skills and a genuine sense of creative studio work, their last two albums are exceptional for a Swedish 60's band. Both ”Contrast” (featuring the psychedelic workout "Fuzzy Patterns") and especially their final album ”Studio” are landmark efforts of very elaborate pop psych. Add to that their final singles among which "Fantasy Island" is a beautiful example of how far the band would go before the saga ended.

Tages featured one Göran Lagerberg on bass, who later became a stahlwart on the progg scene, generously sharing his abilities with bands such as Kebnekajse, Fläsket Brinner, Jason's Fleece and Egba. He was also an oft-hired studio musician why his name can be found on albums by Joakim Skogsberg, Sam Ellison, Bernt Staf, Pugh Rogefeldt, Bo Hansson and the likes.

MASCOTS

The decidedly second best Beatles influenced beat group was Mascots. As with Tages, Mascots had an excellent flair for short, catchy pop tunes appropriate for the 7” format. They did however release two full length discs, the eponymous debut album in 1965, and ”Ellpee” the following year. Their best track by far was however first issued on a flexi disc that came free to subscribers to the premier Swedish pop magazine Bildjournalen (the song later released on a proper 7"): ”Words Enough to Tell You” is where Mascots let all their melodic expertise shine the brightest. It even beats Tages in their own game, with lush harmony vocals and an absolutely irresistable melody line moving in perfect ways somewhere between The Beatles and The Hollies. It's no wonder that ”Words Enough to Tell You” has found its way to several various artists comps over the years, both nationally and abroad. It certainly deserves it.

It's a sad fact that a burgeoning interest in politics brought Mascots to their demise. The band evolved into the unfathomably abysmal political band/theatre ensemble/general break-every-record-with-their-name-on-it-inspiring Fria Proteatern. What an utter waste of almost unrivalled pop sensibilities!

SHANES

Predating both Tages and Mascots were Shanes. They first tried their luck as an instro band in the Ventures vein in 1963, but as pop mania spread like a wildfire across the nation, the Western twang of their very earliest 45's changed in favour of a more typical beat group sound. When they went for a rougher, more garage or freakbeat inspired style, as on the pounding and hard-driving ”I Don't Want Your Love”, and when they at the very end of their career moved a step or two towards pop psych as on the very nice Yardbirds influenced ”Faces, Faces”, it really worked in their favour. That said, their shamelessly poppy ”Chris Craft No. 9” is a prime example of Swedish 60's beat. Shanes compilations exist but tend to focus on their most familiar hits and not necessarily on their most worthwhile tracks why it's a pretty frustrating task approaching the band's output. You need to sit through a fair amount of crap to save the nuggets.

OLA & THE JANGLERS

The same can be said about Ola & The Janglers. A graphic diagram of the quality of their output would look conspicuously similar to an ECG curve. Their bad songs were really bad and their good songs were really good. At their rawest they were a rather convincing garage rock band, and their stabs at psychedelia – most notably the Eastern-tinged track ”No One Knows What Happens Round the Corner” – were credible enough. Their good stuff would fill an LP length compilation, but a good one doesn't exist, only a couple focusing on their hits, including pointless Johnny-come-lately covers of Del Shannon's ”Runaway” and Chris Montez's ”Let's Dance”. I wish compilers would cast off the demon of nostalgia and go for the truly good stuff instead. There's one pretty great album hidden in Ola & The Janglers' ouvre but that has yet to see the light of day.

One of the Janglers' most prominent members, Claes af Geijerstam, recorded one underrated popsikey album in 1970, ”Out of My Hair”. The Ola of the bunch, Håkansson, went on to fame and fortune with bands like Secret Service who scored big with their single ”Oh Susie” in the 80's. He also became an influential music business honcho.

LEE KINGS

Lee Kings' output is relatively slim. Apart from a slew of singles it consists of one and a half LP only (the half one being shared with the forgettable band The Sunspots which contribute three tracks). Lee Kings were obviously sensitive to the changing times, constantly trying to come up with a song that would sit particularly well with the adolescent record buyers. You can easily say their vision, if ever they had one, was shaped by the whims of Tio i topp. That said, they did put out some memorable tracks, especially when psychedelia was slowly becoming the new worldwide fad. From Lee Kings' last year in existence, 1967, it's well worth lending an ear to ”Coming from the Ground” (backed by a surprisingly rowdy and fuzz fuelled "Day Tripper") and the highly endearing "The Trees Are Talking".

Singer Lenne Broberg later scored a brontosaurus sized hit with ”Mälarö kyrka”, a soft sounding predecessor of sorts to Contact's ”Fyrvaktarens dotter” and something of a 'guilty pleasure' of mine. And of course: guitarist Bengan Dahlén went to Fläsket Brinner.

STEAMPACKET

Steampacket, a.k.a. Steampacket II, a.k.a. The Longboatmen were also stylistic grasshoppers, even more so than Lee Kings. Their eight 45's present a wide array of styles, from the moody balladry of ”Bara ett par dar” to the fiery freakbeat of ”Take Her Any Time”, with stops at psychedelia, country music and straightforward pop along the way. But with the great Rolf Scherrer and the exceptionally talented Mikael Ramel (both vocals and guitar) in the band, they were well equipped to dabble in whatever they felt like. Their complete recordings were released on the print-on-demand CD ”The Singles and More 1965-68” in 2015, and although it's far from stylistically lucid there's certainly not much to object to as far as quality goes. Having already mentioned Scherrer and Ramel, it's obvious why Steampacket are crucial to the pre-history of progg. Scherer was an early member of Kebnekajse and can also be heard on several Bo Hansson albums. And Mikael Ramel – well, he's Mikael Ramel, i.e. a genius solo artist of ”Till dej” et al fame, plus a one-time member of Fläsket Brinner.

So what about their multiple band names? Well, in Sweden they were called Steampacket II for their first three singles to avoid being confused with Rod Stewart's band Steampacket. For the same reason, ”Take Her Anytime” was released in the UK as The Longboatmen. Later they were domestically known simply as Steampacket.

SHAKERS

Say what you will of Tommy Rander – later to become main leftwing fundamentalist operator on Gothenburg's progg scene and eventually the nemesis and relentless decapitator of progg's unkempt creativity, and recently taking an unnerving turn towards ideas sampled from the extreme rightwing (after all, politics aren't a linear scale but a circle where the extreme right and the extreme left are much closer neighbours than a lot of people have the guts to admit) – but he indeed had a strong vision of what Shakers were supposed to be. More precisely a snotty Rolling Stones/Pretty Things styled, abrasive rhythm & blues band. If you don't mind his fonetical gibberish (English in Rander's mind) on early tracks and only slightly bettered in time for the band's final releases, you have quite a few highlights to discover. Shakers were also one of the earliest and most eager condoners of psychedelia, as evident on excellent numbers such as ”Who Will Buy (These Wonderful Evils)” and ”Tracks Remain”. All their recordings are decidedly rough-hewn which is a welcome change of pace after delving into the discographies of the more polite sounding bands. And if you pretend there's no Rander involvement whatsoever, it gets even better...

NAMELOSERS

In terms of rawness, Malmö's Namelosers gave Shakers a run for their money. Few Swedish 60's singles rock as hard and brutal as Namelosers' throat-grabbing rendition of ”Land of a 1000 Dances”. Of all the recorded versions of that old chestnut, Namelosers' version is hands down among the top 3. I mean, seriously, that fuzz guitar can simply melt concrete walls! It's hard to fathom the fact it was recorded and released in Sweden as early as 1965 when fuzz boxes were a brand new thing only just heard on Rolling Stones and Beatles records. Namelosers were truly in with the in-crowd.

Founded already in 1962 as Tony Lee & The Fenders, they soon changed their name to The Beatchers. As such they released their debut EP in late 1964 with Gary U.S. Bonds cover ”New Orleans” as the lead track. A Gothenburg band called The Beachers, without a 'T' in the middle, wasn't too happy having another similarly named band around, and threatened The Beatchers, with a 'T' in the middle, with a lawsuit. The now nameless band needed to come up with something catchy to call themselves, and a name contest was arranged by pirate radio station Radio Syd. I've no idea what other listener suggestions there might have been, but whoever came up with Namelosers (with an obvious reference to the recent Beachers debacle) won... ”New Orleans” was hastily reissued (on a new label) with the substituted band name on the cover. The name mess proved advantageous however, bringing a fair amount of attention to the band, and the song went straight to No. 3 on the Tio i topp chart. Fans were frantic, causing havoc at Namelosers shows, and the band quickly earned a bad boys reputation, Rolling Stones style. Restaurants wouldn't let them in because of their long hair and scruffy looks. (Those were the days...) To further nurture their hoodlum image, they told Bildjournalen that one of their favourite pastimes was to go to Malmö's local dump and shoot rats. Probably nothing more than a publicity stunt, although their best singles indeed sound as if they could kill a diversity of rodents...

Namelosers released a total of fourteen tracks from 1964 to December 1965. One further song appeared on a Bildjournalen flexi disc in 1966, the storming ”Do-Ao”. For some odd reason, the impossible-to-overrate ”Land of a 1000 Dances” failed to enter Tio i topp. Taken by surprise and hugely disappointed, Namelosers called it quits shortly after. In 1989, rare records shop and record label Got To Hurry issued a compilation of Namelosers complete studio recordings. Still possible to locate in used condition, a reissue is nevertheless long overdue.

ANNAABEE-NOX

In the small but loud legion of more garage infused bands you can't ignore the curiously spelled Annaabee-Nox. As with Shakers, no label trusted them with an album contract. Seven singles and a track on a Bildjournalen flexi disc are all that officially remain from their 1965-1968 lifespan. A rare surviving live tape confirms what people lucky enough to have seen them in concert have said ever since: they were one wild stage act. Not all of their studio recordings retain that same high level fervor, but you really don't want to mess with ”I'm Not Talking” and ”Bo Bo Boggie Pack” [sic!] if you love your mother. If you love your wife/husband and yourself, you don't want to pay the prices for the original 45's either – if they ever appear in playable condition that is. Thankfully, their complete discography received the compilation treatment in 2014 by Allatiders Skivhandel, and it's also easily obtainable in digital format courtesy of Parlophone.

LEA RIDERS GROUP

Of all 60's bands, Lea Riders Group is probably the one that most notably bridges the 60's and the progg era. They were also one of the most technically mature rock bands Sweden spawned during the entire decade. Led by Hawkey Franzén and featuring Slim Borgudd and Bosse Häggström, they were the embryo of Made In Sweden. Without Jojje Wadenius, the jazz elements were a lot fewer, although you could still hear jazz strains in their best known track ”Dom kallar oss mods” (the leitmotif from Stefan Jarl's [semi-]documentary of the same name). Without a doubt the band's high point, with wild screeching guitars, frenetic staccato vocals dissolving into stoned and paranoid groans, drums pounding out a disintegrating beat that is hazy and hard as rebar at the same time, a full frontal psychedelic assault leaving only smoke and dead bodies behind. A lot of people are familiar with it from being famously included on ”Pebbles Volume 3” (and subsequently on other comps as well). A track like that obviously raises the expectations for Lea Riders Group's other outpourings, but they might leave you disappointed at first. Which is not to say that the rest of their material is bad. Not at all. On the contrary, a lot of it is hard-boiled, thick-skinned, jailhouse badass rhythm & blues of international stature with all the chops needed to pull it off with brilliant precision. Just not from the same mould as ”Dom kallar oss mods”.

For an annoyingly long time, Lea Riders Group's recordings were just about impossible to find. Swedish label Garageland Records tried to rectify that in the late 80's when they released a vinyl comp, later reissued on CD as ”The Forgotten Generation”. However, the Garageland CD is best forgotten too as the sound is so dull and hissy that I suspect the tracks were taken from a fourth or fifth generation cassette dub. That hack job was thoroughly pushed into the depths of redundancy when Universal (for once!) did a good thing and released the collected singles on a Record Store Day LP in 2018. Although losing the bonuses from the Garageland CD (all of them live recordings and/or rehearsals in dubious fidelity from what I recall) and not including the additional instrumental tracks from the soundtrack to Jarl's movie, Universal's ”The Singles 1966-68” is absolutely essential from any perspective.

FRIENDS

When Garageland put out the unsatisfactory ”Forgotten Generation” CD, they concurrently reissued two other titles from their back catalogue, one by Panthers, and one by the rather peculiar band Friends. The Panthers release is best ignored altogether, but the Friends CD ”Talkin' 'bout Us” is well worthy of attention. At least to some. They're probably a band in the 'love it or hate it' category, all depending on what you think of Anders Peedú's vocals which admittedly is an acquired taste. The pronunciation heard on the early Shakers singles is Queen's English compared to the sometimes indecipherable syllables coming out of Peedú's mouth. But if that doesn't bother you (and I've learnt not to let it bother me although it took some time and persistance), then Friends were a rather remarkable group who despised the commonly overt Beatles and Stones influences. Their take on rhythm & blues was quite frankly unique among Swedish bands. ”It Ain't Necessarily So” and ”Empty Handed”, both taken from Friends' 1965 debut 45, are as raw as any of the American garage bands, untrained to the nth degree but nevertheless consistent and chock-full of self-assured and cocky attitude bordering on the nihilistic. Despite all Friends' obvious shortcomings (like having a twelve year old drummer, but so did Ornette Coleman), the three singles released during their short lifetime as a band are some rather exceptional stuff. The Garageland album fleshes out the short playing time those singles make for with some previously unreleased tapes which add nicely to the dizzying experience.

Although having Karusell, a major label with a thorough experience of bringing fame to their acts, backing them, nothing could catapult Friends to the commercially viable level of Tages, Mascots and Shanes. An appearance on the biggest (actually, only) TV talk show Hylands hörna generated gigs but no impressive record sales. Friends' fan base was largely made up of outcasts and mods from Stockholm's underground circuits, people often sharing the hard-living Friends' destructive lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. Years after the demise of the band – it was all over in 1966 – two of the members died from substance abuse. A unique band with an ever so inspiring integrity, but with a tragic story attached to it.

HEP STARS

I've not yet mentioned the biggest act of all: Hep Stars. Still heralded among a lot of people, I refuse to believe their position in people's minds is anything but pure nostalgia. Because man, did they suck! The only thing worthy of acknowledgement is their smash hit cover of Vince Taylor's ”Cadillac” which remains a stone cold classic. Albumwise, the only remotely amusing thing they did was the undeniably frantic live document ”On Stage” where they rush through their repertoire at breakneck speed in front of hysterical teenage girls. It's not a good album by any stretch, but yeah, it is remotely amusing. Hep Stars member Benny Andersson later became a mega star with ABBA.

COMPILATIONS

There are several shortcuts to the Swedish 60's if you don't want to take the long and often disappointing road to it. For a general overview there are two vastly different editions of ”Stora popboxen”. The first one leans towards the poppier side, while the second edition is more towards the rhythm & blues sounds. Both of them are a bit much to chew for the average listener, why I'd rather recommend the almost flawless one disc comp ”Searching for Shakes”. Originally released on vinyl by Amigo Records in the mid 80's, the CD reissue is graciously expanded with meticulously chosen tracks in the same garage/freakbeat vein as the original album. Some of the songs I've specifically mentioned above are featured on this five star compendium of Sweden's rawest sounds from the 60's. A similarly styled 2 CD set was fairly recently put together by UK's RPM Records, entitled ”Svenska Shakers”, accurately subtitled "R&B crunchers, Mod grooves, Freakbeat and Psych-pop from Sweden 1964-1968". There's some overlap with ”Searching for Shakes”, but the RPM release has several hard-to-find nuggets not on the Amigo artefact and vice versa, so if you like one of them, chances are you'll want the other one as well. The RPM set looks pretty nice too.

There are several minor acts that released utterly mindblowing one-off singles that are very rare and seldom comped. The six-volume series ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils” does a brilliant job bringing several more psychedelic sides together. Well-known bands such as Tages, Shanes, Ola & The Janglers and Mascots rub shoulders with more obscure acts like The Outsiders ("On My Magic Carpet" is a killer track!), T-Boones (featuring a very young Kenny Håkansson, as on the devastating "I Want You"), the garage punk of The Other Side's "Out My Light", the brilliant Members Blues Band (whose ”P.S. Elic” is quite possibly the trippiest single ever released in Sweden), New Creation (Christian outfit whose ”He Is There” is a jawdropping slice of proto-progressive late night psych), The Junk's & The Angels, Älgarna etc etc etc. Reaching into the 70's, the ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils” volumes are mandatory to readers of this blog. I'm not sure of their current availability but I assure you it's worth some effort to track them down, the first four volumes in particular.

KEBNEKAJSE – Ljus från Afrika (Silence, 1976) / Elefanten (Silence, 1977)

Ljus från Afrika (Silence, 1976)

Instrumental, other languages

International relevance: **

The later Kebnekajse albums are largely ignored (the Kenny-less dung pile ”Vi drar vidare” should be ignored, with a vengeance). By the time of ”Ljus från Afrika”, they had moved away from the Swedish folk rock that brought them love and attention, and towards Africa as the title of this 1976 album declare, ”light from Africa”. I don't have a problem with that per se, but most of ”Ljus från Afrika” is too close to West African highlife music for me. However, it does have ”Tigerdans/Wind”, a Kenny Håkansson driven spaced-out track firmly rooted in the darker side of afro funk, and heavy rocking closing track ”Brudarnas parti” that is too good to be lost to oblivion. 

Elefanten (Silence, 1977)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***

Kebnekajse's last original album with Kenny Håkansson on guitar (and new drummer Åke Eriksson taking Pelle Ekman's place) is much closer to prog rock than what ”Ljus från Afrika” is. The African influence is kept to a minimum, but unfortunately, it has two horrible Mats Glenngård tracks pointing towards the style of ”Vi drar vidare”, ”Saab Mustang” and ”Grabbarnas afton”, totalling 18 painful minutes. Also, Håkansson must have caught the fusion virus on ”Elefantens strävan mot Nirvana”. Last track ”Halling från Ekshärad”, a traditional tune, is a throwback to Kebnekajse's folk rock years and is, after all, ”Elefanten's” high point.

”Elefanten” is the work of a band who wants to take their music further but without quite knowing where to go. The album does have its moments, but it would be a filthy lie to call it a Kebnekajse classic. It's a billion times better then ”Vi drar vidare” though...

A sleeve variation exist, with the 'J' in the band name being larger on some copies. 

Ljus från Afrika full album playlist

Elefanten full album playlist

KEBNEKAISE – III (Silence, 1975)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals, other languages

International relevance: ***

After releasing what is my all time favourite progg album "II" in 1973, I obviously don't hold "III" in euqally high regard. Which is not to say it isn't good album, because it is. Half of it is very similar in style to their preceding LP, with cherry-picked traditional tunes Kebnekaise's bearing their unique hallmark. ”Leksands brudmarsch” is actually on the same level as their second album and a definite high point of tbe band's career (and thus, better than Merit Hemmingson's version).

The album also reveals a band looking to expand their sound, particularly examplified by percussionist Hassan Bah's African flavoured ”Mariamá”. Unfortunately it feels a bit like a democratic inclusion and detracts a lot from the rest of the album, making it feel out of place in this collection, even if it's the last track on the original album. That changed though when it was reissued on CD, when "Gånglåt från Dala-Järna" was added as a secret bonus track. This trad tune was previously only available on the eponymous compilation released by Silence in 1990.

Despite a few objections, ”III” is essential Kebnekaise. No progg collection should be without it.

Full album playlist

KENNY HÅKANSSON – Spelar springlekar och gånglåtar (Silence, 1978)

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

When Kenny Håkansson's former band Kebnekajse smeared their name with shame with the ”Vi drar vidare” album, Håkansson himself made a solo album that was truer to the Kebnekajse spirit. ”Kenny Håkansson spelar springlekar och gånglåtar” – to use the full title – is split between traditional and original material, with two songs written by Arbete & Fritid affiliate Anders Rosén, ”Springlek” and the excellent album opener ”Gånglåt”; and one track written by Håkansson himself, ”Halling”. Also included is ”Trettondagsmarschen” by legendary fiddler Hjort Anders Olsson.

Håkansson recorded the album all by himself using overdubbing until he had built a wall of sound with only guitars and plenty of distortion, compression, feedback and Håkansson's timbre sensitivity. Swedish fiddle music never sounded quite like this until ”Springlekar och gånglåtar” and has probably never sounded like it since.

It's not as good as Kebnekajse but it's fine post script to their 70's discography and, I say it again, way more honorable than ”Vi drar vidare” is.

Shortly afterwards, Håkansson joined 'transcontinental rock reggae' band (their own term) Dag Vag, adopting stage name Beno Zeno. He also released solo ”Benos ben” under that name in 1981, an album best avoided.

An unreleased but only so-so Tonkraft recording by Kenny Håkansson Band from 1977 also exists.

Full album playlist

VARIOUS ARTISTS - 3 x Tonkraft

Before there was ”Progglådan” and before there was a Mellotronen label raiding the Swedish Radio archives for other previously unreleased live tapes by notable bands, there was ”Tonkraft – Levande musik från Sverige”, three double LP volumes of Swedish bands recorded for the Tonkraft radio show that ran from 1971 to 1980. (It was preceded by another show, Midnight Hour.) All in excellent sound quality, the first volume covered 1972-74, the second 1975-76, and the third one 1977-78, all of them with a number of bands featured with one track each. Today the 'one band, one song' format is antiquated with the demand for preferably complete sessions, but the Tonkraft albums were long the only place to go if you wanted more progg than what was available on the artists' original albums and singles.

Despite that the 40CD ”Progglådan” box set contains many of the recordings from the original ”Tonkraft” albums, they aren't entirely redundant since they still feature recordings not available elsewhere. Also, there are a couple of bands here that never released any discs of their own, or bands that at least were underrepresented on vinyl back in the day, such as Plus Gäster, Kolossos Sandaler, Doggers Bankar, Kapten Krok, and Harem to mention a few. Also, some of the better known artists have tracks here not on any of their regular releases, among them Anna Själv Tredje, Mikael Ramel, Mount Everest, Berits Halsband, Elda Med Höns and Ensamma Hjärtan.

Taken together, the three 2LP's work as a quick (i.e. not sufficiently representative) 'here and now' (or now, rather a 'there and then') guide to what the music movement and progg had to offer.

Tonkraft – Levande musik från Sverige 1972-74 (Tonkraft, released 1980)

Featured artists: Peps Bluesband / Pugh & Nature / Hoola Bandoola Band / Trotsålderns Barn / Södra Bergens Balalaikor / Mikael Ramel & Unga Hjärtan / Kebnekajse / Solar Plexus / Plus Gäster / Blå Tåget / Samla Mammas Manna / Hörselmat / Mount Everest / Berits Halsband

International relevance: ***

Swedish vocals, instrumental

Several good ones here, most notably from Peps Bluesband, Pugh Rogefeldt with Nature, and Kebnekajse going berserk in a version of ”Comanche Spring”. Of the otherwise undocumented bands, the completely unknown Plus Gäster's ”I badkaret” is the best, like a blend of Kebnekajse and Fläsket Brinner.

Tonkraft – Levande musik från Sverige 1975-76 (Tonkraft, released 1981)

Featured artists: John Holm / Kolossos Sandaler / Norrbottens Järn / Doggers Bankar / Omlopp / Första Förband / Fläsket Brinner / Elda Med Höns / Östan Sol, Västan Måne / Eldkvarn / Kornet / Vargavinter / Kjell Höglund / Iskra / Guran / Trettioåriga Kriget / Kapten Krok / Resa

Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***

With the ”Tonkraft” series following the chronological trends, the 1975-76 volume provides a fair bit of fusion and symphonic rock inspired music such as Kolossos Sandaler, Första Förband (with Thomas Wiehe), Östan Sol Västan Måne, Kornet, Trettioåriga Kriget and Resa. Some good stuff here though, especially John Holm (although now redundant as it has been released elsewhere since) and Fläsket Brinner's ”Barbarella” (later issued on their Swedish Radio sessions box set).

Tonkraft – Levande musik från Sverige 1977-78 (Tonkraft, released 1982)

Featured artists: Rolf Wikströms Hjärtslag / Moder Svea / Horizont / Dimmornas Bro / Norrlåtar / Ensamma Hjärtan / Folk Och Rackare / Harem / Solen Skiner / Rekyl / Little Big Horns / Mora Träsk / Alter Ego / Anna Själv Tredje / Hot Salsa / Contra / Ramlösa Kvällar / Tintomara

Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***

The weakest of the three ”Tonkraft” sets, with only a couple of interesting selections; Anna Själv Tredje's otherwise unavailable ”Snöfall och daggyra”, and Ramlösa Kvällar's ”Den maskulina mystiken”. Of the unknown bands, Harem is the best, coming off almost like a power version of UK renaissance folk rockers Gryphon. Apart from that, too much fusion, B grade symph and crappy blues rock. (Alter Ego is the same band that had an archival release on Musea as Alter Echo.)

As a sample of progg's stylistic development from 1972 to 1978, the ”Tonkraft” volumes are fine, but from a musical point of view, a 'best of' would be much more listenable.

MECKI MARK MEN – Complete albums 1967-1979

Mecki Mark Men are among the most important early Swedish underground bands and a transition between what was and what would be. Led by singer Mecki Bodemark, the band featured such luminaries as Kenny Håkansson, Pelle Ekman, Bella Linnarsson (all previously in Baby Grandmothers, all later in Kebnekajse), and Thomas Mera Gartz (later to join Träd, Gräs Och Stenar). Heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix (supporting him on his 1967 Swedish tour by his request), Mecki Mark Men were one of the true contemporary psychedelic bands in Sweden.

Mecki Mark Men (Philips, 1967)

English vocals, instrumental

International relevance: ***

After non-album 45 ”Midnight Land”, Mecki Mark Men made their full length debut with this eponymous album featuring sitars, tablas, organs, horns and anything that could emphasize the drugged-out feel of it. And that's the problem with the album – the atmosphere is stronger than the songs, and Mecki Bodemark's vocal Hendrix complex is silly bordering on the ridiculous. There's a lot of empty gestures riddling the album, but if you ignore the superficiality, the album can still be oddly alluring.

Above the American Limelight Records release with different cover.

Running in the Summer Night (Limelight, 1969)

English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***

Their second album was only released by U.S. label Limelight that had already released their debut stateside. The album was remixed for the American market, with the Swedish mix not made public before Mellotronen's CD edition in 2004. The Swedish version is a tad better but it doesn't really matter because Bodemark's Hendrixisms still annoy and the heaviness is still there to conceal that the songs are rather empty. The best track part three of the ”Life Cycle” suite, a new version of Baby Grandmothers' moody ”Being Is More Than Life”.

Marathon (Sonet, 1971)

English lyrics, instrumental

International relevance: ***

 

Recorded on holy blues ground in the Chess studios in Chicago in 1970 and released the following year, this time in Sweden only. Still a mess of contemporary heavy rock mannerisms, it does feature the acoustic two part ”Ragathon” with acoustic guitar, sitar and a stoned-out-of-his-mind Bodemark giggling into his flute. The songs are somewhat more distinct, making this their best regular effort, although far from an essential one.

Stonehorse (Vesper, 2010; recorded 1971)

Lars Johan Werle & Mecki Mark Men

 Instrumental

International relevance **

 

Ballet music written by modernist composer Lars Johan Werle and performed by Mecki Mark Men. Needless to say, it's very different to the band's regular albums, and it also went unreleased until Vesper Records released the whole session on CD in 2010. 'The whole session' meaning you also get quite a lot of directionless jamming apart from centrepiece, Werle's 20 minute ”Stonehorse” suite. That one's quite good, much more experimental and satisfying than anything Mecki Mark Men did on their own.

Flying High (Kompass, 1979)
English vocals

International relevance: **

 

Not a reunion but a completely different incarnation with entirely difference musicians including noted jazz saxophonist Tommy Koverhult on horns and flute, and Kebnekajse's Mats Glenngård on violin among others. ”Flying High” is lesser known than Mecki Mark Men's three original albums and rightly so. This is lame jazz rock with AOR touches. If you see a copy of it, toss it into the abyss.

New Mecki Mark Men recordings appeared on Vesper in 2007, "Livingroom". A couple of poor sounding audience tapes from Stockholm 1970 also circulate.

Mecki Mark Men full album playlist with bonus tracks

Running In The Summer Night full album playlist with bonus tracks
Marathon full album playlist with bonus track

Stonehorse full album playlist
Flying High full album playlist

KEBNEKAISE – Resa mot okänt mål (Silence, 1971)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

Kebnekaise's debut was originally intended as a Kenny Håkansson solo album. In retrospect, that would have made as much sense as releasing it as Kebnekaise. It's very different to anyhting they subsequently released, far removed from the folk rock the group is known for and closer to hard rock with Hendrix influences spilling over from Håkansson's and bassist Bella Linnarsson's days with Baby Grandmothers and Mecki Mark Men. It's an interesting artefact, highlighted by ”Frestelser i stan”, but the energy is sometimes exhausting. All in all, it's not up to the group's later standards.

Full album playlist

BABY GRANDMOTHERS – Baby Grandmothers (Subliminal Sounds, 2007; recorded 1967-68) / Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out (Premium Publishing, 2007; recorded 1967)

A crucial psychedelic pre-progg band with future Mecki Mark Men and/or Kebnekajse members Kenny Håkansson, Pelle Ekman and Bella Linnarsson (then Bella Ferlin). Baby Grandmothers were part of the Club Filips circuit along with Hansson & Karlsson to name one of the best known acts associated with the club. Baby Grandmothers only released one single during their existence, the legendary ”Somebody Keeps Calling My Name”/”Being Is More Than Life” on the Finnish Forward! label, produced by the illustrious M.A. Numminen. Baby Grandmothers have reunited in later years.

Baby Grandmothers (Subliminal Sounds, 2007; recorded 1967-68)
English vocals, instrumental

International relevance: ***

Compiling both sides of their lone 45 and a couple of live recordings made at two 1967 Club Filips dates and in Finland in 1968, this Subliminal Sounds release is the most important artefact documenting the original Baby Grandmothers and a truly grand and illuminating example of the Swedish psychedelic underground at its most intimidating. Kenny Håkansson's guitar sound is so evil it eats gerbils for breakfast and horses for lunch.

Without the restrictions that came with only seven inches of vinyl (they pushed the limits of the format with ”Somebody Keeps Calling My Name”), they could stretch out for however long they wanted in front of an audience. Two of the three Filips tracks move towards the 20 minute mark – the uninhibited Grandmothers in full flight. And the sound quality is impressive for the time.

The two tracks from Finland in March 1968 (around the time of the 45 sessions) make a lot of noise but not so much sense, basically being snippets.

Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out (Premium Publishing, 2007; recorded 1967)

International relevance: ***

Instrumental

This disc features a different live recording from Club Filips, made about a month prior to the one found on the Subliminal Sounds set. It finds Baby Grandmothers in a looser mode which is code for less focused. True they work up a frenzy during this half hour set but it's really pretty straggly. Also, ”Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out” is very hard to find, originally only available as a bonus disc with early copies of the ”Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Rock 1967-1979” book.

Baby Grandmothers reunited in the 2010's and released a comeback album called "Merkurius" in 2018.

Baby Grandmothers full album playlist

Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out full album

KEBNEKAJSE – Vi drar vidare (Mercury, 1978)

Swedish vocals, instrumental

International relevance: ***

If a band loses its most important member and radically changes the musical style, is it still the same band?

Is ”Vi drar vidare” really a Kebnekajse album?

Kenny Håkansson, guitarist par excellence, left the band after ”Elefanten” and that should have been the end of the once godlike Kebnekajse, but instead they signed to Mercury for one more album. Trying to fill the void Håkansson left gaping galaxy wide, Mats Glenngård stepped in as the main songwriter and turned the band into some kind of fusion/symph rock amalgam.

A Kaipa parody? A Jean-Luc Ponty charade? Something even worse?

Call it what you will, this album drags Kebnekajse's name in the dirt and then drags it back again twice as hard. I feel genuinely sorry for Kenny Håkansson who had to see this happen to his former band. And I feel sorry for myself and every other Kebnekajse fan that this even exists. It hurts.

People told me long before I had heard the album that it was bad, but crikey! I couldn't imagine just how bad it actually is. And it does not get better over time. Had it been a Coste Apetrea or a Kornet album, then it might have been excellent. Sort of. But Kebnekajse's name's on that catastrophic cover, in large letters, and that makes ”Vi drar vidare” an insult. No more, no less. 

Full album playlist

KEBNEKAISE - II (Silence, 1973)

Swedish vocals, instrumental

International relevance: ***

Ranked #1 on the blog's Top 25 list

Some albums are so HUGE it's nearly impossible to write about them. They may cause a mental block, or put you in a hyperbolic loop when you try to explain their greatness.

Favourite albums sometimes change over time. Others in turn remain in a firm position year after year, decade after decade, unless they become even greater favourites as time goes by, as if they have some kind of inherent magic calibrated to respond to any change in you. You live with those albums, and they live along with you.

Kebnekaise's ”II” is one of those, HUGE, with a lingering imperative to keep me under its never fading spell, a power to forever overwhelm me, and an otherworldly, graceful lyricism always to bring tears to my eyes.

When I grew up in the 70's, radio was a big part of my life. The radio was always on and back in the day, you could hear a lot of Swedish alternative music played on the radio. The progg movement often poked fun at Swedish Radio, blaming them for taking sides with the multi-national (i.e. American) capitalist system. Now, true that a child's conception of the world, eventually turning into cherished (and sometimes not so cherished) memories doesn't necessarily tell the whole truth. The child's mind has its own perception, fashioned by the lack of experience.

When the progg movement was in full bloom, I was still a child, but a child exceptionally receptive and responsive to music and the experience of music was unfettered by preconceptions and expectations. In that sense, my younger self was no different to my older – and current – self. I do remember a lot of crap being played daily in the 70's, mindless bubblegum pop, old Swedish mawkish and popular standards, quite a lot of sheer nonsense. But I also remember hearing early Samla Mammas Manna, Mikael Ramel, Ragnar Borgedahl, Kjell Höglund and – Kebnekaise. Often enough, I had no idea what the artists' names were, but I distinctly remember particular songs. It wasn't until years later, when I had become a ferociously record buying grown up music junkie, that I realized that ”Uvertyr till snäll häst” (used as a theme song for radio show Ungdomsradion – ”the youth's radio”) was a track from Samla Mammas Manna's debut album, and that the marvellous ”Pengar” was a song by Mikael Ramel found on his majestic ”Till dej” album, and that ”Barkbrödlåten” that I loved so much as a child was by Kebnekaise. And that their version of ”Horgalåten” was available on the same album as ”Barkbrödlåten”, their second effort, aptly titled ”II”.

There was something about the traditional melodies that Kebnekaise used to develop a folk rock format of their own that spoke to me on a fundamental level. Especially those moving in such tantalizing ways up and down the minor scales. Those tunes seemed to know something about me that I didn't know yet myself (and probably still don't). They touched me, like those late nights touched me, with me in the back seat of the family car, returning home from a trip somewhere, looking at the trees of the forest unpenetrable by the darkness, even darker than the night itself rushing by the windows of the car. It felt like home, in an existential sense. I used to make up stories in my head as we speeded through the night lit up by the headlights only. ”Horgalåten”, in Kebnekaise's majestic to the point of intimidating rendition, could have been the soundtrack to these stories.

We used to sing ”Horgalåten” when I was in first grade, or was it second grade, or third? Best known as an instrumental tune, there are lyrics written to it, telling the story of the Devil playing his fiddle until the dancers fell down dead from exhaustion after dancing for days and nights. Singing it was to me like uttering a magic formula that connected my innermost being with a folk history phrased as folklore. I didn't know much about folklore at that early age, but I knew all I needed to know. I understood.

”Horgalåten” still affects me in a way that few other tunes or songs affect me, and needless to say, that track is what I consider the high point of ”Kebnekaise II”.

There's no way I can remove ”II” from my personal context, and I can't perceive it in any objective way. Well of course I can share discographical and biographical facts, but they are just that, facts. I could state the obvious and mention it was the first album where Kebnekaise ventured in to the rich heritage of traditional Swedish folk music after the curious but interesting debut album ”Resa mot okänt mål” which began life as guitarist par execellence Kenny Håkansson's solo album. I could tell you that ”Rättvikarnas gånglåt” features vocals from famed singer/songwriter and progg chanteuse Turid but that the album's mainly instrumental and founded on the free-spirited but incredibly focused interplay between the large number of players – nine in total not counting guest performer Turid, and that all of them – drummer Pelle Ekman, fiddler Mats Glenngård, bass player formerly member of pop band Tages Göran Lagberg, et al – are excellent musicians in their own right. I could also tell you of the origins of the band, the pre-history including heavy psych outfit Mecki Mark Men. But let's be honest: None of that is really relevant to the experience of the album as an entity. It's like the chemistry classes in school, who cared about what caused the chemical reactions leading up to a loud BANG! when the BANG! itself was the real thrill? Not I. And ”II” goes BANG! each time I play it. Each and every single time, with such a magnitude that it would be a bizarre act of self-denial not proclaiming it the best progg album ever made.

Full album playlist with bonus track