ÖBACKA SÅGVÄRCK – Haru nånsin varit död (Subliminal Sounds, 1969-1972, released 2023)

Swedish vocals

International relevance ***

I don't know where this notion comes from that if something has gone unreleased for decades, that's enough reason to finally put it out there. Or for that matter where this misconception originates that if something is crappy-sounding and the musicians can tell an instrument from a muckrake by nature should be better than music performed in a comprehensible fashion. Sometimes a reissue label hits pure gold, as Subliminal Sounds did with the amazing Great Ad album, but very few archival releases can match that one. So I took Subliminal Sounds' blurb for ”Haru nånsin varit död” ”a mind-bending musical discovery” with a huge pinch of salt. But perhaps they weren't entirely wrong this time after all?

A shortlived Umeå band, Öbacka Sågvärck only existed between 1969 and 1972. During that period they managed to create some surprisingly forward-looking heavy rock several years ahead of its time. It might be that they even beat November, consensually hailed as Sweden's first proper hard rock band, to the punch. Only that Öbacka Sågvärck were a far dirtier, sleazier, grittier combo judging by these underground tapes.

And underground it is, for better or for worse. Let's start with the bad. The longest track, the closing medley of ”A dä lä dää” and ”Centralgården”, has a horrendous sound, so bad it sounds like a severe hearing disorder. Another drawback is that two tracks are repeated (including ”A dä lä dää”), so if you chop these out, you're left with merely half an album (more precisely side one). It suggests that there wasn't too many usable recordings to choose from, and that fillers were needed to flesh out the running time.

The good thing is that the remaining half is rather impressive. This is how I want my hard rock: a loud, nasty, low-down, take-no-prisoners ruckus, with an authority that can easily out-do several better-known bands in the genre. It's not quite that promised ”mind-bending musical discovery”, and it's not on the same level as Great Ad, but the good parts are indeed valuable and until now unknown pieces in a historic jigsaw puzzle. Regardless of my objections, that justifies this release that deserves to heard and appriciated accordingly by fans and historians alike.

Full album playlist

GÖTATEATERN & ÖBÖBÖ – Flyttfåglarna (Götateatern, 1980)

Swedish vocals, instrumental, spoken word

International relevance: **

A rarely mentioned curio. a double album from a stage play made for children in 1980 by Götateatern in Gothenburg. While the narration is a bit distracting and even more so to a non-Swedish listener, there's more music than spoken word on the album, and the musical parts are in fact rather interesting. Especially when you realize that the bizarrely named Öböbö musical ensemble comprised Sebastian Öberg and Andreas Brandt from Älgarnas Trädgård; Christer Öhman who provided percussion to ”Tristans klagan” on the Älgarna Trädgård album; Gunnar Bergsten of Fläsket Brinner and Sevda (plus a plentiful of jazz groups), and Bill Öhström who had played with Tillsammans, Ramlösa Kvällar, Mikael Ramel, Bo Hansson... You get the point.

Some of the all-acoustic tracks have vocal appearances from Ragni Carlsson, with lyrics by Ingegerd Leyman (today known as Ingegerd Rönnbäck) who also wrote the play. Not all tracks are good, but the folksier tracks are rather pleasant and evocative, especially the Eastern inspired ”Zinkonsången” complete with Öhrström's darbouka, Bergsten's flute and Brandt's fiddle, and ”Spindeln Spinn” with its quirky time signature and rich use of marimba, which also happen to be the two longest tracks on the album.

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