KENNY HÅKANSSON – Beno's ben (Silence, 1981)

 

Instrumental, Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

A peculiar album lacking both direction and ideas. Those who expect electric folk rock à la Kebnekajse or Håkansson's first solo album ”Springlekar och gånglåtar” will be sorely let down. A couple of tracks sound like a heavier Isildurs Bane, including the best one here, ”Existensproblem”. Another in turn is an approximation of sequencer Tangerine Dream but with guitars instead of electronics. ”Om döden” is better in Dag Vag's live version on ”Almanacka”. The oriental touches in”Egna ben” can't hide it's really just an inferior postpunk song but still better than the pseudo melodic heavy metal of ”Encore”. All sounds like song sketches that should best have been left on hissy 4 track home tapes and not turned into a full, officially released album. I love Kenny Håkansson but this album just isn't any good.

Full album playlist

HAUSSWOLF – Bark & is (Sista Bussen, 1980)

 

Swedish vocals, wordless vocals, spoken word
International relevance: *

Carl Michael von Hausswolf has been a driving force in Swedish underground culture for a long time, being a sound composer, visual artist and founder of one of the most important Swedish record labels in the 80s, Radium 226.05. His first appearance on record was as the bass player and guitarist on Claes Ekenstam & Sista Bandet's ”Sista tåget till Tasjkent” in 1979. His first solo album appeared as ”Bark & is” the following year featuring several Sista Bandet members.

The 'B' side points to his future of ambient tape compositions with the side long ”Is” (=”ice”). It does create some tension with chilly sounds, the spooky timbre of a zither, wailing free jazz sax and dead pan recitals of poetry, but it definitely overstays its welcome at 25 minutes. The first side is more rock oriented with traces of The Velvet Underground and the late 70s San Francisco scene with Chrome and MX-80 Sound. The noisy semi-psych tracks ”Forensisk buss” and ”Ljusa lockar” work fine but the most self-consciously affected bits are pretentious and pseudo-artistic in the same way that a lot of the period's industrial music is. Still an interesting historical artefact from a time when not a lot in this vein were made in Sweden – the closest might be parts of the much more improvised album by the mysterious Imp.Ink, also from 1980.

Carl Michael von Hausswolff is father of internationally acclaimed singer Anna von Hausswolff.

No links found 

JÖRGEN HÖGLUND – Leaving It Up To You (Montezuma, 1980)

 Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: -

There's a reason why singer/songwriter jazz rock never became a hot thing: it's such a bad idea. Unfortunately, nobody told Jörgen Höglund, bassist and guitarist of Tequila and later on one album by latin funk band Hot Salsa. ”Leaving It Up To You” is his only solo album, a very sterile effort split between Swedish and English songs. Höglund's characterless voice doesn't help either, sounding a fair bit like irritating singer/songwriter Totte Wallin with a few stylistic features borrowed from Tomas Ledin. The title track was chosen as a single with another album track on the flip.

Full album playlist

HAYENA BAND – Live In Studio '77 (no label, 2023; rec. 1977)

 

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

This is just about as obscure as it gets as this album doesn't even exist, only just a little. (Don't let the ringwear and price tag on the cover fool you.)

Hayena Band was a West Coast sextet that only ever released one track, on Caprice Records various artists comp ”Tvärsnitt (10 Unga Svenska Jazz- Och Rockgrupper 1978)” where they shared space with bands like Kattegatt, Boojwah Kids and Alter Ego (a.k.a. Alter Echo). After Hayena Band disbanded in 1978, two of the members – drummer Werner Modiggård and saxophonist Claes Carlsson – eventually ended up in Eldkvarn. The track on ”Tvärsnitt” is ”Puerto Tune” taken from a full length 1977 studio session held at Swedish Radio Gothenburg, and that session is what was sneaked out to various streaming platforms in 2023 as ”Live In Studio '77”.

The style is Latin infused jazz rock, and while that may not sound too appealing, this is not your usual dreary funk fusion. It's very intense and powerful with fiery guitars and hard blowing sax. It simply rocks hard! This band must have been a real firebomb on stage if they could work up such a frenzy in a sterile radio studio. I don't know if there's a viable market for their kind of music, but going only by the high quality of their stuff, this is so very worthy of a proper release. It just isn't fair it should just be swept into an unlit corner of the internet. I had no idea this existed until I stumbled upon it more or less by chance, and I'm afraid most people won't do it all. And ”Live In Studio '77” deserves so much better than that. It's a gem.

Full album playlist

LALLA HANSSON – Complete 70s albums

 Upp till Ragvaldsträsk (Columbia, 1971)
Tur & retur (EMI, 1973)
Fångat i flykten (EMI, 1976)
Enstaka spår! (EMI, 1978)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: -

Featured in the ”100 other artists to check out” list in ”The Encyclopedia Of Swedish Progressive Music”, and another odd inclusion. Lalla Hansson was in 60s band Fabulous Four who did a couple of great freakbeat tracks, but as a solo artist, Hansson went for a more country tinged soft rock style. It's pretty twee stuff but I kind of like some of what he did, which is a decidedly unhip thing to say. He relied heavily on covers, especially on his first two albums, but his Swedish translations are often very good – he had a real knack for transposing mostly American songs to a Swedish setting. Which of course is competely lost on non-Swedish listeners, and with very little progg involved here, there's not much to recommend here in that context.

Upp till Ragvaldsträsk full album playlist
Tur & retur full album playlist
Fångat i flykten full album playlist
Enstaka spår! full album playlist

HARDDA KU HARDDA GEIT – Je får aller dans me' stårsom (Jämtängen Musik Produktion, 1981)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: -

A band centered around ex-Hemkört member H.P. Burman. Based in Uppsala but with Jämtland themes, Jämtland being a Northern Swedish region. Their name is in the Jämtland dialect meaning ”half cow, half goat”. Everything on their privately released debut album ”Je får aller dans me' stårsom” sounds like they're just fooling around and faking it. They're definitely more of a comedy act than a proper band. Their rock'n'roll pastiches are particularly irritating, with Swedish versions of ”Route 66” and ”Stand By Me” plus an insulting take on Graham Parker's ”New York Shuffle”. They must presume I'm a complete idiot to think this is fun.

Hardda Ku Hardda Geit made two more albums in the 80s. H.P. Burman also released a couple of solo albums.

Full album playlist

JAMES HOLLINGWORTH & KARIN LIUNGMAN – Complete albums 1974-1976... plus

James Hollingworth – a Swede by birth despite his British sounding name – made several singles already in the mid-60s. The first one featured one song each by Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan and he pretty much continued in this vein covering American folk- and country-based artists in the following years.

Vem, var och när / Persson är lös (CBS, 1969)
released as James
Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***

The first single of interest here is this one, released simply as James. It's a Swedish version of a then brand new Cliff Richard song released as Cliff & Hank (with Hank being Marvin of The Shadows and also the song's author). That surely doesn't raise much interest, but truth is that it's a really good even bettered by James. The original, ”Throw Down A Line”, suffers from a rather cowardly performance, but James instills a certain restless drama into it. He also makes better use of the string arrangement which further elevates the song. The B side is a Hollingworth original not quite on the level of the A side but still good. It's noteworthy for having Blond as backing band giving the track a spirited performance with spacey sound effects and great guitar playing.

Medvind (CBS, 1974)
released as Hollingworth/Liungman
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Let's make a jump to 1974 and Hollingworth's first full length album. Recorded in 1973/74 and released with partner Karin Liungman, it's a real duo work with songwriting and vocal duties shared between the two. It's a pretty varied effort ranging from Liungman's lovely folkish ”Det borde varit vildros” to funky workouts such as ”Elden är lös”. Some lyrics touch on environmental concerns, a recurring theme on their following albums. It's an OK album overall but I generally prefer Liungman's tracks delivered in her very appealing veiled voice.

Barnlåtar (CBS, 1974)
released as James & Karin
Swedish vocals, spoken word
International relevance: **

The duo began recording their next album only a couple of months after their first one was finished, and it's a rather different kind of album. The title means ”children's songs” in English and that's exactly what it is. Not a massive hit upon release, its reputation grew steadily. Today it's heralded as one of the finest children's album ever released in Sweden. Their idea was to make an album both pedagogical and entertaining to children but also possible for grown-ups to enjoy, and they certainly succeeded. An album such as Jojje Wadenius's ”Goda' goda'” immediately leaps to mind. As on the previous album, some songs are inspired by the couple's travels in Morocco. Disguised in the easy-going, crazy fun songs are again environmental concerns, as in the still wildly popular and evocative ”Älgarna demonstrerar”, about a gang of elks' protest meeting against pollution and deforestation. Similar sentiments can be sensed in the excellent ”Har du grävt någon grop idag?”. There are also moments of sheer whackiness, most notably the totally bonkers ”Jag vill ha vitaminer” that sounds almost like Philemon Arthur impersonating Donald Duck.

What really contitues ”Barnlåtar” is James & Karin's care for songwriting and attention to arrangements. It truly is an album that can be enjoyed by children and grown-ups alike. You could take several songs from the album and only tweak the lyrical subjects, and no-one would notice it's a children's record – just like ”Goda', goda'”.

Djurens brevlåda (CBS, 1976)
released as James & Karin
Swedish vocals, spoken word
International relevance: **

Released two years later, ”Djurens brevlåda” is essentially ”Barnlåtar Vol. 2”. The songs were originally written for a radio series of 18 episodes. It features Hollingworth's best known song of all, ”Hur ska jag göra för att komma över vägen?” which subject-wise follows in the footsteps of ”Älgarna demonstrerar”, not to mention ”Älgarna säger” which is a direct reference back to ”Älgarna demonstrerar”. A personal favourite in this collection is ”När vintern är över” which is as baroque pop a children's song will ever get. But there are so many good songs here to choose from.

The main difference between this album and ”Barnlåtar” is that the songs here are shorter, most of them around the one minute mark, some even shorter than that. But it's actually not that distracting, and everything I said about the previous album can also be said about this. If you have one album, you'll want the other one as well. They belong together.

One more great track appeared under the James & Karin banner before they parted ways. ”Den sista vargen” (backed with ”Rödluvan ljug”) appeared in 1977 through the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. The A side was later included on Hollingworth 1979 solo album named after the song.

Ärliga blå ögon / Morgon på Kungsholmen (CBS, 1977)
released as James Hollingworth 
Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***

James first post-Karin outing was this soundtrack 45 from a very popular heist drama series for Swedish Television in 1977. The song might very well be Berndt Egerbladh's crowning achievement as a songwriter, and I'm not kidding you if I say it's one of the best Swedish songs ever. Curiously enough it's the same song as Doris's ”You Never Come Closer” from 1970 with the Swedish lyrics written by director Leif Krantz to fit the series's plot. Annoyingly enough, it was never included on any of Hollingworth's albums, and the single is quite rare these days. If that Record Store Day nonsense was of any proper use to mankind, that would be something to re-release. Suggested reissue flipside: Doris's original version.

The B side is a track from ”Medvind”.

Karin Liungman released a couple of albums under her own name following the separation from James Hollingworth while he had a more prolific career. As of June 2025, he's 77 years old and still active as a performer although his last album to date came in 2006, most fittingly a children's album with Jojje Wadenius.

James 7":
Vem var och när
Persson är lös

Medvind full album playlist
Barnlåtar full album playlist
Djurens brevlåda full album playlist

James Hollingworth 7"
Ärliga blå ögon

ELISABET HERMODSSON, LENA GRANHAGEN et al – Till Camilo Torres och revolutionen i Latinamerika. Röster i mänskligt landscape. (Proprius, 1971)

Swedish vocals, spokem word
International relevance: -

Camilo Torres was a catholic priest and a member of the Colombian geurilla movement. He urged for co-operation between marxists and Christians but was eventually executed by government troops in 1966 and was refused a Christian funeral, His burial place is still undisclosed.

This album with the very long title meaning ”to Camilo Torres and the Latin American revolution with the two sides named ”voices in a human landscape part 1 & 2” are as pretentious as the music within. It's a memorial mass composed by Alfred Jansson with spoken recitals by Elisabet Hermodsson, Lena Granhagen and Håkan Strängberg set a backdrop performed by the chamber choir of Gothenburg and a classical orchestra. The work's smugness is completely overbearing and I find it impossible to sit through the entire thing without breathing in a bag.

Full album playlist

KLARTEXT / HAZARD – MOTDRAG (Ungdomens Nykterhetsförbund, 1982)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

A split album with Klartext on one side and Hazard on the other and released by the Swedish Youth Temperance Organisation. Hence the lyrics all speaking out against inebriation. I'm not familiar with any of the two bands so perhaps they were just temporary constellations, or only active within the organisation. None of them is very good but Klartext is a tad better. Their 7 minute “Krossa alkoholtraditionen” even shows some symphonic moves which I didn't exptect to hear on an album like this. Hazard are more towards the contemporary sounds of 1982 with funk and ska leanings.

Klartext:
Krossa alkoholtraditionen
Ge tillbaks min ungdom
På rätt plats i världen
Langen går
Jag har lagt av
Hazard:
Tretton år
Förste man i kön
Sprit är sprit
Min garderob
Nere i verksta'n
bonus track

HANSSON & KARLSSON WITH BENGAN DAHLÉN – Crescendo 1968 Volume 1 & Volume 2 (Mellotronen, 2023; rec. 1968)

 

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

It's surprising that Hansson & Karlsson archival releases amount to only two, ”For People In Love” released in 2010, and this live recording spread across two limited edition vinyl volumes. There must be piles of unreleased Hansson & Karlsson tapes collecting dust somewhere, and since they were known to be a dazzling live act, it would be great having more documents like this officially released. (One thing's for sure: as long as Jimi Hendrix's estate refuses a release of his mythical Club Filips live jam with the Swedes being, most of us will only ever hear the chopped up lo-fi snippets that circulate.) So having access to a release such as this is much appreciated.

To put it short: This is the best representation of Hansson & Karlsson available, and that includes their original albums. Especially since this sees the duo expanded with soon-to-be Fläsket Brinner guitarist Bengan Dahlén on violin! Some have compared this unusual line-up to Zappa's ”Hot Rats” with Sugarcane Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty, but that's lackadaisical. There's no Zappa here to keep a tight rein on the musicians. What we have here is three musicians working as a collective mind, with all them being leaders improvising either entirely freely or wihin the framework of a song such as ”Tax Free”, ”Triplets” or ”Richard Lionheart”. Some tracks stretch out to 10, 13, 17 minutes but almost never feel overlong. All three players are on fire and Dahlén really brings a lot to the table with his violin. In him they get another person to bounce ideas off allowing the music to find new paths. He doesn't feel at all like an extra but a completely natural musical ingredient in a tight unit always ready to work up an improvisational frenzy. 

The stereo recording is surprisingly good with a rich and warm reel-to-reel sound that retains enough nuances to warrant a pleasurable listening session. Unearthing these tapes and presenting them to the public is an act of love and care, and it's shame only they're a limited edition release. This is the kind of stuff that should be kept available forever in a proper, physical format and I say that even though I'm not a die-hard Hansson & Karlsson fan. I am, however, a massive fan of Hansson, Karlsson & Dahlén.

Crescendo 1968 Volume 1 full album playlist
Crescendo 1968 Volume 2 full album playlist

JAN HAMMARLUND & KJERSTIN NORÉN – Några här, några där... (Amalthea, 1981)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

I've already written about Jan Hammarlund's entire 1970's catalogue here, but he continued making records long after that, with a discography reaching well into the 2010's. Never foreign to working and performing with other (predominantly female) artists, there are several releases co-credited to others. This is one of them, made together with Kjerstin Norén. She was one of the original members of Röda Bönor, and subsequently had another band called Kjerstin Norén & Damorkestern with members from Husmoderns Bröst.

”Några här, några där” – with the unweildy subtitle ”Jan Hammarlund Och Kjerstin Norén Sjunger Sånger Av Il Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano: Ivan Della Mea - Giovanna Marini - Paolo Pietrangeli” – consists of songs by contemporary Italian songwriters (as the subtitle says) translated to Swedish. The vocals are split rather evenly beteween the two singers, and although Norén might not be the greatest voice ever heard, her songs are still a welcome break from Hammarlund's always annoying warbles.

The album as a whole has a somewhat different feel than many other Hammarlund albums which has a lot to do not only with Norén's involvement but also the arrangements. The most different-sounding track is ”Balladen om Ardizzone” with its renaissance-styled framework. A well seasoned line-up surely helps too; how about Kjell Westling, Fred Lane, Lena Ekman, Ale Möller and his mate from various constellations Dan ”Gisen” Malmquist to name but a few? Recorded in Copenhagen, a couple of Danish musicians get on the payroll too.

But all in all, this remains too much of a Jan Hammarlund album, and unless you're a fan of his, you may just as well pass on it.

Full album playlist

FLÄSKET BRINNER FEATURING BO HANSSON – LIVE AT PISTOLTEATERN 1972 (Mellotronen, 2023)

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

This is exactly the kind of stuff I want to see excavated from the dust-covered shelves of history's archives, by a band that needs more releases out! True there's the great box set of Swedish Radio tapes released in the early 00's, there simply can't be too much prime Fläsket Brinner in this world. At the same time, it's a Bo Hansson release, as this show taped at the legendary Pistolteatern in Stockholm in 1972 documents his short stint with the band.

It's a rare recording, and the copy that has circulated among collectors was really bad sounding, so the discovery of the first generation tape is a Holy Grail find. It remains an audicence recording with plenty of room ambience, but the sound has been cleaned up and the nuances brought out as much possible.

But the most important thing is of course the music. The performance is explosive. Fläsket Brinner provides the perfect backdrop to a particularly inspired Bo Hansson who travels the organways with equal parts of precision and curiousity. He sounds as if he discovers new melodies all the time, explore them, moves on, returns to them again, constantly pushed on by a band firing on all cylinders. I must especially point out Erik Dahlbäck here. Captain Dahlbäck is just about a flawless drummer in any given situation, but here he really shines like a supernova. His playing is incredibly intense, precise down to a molecular level, following every minimal shift in the music, creating new possibilities. What a powerhouse he is!

So I have no objections to the music pressed on this disc (500 copies in black vinyl, 500 in 'water blue' which more looks like glow-in-the-dark green if you ask me), but I do have a few towards the presentation. There's one ugly midtrack edit that breaks the flow brutally. Other tracks fade out early, others again fade in. It's like going to the loo amidst a concert and hear the music grow in volume as you return closer to the stage. It's actually pretty annoying. It's been decades since I heard the inferior tape dub of this show, so I can't remember whether the music was chopped up, and I can't vouch for what the source tape used for this release is like, but there was definitely more music recorded at Pistolteatern than what's on this disc. Why not make it a double album with the entire show, or at least how much of it was recorded? And why only make it a prefab raririty in limited edition vinyl? Skip the coloured vinyl kollektor skum nonsense and focus on a proper unlimited release instead. And if the songs are cut on the original tape, please let us know in the liners so we don't have to wonder where the rest of the show has gone.

One more Pistolteatern track can be found on the FINALLY reissued first Fläsket Brinner album. True to Silence Records' lazy treatment of their own massive back catalogue, there hasn't been a proper reissue of that monolithic album until now, 2024. Apart from being nicely remastered, the original album has almost doubled its length with three long tracks added as bonuses. ”Gulan” is from Pistolteatern and is to be honest a messier recording than anything on the Melltronen disc. ”Mr. Beautiful” has better in terms of focus and sound quality, but is only a so-so latin-inflected track. The real tour de force among the new stuff is ”Collage från Konserthuset” which is a complete ten minute monster, ending with variations on a theme by Bo Hansson. Those ten minutes would blow The Mothers Of Invention off the stage any given night from the same period. I promise that you've rarely heard Fläsket that dangerous, not even on the Pistolteatern album!

Full album playlist

KAJ R. HANSSON – Till dom som bryr sig om (Metronome, 1980)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

There are quite a few illustrious characters featured on these pages, but few are as illustrious as Kaj Robert Hansson, known as Räven ('the fox') due to his hair colour. Often homeless sleeping in the parks of his native city Lund i Skåne, and a criminal since early age. He was a friend of Clark Olofsson, the infamous criminal 'superstar' of the Norrmalmstorg bank robbery which coined the phrase the Stockholm syndrome. Hansson was initially a suspect too, but soon freed from suspicions when he phoned the police and said something along the lines, ”I readin the papers that I've supposedly robbed a bank but that seems unlikely since I'm in Hawaii right now”. 

Besides his criminal career he had artistic ambitions, ambitions that were crowned by an LP release in 1980. It's impossible to imagine a well known crook getting a record deal – let alone with a major label like Metronome! – in those days when deplatforming for the flimsiest of reasons is the order the day. Those were other times, indeed. For better or for worse. The prison care was heavily debated and questioned in Sweden during the 70's, resulting in such albums as ”Kåklåtar” and Konvaljen's solo album. There was a strong opinion against the treatment of prisoners, which might explain why an album such as this wasn't considered as controversial as it would be today.

Metronome put a lot of effort into making Kaj R. Hansson's only album as good as possible. ”Till dom som bryr sig om” (' to those who cares') has a thorough list of studio musicians. Mats Ronander and Finn Sjöberg appear on guitars, and an entire lot of three drummers offer their services, Ola Brunkert, Rolf Alex and Per Lindholm, all respected studio workers. Hector Bingert in turn was a seasoned jazz saxophonist. And so on.

All songs were written by Hansson, all autobiographical in nature, delivered with his soft Southern nasal drawl. He's a pretty OK lyric writer, not nauseously self-pitying over his fate but rather matter-of-fact about his life gone wrong. The songs are pretty straightforward singer/songwriter rock, not hugely imaginative but sometimes quite catchy such as semi-Stonesy kick-off track ”Ta ett tag”. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch, but habile enough rock music from the dark side of society.

Full album playlist

HARAMBEE – Harambee (Odeon, 1971)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

This is an album I've wanted to hear for a very long time and curiousity grew to expectations, and that's not good. The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. I guess we've all been there.

What I expected to get was a an album of well-crafted pop songs still under the influence of the 60's, with pronounced psychedelic elements. Something along the lines of Jason's Fleece perhaps. But it's not really the lost popsike masterpiece I had envisioned my over-vivid, hopeful mind.

It's a mellow album with pastoral touches and a rich use of harmony vocals. The album has an underground feel being recorded at home, but it's surprisingly professional sounding. The songs are on the commercial side, but not without surprises. There's a fuzz guitar breakout here, a sharp turn there, and oops! a sudden melodic twist I wasn't prepared for! There's something about the album that makes me think of a more consistent Cymbeline, perhaps even a dash of pop-minded Latin American bands such as Laghonia/We All Together and Embrujo.

Not everything here is good – ”Kalle Wall” is plain embarassing – but as my false expectations waned off, I began to hear the album for what it is, and there are indeed worthwhile moments. The fuzzed ”Regn” is a high point, while ”Tu-ru-tu” sounds like a lost, early solo McCartney demo. ”Harambee” isn't a lost treasure but it has grower qualities, and if you approach it with fewer misguided anticipations than I did, it's not impossible at all that you reach into it much quicker than me.  

Harambee made a second album in 1975 as Wasa, a much more commercial (and inferior) pop affair released on Polar Records and produced by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and ABBA producer Michael B. Tretow.

Full album

JAN HAMMARLUND – Järnvägsräls - Live (Silence, 1982)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

As always with Jan Hammarlund's albums, it's a lot more fun to see who appears on them than it is to listen to them. This time, Kenny Håkansson joins forces with Ye Olde Helium Warbler. A live document recorded on various locations in the early summer of 1982, it's a set of songs not appearing on any other Hammarlund albums up to that point. With mostly band accompaniment, it has a fuller sound than other albums of his, but as many of the musicians (Håkansson included) adopt an up-to-date early 80's sound, it still sounds slicker than a lot of his prior work, especially with Dane Niels Hofman on fretless bass (not a good thing).

The album is notable for featuring a first ”Jag vill leva i Europa” that became something of a signature song for Hammarlund, especially when re-recorded a couple of years before the Swedish EU referendum.

Full album playlist with bonus track

HAI & TOPSY – Jag sjunger ej om kungar, jag sjunger ej om mord... De fattigas visor (YTF, 1974)

Swedish lyrics
International relevance: *

Hai & Topsy had a rather colourful background. Hai, real name Heinrich Frankl, was born in Wiesbaden in Germany to Jewish parents. He managed to flee from Germany to Sweden only a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War. (His parents were later killed in Auschwitz.) Here, he acquainted other Jewish refugees and quickly learnt a number of traditional Jiddisch songs from them.

Hai recieved a monthly grant from the Swedish quakers in the 40s, and thus he was able to attend Stockholm's premiere art school Konstfack where he met Topsy, real name Gunnel Wahlström. They soon became a couple and began performing as a musical duo in restaurants and other places welcoming their music. They became a pretty well-known act over time, and in the 60s they teamed up with the ever-present Kjell Westling along with other domestic folk musicians. Hai & Topsy's record debut was already in 1959 with a six track EP on the Cupol label, only marking the start of a long career spawning numerous of releases in various formats.

The politically oriented ”Jag sjunger ej om kungar, jag sjunger ej om mord...” (”I sing not of kings, I sing not of murder”) with subtitle ”De fattigas visor” (”songs of the poor”) was released in 1974. There's not much to distinguish it from Hai & Topsy's other albums, meaning it's chock full of traditional songs performed in the most rosy-cheeked, jolly-jolly, thumbs-up-all-day-long kind of way. They were part of the zeitgest, but their personal stories are much more intriguing than ever their music.

Full album playlist

HEAVY LOAD – Full Speed At High Level (Heavy Sound, 1978)

English vocals
 International relevance: *

Formed in 1976 as a trio by brothers Ragne and Styrbjörn Wahlquist, it wasn't until the early 80's that Stockholm band Heavy Load had their real breakthrough – as a quartet – championed by Sweden's then only high profile heavy metal journalist Anders Tengner. Albums ”Death Or Glory” and ”Stronger Than Dirt” – along with busy gigging – made them into Sweden's first prominent contribution to the ever growing heavy metal scene. With their old Norse aesthetics, they were also pioneers of what was to become known as the nebulous Viking metal style, predating even Bathory with a couple of years.

However, when ”Death Or Glory” was released in 1982, they already had one album out. Released as early as in 1978, ”Full Speed At High Level” was self-financed with support from Stockholm hard rock shop Heavy Sound who put it out on its shortlived imprint bearing the same name as the shop. Falling somewhere between 70's hard rock and the not yet fully developed heavy metal, ”Full Speed At High Level” not only suffers from being insufficiently self-produced, but worse: inexperienced songwriting and amateurish playing. Ragne Wahlquist's vocals are laughably bad, weak and screechy, much like the guitars actually. The drums (handled by Styrbjörn Wahlquist) try so hard to be powerful, but due to the inferior production, it sounds is if they never quite gel with the rest of the music. Dan Molén's bass is perfectly audible though, flipflopflapping about in the midrange. It takes only one listen to ”Full Speed At High Level” to understand why Heavy Load was once dubbed Sweden's very own Spinal Tap.

The best tracks, if you can find anything here worthy of that description, are also the two most rooted in prog, the rambling, twelve-minute ”Storm” and ”Caroline”, which could have been moody with a producer without a broken hearing aid.

Heavy Load's later albums aren't good either, but at least the band hade obtained some clue of what they were doing by then. Here they just don't know squat. ”Full Speed At High Level” flaps and flaps like a psychotic turkey, never going anywhere but right down to the ground. It's easy to poke fun at this meltdown as the ambitions are so high and the results are so low, but honestly, it deserves no better than being laughed at – hard. It's more comedy than anything else, and a definite must-hear for fans of grand fails.

Full album

HUSMODERNS BRÖST – Där fruarna bor (Amalthea, 1979)

Swedish vocals, instrumental

International relevance: **

At a first glance, this looks just like your standard feminist pamphlet, but it's a lot better executed than most of the albums in that field. Vocals are way better, and the jazziness sometimes suggests inspiration coming from Joni Mitchell's elastic vocalisms.

Malmö's Husmoderns Bröst were formed as an instrumental combo already in 1974, and by the time their first and only album ”Där fruarna bor” (”where the wives live”) came out in 1979, they sure had gained their chops. The album displays tight and versatile playing, and just like the vocals it has some jazzy edges that thankfully never strays into fullblown fusion. The songs cover a lot of ground, ranging from the Latin moves of ”Samba allergi” and ”Kork o plast” to the semi-reggae of ”Husmoderns affär”, from the disco allusions of ”Husmoderns disk-o-bänk” to the Steely Dan-ish slickness of ”Husmoderns vals” (which despite the slickness stands out as the collection's best track).

While it is nice to hear an album once in a while where the players actually can play good enough to get their point across musically, I have to say that ”Där fruarna bor” is a bit too clinical. It was released in 1979, at the tail end of the progg era, and as confirmed by several albums from around the same time, the heart and soul of the Movement had pretty much gone out of it and become something different and not necessarily better. ”Där fruarna bor” is an OK album, but comes off as a bit pedantic at times, and while it has its moments songwise, I'm left with an unsatisfied feeling once its over. It's a lot more accomplished than (the more entertaining) Röda Bönor and a lot more gratifying than, say, ”Tjejclown”, but it simply goes a bit too far into the realms of perfection to engage.

Husmoderns Bröst also appear on Silence album ”Bara brudar”, as well as ”Min søsters stemme” on Danish label Demos, both albums released in 1978 and recorded live at feminist music festivals. They disbanded in 1980, with their most prolific songwriter Maria Lundström continuing in music, releasing several solo albums from the 80's and on.

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JONAS HELLBORG – The Bassic Thing (Amigo, 1981)

Instrumental

International relevance: **

Jonas Hellborg is a world renowned bassist having played with a plethora of bands and musicians as diverse as John McLaughlin, Material, Public Image Ltd. and Ginger Baker. He's best known as a jazz fusion player, and although this his debut album shows him a solo player in the strictest sense, it's still a fusion album, with fusion moods, fusion moduses and fusion methods. Stripping away every other musician to let the electric bass be all and everything doesn't change that. And if your standard fusion album is a group exercise in picking fluff out of your umbilicus, "The Bassic Thing" even more of a belly button scrutiny. I never understood the notion of the bass – or for that matter, the drums – as a solo instrument as anything but a show-off by someone who doesn't know his or her place in an ensemble setting. And a show-off this is. I'm bored to ashes before even the first track is finished, and then there's 35 more minutes to suffer by. File under 'patience flagellation'.

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HÖJ RÖSTEN – Höj Rösten (Oktober, 1974)

Swedish vocals
 International relevance: **

With Gunnar Idering, Marie-Louice Söderström and Crister Jonasson from Fria Proteatern at the core of Höj Rösten, this album made me want to smash my furniture in anger and disgust before I had even heard it. (Patient followers of this blog know well what I think of Fria Proteatern.) But as I'm actually a very peaceful man, I restrained myself and chairs and tables are still intact around here.

What's more surprising is that Höj Rösten's lone album is actually very listenable. While the kitchen sink politics are still tiresome (it is, after all, an Oktober release), the songs themselves are much better here than on any Proteatern album. Tobias Petterson wisely points out in his ”Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Music” that, ”here the focus on the music content is much greater, retaining the pop sensibility from Idering's 60's band The Mascots so clearly lost on Fria Proteatern”. Very true. ”Femtio år vid maskinerna” is downright beautiful, and ”När man kör en Scania-Vabis” has a lilting groove that reminds me of a slowed-down ”Sympathy For The Devil”, and the reoccuring guitar solo retains that feel. Some biting guitar can also be heard on ”Historien är gravid”.

It's indeed a rare thing with a political album sporting any proper interest in real songwriting – it's almost always message before music – but this is a very fine exception. ”Höj Rösten” is genuinely enjoyable, and it firmly puts the lid on the garbage can where I threw my Fria Proteatern albums and buries it right where it belongs, in the ground where all toxic waste is buried.

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