BLÖDARNA – Diggar ditt hål (Heartwork, 7” 1979)

 
English vocals, Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***

I thought long and hard about how and where to fit this one in. There's no album to link it to as a postscript, and lumping it in with other singles seemed awkward too as it's such a solitary beast. So finally I decided it deserves a post of its own. But first, a little history lesson.

Stry Terrarie (née Anders Sjöholm) roared his way into music with punk band Kriminella Gitarrer (=”criminal guitars”) in 1978. Often heralded as the first Swedish punk band, they made an immediate impression with their debut single ”Vårdad klädsel”, which to this day remain perhaps the most violent and abrasive assault on your eardrums ever recorded in Sweden – it's so explosive that it has earned international recognition through its inclusion on one of the volumes of the ”Bloodstains” punk compilation series. Several acclaimed singles followed (although none had quite the same ballistic impact as ”Vårdad klädsel”), but it was a track off 1979 various artists compilation ”Svensk pop” that draw ”normal people's” attention to them. When ”Knugen skuk” was played on radio show ”Ny våg” it was immediately banned, contemplating as it did the nature of the reproductive organ belonging to the King of Sweden.

Following the disbanding of Kriminella Gitarrer in 1979, the musically restless Stry Terrarie initiated several different bands, all of them excellent: Besökarna (”the visitors”), Stry & Stripparna (”Stry & the strippers”), Garbochock and – Blödarna (”the bleeders”). It's often hard to discern where one band ended and the next one began; it's not unfair to say their line-ups are in a continuous fluxus state. What can be determined though, is that Terrarie gravitated towards a much darker sound in many of those bands, far removed from the foundations-rattling ferocity of Kriminella Gitarrer. You can for instance sense an air of The Doors in Garbochock, but his psychedelic leanings never manifested themselves as succesfully and profoundly as in Blödarna (which really was the seed for Garbochock)..

With only one single released plus a lo-fi contribution to the exquisitely rare V/A cassette-only release "Eldbegängelse", Blödarna are an almost mythological parenthesis. At least until you hear ”Diggar ditt hål” (="digging your hole"). Recorded live on stage, the twelve minute track moves slowly like menacing shadows in the dark. The lyrics switch between Swedish and English, but the vocals are barely audible anyway, and often come through like paranoid yelps among the persistent, droning organ and the piercing guitars zig-zagging their way between Television's brothers-in-arms Tom Verlaine & Richard Lloyd and a malicious Robbie Krieger. The creeping mood won't change until two minutes before the end when the song slowly speeds up to an almost ”Psychotic Reaction”-like frenzy with Terrarie definitely going over the edge vocally.

It still sounds sick, twisted and bizarre: a true gem, a classic, a masterpiece, a milestone. Is it progg? Is it psych? I don't know, but it grew out of the very same soil as once Älgarnas Trädgård, Träd Gräs & Stenar, and Arbete & Fritid's ”Petrokemi”, it only flourished differently.

Full single playlist (Bandcamp)

THE DEEJAYS – Haze (Hep House, 1967)

  
English vocals
International relevance: *

Mentioned in the postscript of ”The Encyclopedia Of Swedish Progressive Music”, which is the only reason why I feature them here. But unless you're a die-hard fan of mid 60s beat music, you could pass on this album – if it wasn't for the final track. ”Striped Dreams Checked Fear” is marvellous slice of top level Euro psych. A better way to check it out however is through volume one of the ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils” series.

The Deejays were in fact a British band active in Sweden, and they had another album out the year before, plus numerous singles between 1964 and 1968. They had a few more decent tracks, but none can compete with ”Striped Dreams Checked Fear”.

Full album
or go straight to "Striped Dreams Checked Fear".
There's also an extended version of it. 

THE OUTSIDERS – Inside Outsiders (Mellotronen, 2024; rec. 1965-69)

  
English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: **

The Outsiders only had three 45s released in 1967 and 1968, all an different labels, but they were enough to cement their lasting reputation of being one of Sweden's loudest and rowdiest mod/garage/freakbeat bands. True they were, at their best, a combo that would give most other outfits a run for their money, and that includes Namelosers and Lea Riders Group. No wonder The Outsiders became one of Jimi Hendrix's favourite bands.

Given their slim output, it wasn't obvious they'd be honoured with a a full length compilation, but the guys at Mellotronen managed to dig up a number of previously unreleased recordings for the 2024 limited edition archival collection ”Inside Outsiders”. It is short though, not even a full 30 minutes, and only about half of it is relevant to this blog. I've decided to present it in its entirety anyway.

The core of the album is obviously the three singles ”Don't Fight It/From Four Until Late”, ”So You're My Sister's Boyfriend/Kinda Dead” and ”On My Magic Carpet/Inside Of Me”. ”Don't Fight It” is an OK mod groover with nods to The Small Faces and their peers, while ”From Four Until Late” sounds more like a silly leftover from the beat era and definitely old hat in 1967, even by Swedish standards. ”So You're My Sister's Boyfriend” follows along those lines, a real ”meh!” in The Outsiders' minimal catalogue. However, this stupid vaguely music hall inspired dud is balanced against their first true victory on disc, the flipside ”Kinda Dead”. It shows that Hendrix's love for the band was mutual – ”Kinda Dead” falls somewhere between ”Hey Joe”, ”Foxy Lady” and ”The Wind Cries Mary”. It's in moderate tempo with a distinct bass line, backing vocals hovering like ghosts in the background, and a confidently sneering guitar solo.

But it's the third and final 45 that is the prime proof of The Outsiders' potential. Both ”On My Magic Carpet” and ”Inside Of Me” rank with the best UK freakbeat singles of the era. Two true classics that showed such great promise for the future. Had The Outsiders only kept going instead of calling it quits in 1969, they'd easily had beaten Mecki Mark Men in their own game.

A trip to London meant gigs at The Marquee and The Speakeasy, but a promised contract with Mercury Records that would have led to a Brazilian tour fell through when bassist Sten ”Plutten” Larsson didn't want to go. When lead vocalist Thomas Hermelin then left the band, British singer Roye Albrighton joined instead, and with some further line-up changes, the band kept going for a little while before eventually breaking up entirely in 1969. (Albrighton later joined fellow exile Brits in German band Nektar.)

”Son Of A Gun”, recorded live in early 1969, opens ”Inside Outsiders” and shows just how far the band had gotten from their humble beginnings in 1965. A heavy, guitar driven progressive blues track clocking in on almost five and a half minutes, it's very different to the three home recordings from 1965 also featured here, presenting The Outsiders as a rather shaky instrumental surf rock combo. ”The Cruel Sea”, ”Pipeline” and ”Foot Tapper” are interesting to hear as a comparison, but they certainly drag the album down. Together with the short total playing time, they suggest that maybe there wasn't too much in the vaults to choose from.

The remaining two 1966 studio recordings are closer to the 'real' Outsiders. ”Dancing In The Streets” is a passable Motown tribute, while ”Milk Cow Blues” is a youthfully revved-up cover of The Kinks' cover of said song. Not great but still more convincing than what many other Swedish beat bands produced around the same time.

As you can tell, ”Inside Outsiders” doesn't work as a cohesive album. (The closing interview snippet with Noel Redding/Jimi Hendrix may be only 11 seconds long, but is still an unnessary addition only adding to the scattered feel.) It's an overview of a band in constant search of a style they found only shortly before they gave up. The real shame is they never got a proper album together in 1968/69, but chances are almost zero there are any more studio recordings left unreleased after Mellotronen's trawl through the surviving tapes. Unless a miracle happens, like someone finding a good or at least decent quality tape of a full late period gig, this is what we have and this is what we'll get. And given the shocking collectors prices for the original singles, it's also the only way to get the three really good Outsiders tracks to an affordable sum.

Full album playlist

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

SAMBANDET – Gud är! (no label, 1976)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals

International relevance: **

This is one of the most striking obscurities from the Swedish Jesus underground. Still largely undiscovered, two tracks were included on Subliminal Sound's excellent ”Frälst!” comp, so I suspect it's only a matter of time until prices skyrockets. (One guy on Discogs already tries to cram a laughable €300 out of it – yeah, right, good luck with that.) Until then, it's still possible for a lucky guy to pick it up for peanuts in local charity shops around Sweden.

Apart from being recognized by Subliminal Sounds, the appearance of Björn Famne immediately piqued my curiousity. Famne 's finest moment is ”Vampire”, an outrageous full frontal fuzz attack originally featured on his eponymous 1975 Rasp Records EP and later revived on ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils Vol. 3”. Those who because of that and Sambandet's two ”Frälst!” tracks expect a hard psych freak-out from their sole LP ”Gud är” (”God is”) from 1976 are sure to be disappointed though. As a whole, this is a different beast – but an intriguing one.

Those in the know consider ”Gud är” as one of the finest Xian albums ever to come out of Sweden, and it doesn't take much to get its appeal. It's much harder to pinpoint its style though, as it constantly changes. ”I Am Free” is a strangely prog-induced track with quacking wah-wah guitar, while ”Go(o)d News” is a bizarre kind of tripped-out studio exotica, with no similarity whatsoever to anything else on the album. (No wonder these two tracks ended up on ”Frälst!”) Unusual to a religious album, a large part of ”Gud är” is all instrumental. Some tracks remind me of a less trippy and more flute-folky Älgarnas Trädgård (but I might be just about the only person in the whole wide world to sense that), while ”Don't Be A Loser” could have been a Gabor Szabo outtake with its clean-sounding easy listening styled guitar work and feather-light beat. ”Happy” makes me think of a Gentle Giant getting drunker by the minute on Swedish schnapps while trying to play a sunlit jazz waltz. ”Vi tycker om att sjunga” translates to ”we like to sing” but is in fact another short instrumental which sounds as if it could have been the theme music from a 70s children show no-one ever saw. ”I Wanna Be More” in turn is Sambandet's stab at gospel but of course warped through a prism of female vocals private pressing UK folk. And so on.

”Gud är” is one of those albums so kaleidoscopic in style it's hard to understand what exactly the band was aiming for. Definitely inconsistent, but the inconsistency is also what gives it its weird charm and works to its advantage. Recorded in the semi-mysterious/semi-legendary Falks Studio in small city Eksjö, it has a ”professional low-budget” sound that goes well along with the decidedly mixed skills of the performers. (Falks Studio might even be the label, but who knows.) Björn Famne is a driven guitarslinger (and shows off his acoustic guitar chops on the renaissance sounding instrumental ”Bortom”), while drummer Kjell Ljunggren doesn't bother a sometimes sloppy beat.

The wild mood and style changes makes for a truly original listening experience, and once you've put it on, it's hard to turn it off as you never quite grow accustomed to its bizarre versatility. Hear it ten times, and you're still not prepared for what comes around the corner. Like I just said, I've no idea what Sambandet were trying to achieve anything but whatever lept to their minds at any given moment, but in the end, the possible lack of a proper plan almost appears visionary. It's a one-of-a-kind album no matter how you look at it, and if you decide to strictly view it as a Xian album designed to woe the Lord, it only gets even stranger and even more confusing.

Is it a masterpiece? Not necessarily, but it's sure an album you don't hear everyday but one you definitely want to hear more than once in your lifetime. If only to find it out.

Full album playlist

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Frälst! A Selection Of Swedish Christian Grooves 1969-1979 (Subliminal Sounds, 2022)

 
Featured artists: Dunkersgruppen / Shepherds / Tomas Ernvik / Sånggruppen LIV / Sambandet / Birgitta Yavari / Siw Sjöberg / Alea Jacta Est / "Boppe" Bengt-Olof Perhamn / Humlans Funkykapell / Tillsammans / The Vergers / Obajda / Kyrkans Ungdom I Osby / Janne - Roberth - Willy / Mission Impossible / Vatten / Ingamay Hörnberg / New Creation
Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: ***

The American Xian (Christian) underground has been pretty well documented with several reissues of key albums and compilations extracting the best examples of what the Jesus Folk movement had to offer musically. A lot of work in that direction is still needed, but this once so neglected musical area has gained more attention in recent years than ever before. True that a lot of Xian music is absolutely dreadful to listen to, every bit as bad as it's said to be, but there are indeed albums from especially the 70s that are quite stunning, and tracks scattered on other, more uneven LP's that are worthy of resurrection. Some truly strange and bizarre music lurks in the world of Xian vinyl; fuzzed out garage rock, brain-dizzying psychedelia, singer/songwriters that are just as talented as better-known non-religious ones... and there are albums that are so weird that almost no readymade tag applies.

I don't think anyone really knows how many Xian albums were released in Sweden during the Jesus era of mainly the 70s, but with Jesus having a strong hold of Sweden during the decade, and with the Swedish Jesus movement being selfsufficient as far as recording studios, pressing plants and distribution go, a guess at several hundreds – perhaps even thousands – isn't at all laughable. Many of those turn up in the most ignored charity shop crates, and most of them remain ignored too by most flea market vinylnauts. I say most, because in some places, those maligned albums have caught more interest as the years have gone by. Somewhere on some album with a particularly appalling cover, an absolutely mindblowing track might hide. Don't forget New Creation's devastating psych anthem ”He Is There”, first brought back to life by the third volume of ”Who Will By These Wonderful Evils”! Finding just one other such track is what keeps the most hard-headed flea market hunters going despite an obvious health hazard doing so. Because bringing home ten, twenty, fifty albums of rosy-cheeked, psychotically smiling Bible thumpers, you make yourself prey to a blah-blah-ga-ga-da-da condition that may take years or more to recover from. Sanity is a fragile thing. Be careful out there.

Therefore, a compilation like ”Frälst! A Selection Of Swedish Christian Grooves 1969-1979” has been much needed for quite some time by anyone with a gnawing suspicion that they might miss out on some real goodies if you don't willingly put your health at risk. I'm somewhere in-between those who don't want to go deeper into the deep end, and those who never once betray their mission to find the next ”He Is There”, and so ”Frälst!” (meaning ”Saved!”) comes in very handy as a rough guide to the netherworld of Xian vinyl.

Compiled by Subliminal Sounds, known for their endless quest for buried treasures, the label has done some death-defying work looking in places few sane people dare to tread. It has to be said that ”Frälst!” isn't the be all and end all release -- after all, its subtitle clearly says "a selection". Thomas Ernvik is featured on all versions, but Vatten only on the vinyl version of the album; Vatten being one of the most heralded Xian Swedish bands, thanks to their hard rock sound championed by many a collector around the globe. And there are other bands that have come up with quite decent tracks too, such as Christallen, that are missing from the selection. And as always, some might questions the track picks. But the interesting thing isn't what's not here but what is. Although not every track in this collection is a winner, ”Frälst!” successfully paints a picture of a 'genre' that thoroughly contradicts the common view of it. While the sometimes over-zealous vocals and in-your-face sermonising can remain a bone of contention, there are some real fiery guitars and relentless grooving going on here, and that's what you have to focus on if you allow yourself step outside any stale preconceptions to be surprised at the width and depth of the 'genre'. I say 'genre', with quotation marks, because it's of course not correct to speak of Xian music as a heterogeneous genre: “Frälst!” contains heavy rock, tracks that head in a slight funk direction, folk, and things that can't be named anything but psychedelia.

Artists include Siw Sjöberg, Sambandet, Kyrkans Ungdom i Osby, The Vergers, Mission Impossible, Obadja and Shepherds. Some of them are slightly better known, such as Tillsammans (on Kompass) and the aforementioned Tomas Ernvik, but most of them are virtually completely unknown outside the religious world – and some probably also within the Xian community. At least nowadays. Thanks to a carefully crafted running order, “Frälst!” comes off as surprisingly consistent. Highpoints include the quirky “I Am Free” (Sambandet), the brooding “Kom till mej” (Tillsammans), the strangely ethereal “Halva världen svälter” (Shepherds) and the marvellous “Mission Impossible” (Mission Impossible) that rounds off the digital version in a doomy organ-driven fashion that easily makes it the best track in this entire lot. The vinyl version has a slightly different tracklist and ends with an even bigger bang, the aforementioned "He Is There" by New Creation. 

I can only imagine what a massive task it must have been to find these gems. Subliminal Sounds deserve all credit possible for not only excavating them, but to construct an album that is, for the most part, rewarding to a point basically no original Xian album is. It's perfectly fine to settle for “Frälst!”, but if you dare going trawling through the flea market crates that God forgot to find more of this stuff, it's a brilliant starting point to set you off.

Full album playlist on Bandcamp

NEW CREATION - Sing Out My Soul (Hemmets Härold, 1970)

English vocals
International relevance: **

Little did I know that one day, a Pelle Karlsson album would get high up on my 'must hear' list.

Some background info:

Pelle Karlsson was an unbelievably popular Christian singer in Sweden in the mid 70's. His popularity reached far beyond the religious circuit when he had a smash hit of unexpected magnitude with his version of Elvis Presley's "There Goes My Everything", transformed into a song of religious praise and devotion as "Han är min sång och min glädje". In 1973 and the years to come, he was everywhere, doing television performances and getting frequent radio plays like any secular artist. The album sold in impressive amounts, but Karlsson was a reluctant star. As a matter of fact, he hesitated to even record it, thinking he should go all in as a pastor, preaching to his likeminded on the Pentecoastal Church scene. But fate -- or God if that's your inclination -- obviously had other plans for him.

Which means that now, as the era of Jesus music as we know it is long gone, you see his breakthrough album in every flea market and charity shop all over Sweden. There are in fact so many of them that you'd be honestly surprised if you walk into a junk shop with only five crappy albums on offer and Karlsson's album isn't one of them. This in turn has led to a peculiar cult among crate diggers with a particular sense of humour: When you find the album (lovingly nicknamed "Pelle's green one" due to the cover art's background colour) in a charity shop, front the album, i.e. put each copy you find in the very front of each record crate. Thus you can easily tell if a 'fronter' has been there before you.

There's even a short radio documentary (in Swedish) made about the album itself and the odd phenomenon it later initiated.

I doubt that very few people too young to have experienced Pellemania partaking in this tongue-in-cheek cult has even heard the album. And most of us who indeed are old enough usually try to ignore that we did. Not that Pelle Karlsson was a bad singer. True he wasn't the most pitch-perfect singer ever, and true his vibrato might be just a little bit over-developed, but he was in possession of a sonorous voice with a wee bit of Elvis in it. It's just that the whole thing has become a standing joke and, well, you just don't listen to his albums. That's 'albums', in plural, because he released several before retreating to congregational activities which is still his primary occupation.

So, Pelle Karlsson is not someone you put on your want list.

But -

As the third volume of compilation series "Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils" was released in the mid 00's, "He Is There" by New Creation featured on the album rose to admiration. All for a good reason -- "He Is There" is simply one of the most impressive psych tracks to emerge out of Sweden, ever. I know for a fact that my jaw wasn't the only to drop with a loud 'thud' when I heard it for the first time. My jaw was seriously disjointed once I learnt that the singer in this obscure band was one Per-Olof "Pelle" Karlsson.

I've been on the hunt for the album from which it - "Sing Out My Soul" was taken from ever since. People have found it in charity shops for next to nothing, but I'm not one of them. It's kept eluding me, slowly turning into a fixation: I'VE GOT TO HEAR IT! I was expecting heaven (after all, chances were somehow good for that...) but was prepared to be disappointed (because most Christian albums are crap, especially if they're Swedish). No way the album as a whole could possibly match the stunning grandeur of the doomy organ-laced "He Is There" with a fuzz guitar solo to knock buildings into dust.

And so, thanks to a friend of this blog, the album finally came my way. The waiting was over. The kingdom of the Lord was at hand.

But let's be frank: "He Is There" is in a league of its own. No other track here comes even close in mood, intensity and characteristics. The second best track is "I Surrender All", with surges of wah wah and soulful vocals. It's also notable for its blatant theft from Pugh Rogefeldt's "Här kommer natten" released on Pugh's groundbreaking debut album "Ja dä ä dä" a year earlier -- check that guitar line at the end!

The remainder of "Sing Out My Soul" ranges from the passable to the s. Among the better of the lesser songs is the title track, a relaxed blues gospel with some more Elvis inspired singing from Karlsson to a nice laidback beat. "Amen" is the old familiar song popularized by Curtis Mayfield-led Impressions in the early 60's, here in a version with psychedelic aspirations but not as developed as it should have been to really make a memorable impression. "I Know A Place" is a heartfelt ballad that too could have pushed it further but is held back by the somewhat restrained group effort. "Calvary" in turn is a surprising Christianization of "Yesterday" (yes, The Beatles song) and counts among the LP's weaker tracks.

The whole album has an appealing garage-like sound and several good intentions but it's generally kept down by the unnecessarily cautious band supporting him. My overall impression is that "Sing Out My Soul" is a missed opportunity. It could have been so much better had it been a little bit more in your face. It's better than any of Karlsson's solo albums but it lacks the final push to make it great. If you find it cheap, it's worth a go for "He Is There" and the rather nice album cover, but don't expect too much of the rest.

New Creation had another album out on Prim Records in 1971, "Jerusalem", this time with Swedish lyrics, plus another one (also in Swedish) credited to Pelle Karlsson in 1972, "Till alla" on the Signatur imprint. The latter one is mostly remembered for the title track that features some comically unskilled sitar playing.

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 pronounciation) 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 (pronounced '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 pronounciation 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.

BRUCE & VLADY – The Reality (Svensk American, 1970)

Instrumental, English vocals

International relevance: ***

This is a bit of a stretch as this duo wasn't technically Swedish. They did however operate in Sweden during their short existence, releasing their lone album ”The Reality” on a Swedish label.

Organist and singer Bruce Powell was born and bred in Waukegan, Illinois, while noted drummer Wladyslaw “Vlady” Jagiello was of Polish origin. They met in Stockholm in 1969 where Powell had a gig at the Grand Hotel. However, the gig was cancelled when his Hammond B3 organ was damaged in transit. With the instrument left for repair for a couple of days, he had some time off in the Swedish capital. He met Jagiello at a local rock club. At the club they sat in with the act for the evening, and the two musicians got on well right away. The guys continued as a duo and got booked for several gigs at jazz hangout Klubb Ernst. There they grabbed the attention of Rune Wallebom, formerly of Swedish instro band The Violents (also known for being rock'n'roll singer Jerry Williams backing band). Wallebom was the co-owner of record label Svensk American which mainly had various dance bands and other commercially oriented singers in its roster. Wallebom promised Bruce & Vlady that if they recorded an album for him and it sold in 20,000 copies, he could break them in Great Britain. They taped the album in four sessions which – of course – didn't sell a squat. Wallebom's wife owned the other half of Svensk American, and when she divorced him, she decided to dissolve the label almost immediately after ”The Reality” was released, effectively ending all marketing and promotion before it even had begun.

Being a drums and organ duo, it's easy to initially mistake Bruce & Vlady for just another Hansson & Karlsson or Sound Express. What most obviously sets ”The Reality” apart from any of those bands is Powell's vocals, heavily steeped in American soul music and with touches of the progressive jazz of the day. He's got a good clearly soul-inflicted voice that gives ”The Reality” the upper hand of other jazz steeped bands with a similar setting. With the vocals as improvised as the music itself, the lyrics are mostly on-the-fly soul clichés with a faint religious-cum-sociopolitical bent in a slight 'life is hard, let's get together and we can make it' vein. However, the vocals add a crucial element to the music. The playing may not be as intense as Hansson & Karlsson's at their most focused, and on a few occasions Bruce & Vlady drop the ball rhytmically. But nevertheless, they manage to create a certain darkish mood that is quite appealing. Powell and Jagiello feed off each other's energy going in directions that sometimes suggests a psychedelic vibe. The album isn't a masterpiece and perhaps not one you'd play in any mood, but once you put it on it's easy to get captured by its spirit.

”The Reality” has enough drive and ideas that Bruce & Vlady could have built further upon had they continued playing together, but Powell split Sweden soon after its release in 1970 to return to the States. He later became a musical director for a Milwaukee church. He lost touch with Jagiello whose subsequent whereabouts I don't know anything about for certain, although I seem to remember reading somewhere that he died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. (If anyone has any hard facts on this, please drop me a line in the comments section below.) As far as I know, none of the duo members ever recieved any royalties for the Svensk American, but credible reissue label Vampisoul relaunched the album to a positive reviews in 2015.

Full album playlist

CYMBELINE – 1965-1971 (Guerssen, 2017)

English vocals, Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***

It happens ever so often that a band who released a good – even great – single severaldecades later instigates archival releases by labels specializing in reissues and archival releases. Sometimes those releases are best left ignored, while others actually unearth something worthwhile. This album offers a bit of both.

Norrköping based duo (sometimes trio) Cymbeline had only one 45 out on MNW's subsidiary Green Light, with ”New York” backed with ”Sixth Image” in 1970. ”New York” is an excellent slice of melodic fuzz-laced proto power pop in English (back when it was still OK to sing in English!) whereas the 'B' side has a dreamier mood akin to transient UK folk/psych/prog of the era.

With Guerssen's overview of a career that never happened dating back to 1965, it's obvious it has some poppier and less successful mid-60's moments. ”Fifth Image” is overall pretty bad while ”Look at the Stars” is sweet enough. ”Imagination” is rather evocative despite being a bit underdeveloped. Cymbeline did have a promising melodic sense already early on although it never reached the heights of highly talented Swedish beat groups such as Tages and Mascots.

There are also a few other later tracks that burden the compilation, like the painfully wimpy ”Mary Anne” and the second version of ”Stolta vingar”, decidedly inferior to the first recording of the song. The Swedish version of Jimi Hendrix's ”The Wind Cries Mary”, ”Vinden viskar Mary”, is a bit on the embarassing side too.

But when it's good, it's really good, and that goes beyond the seven-inch tracks. ”Third Image” (spot a title pattern here?) is unpolished but crunchy freakbeat with an understated chugging beat and howling guitars. ”Motala Ström” comes off like a semi-funky crossbreed of Pugh Rogefeldt and Anders F. Rönnblom. ”Flicka” in turn sounds like something a more psychedelically inclined John Holm could have come up with (although the tucked on jazzy ending is as illogical as it is unnecessary).

”1965-1971” is obviously inconsistent, with said inconsistency further emphasized by the bewildering track order. Members Michael Journath and Anders Weyde might have dreamed of putting out an album for some 40 odd years, but had they been given the opportunity to do so before their breakup soon after their lone 45 was released, it would definitely have been a more cohesive record. But that said, and with the primitive nature of many of the recordings firmly in mind, this is an essential trophy of previously unrecognized talent. The good bits easily make up for the lesser moments here.

Full album playlist (Bandcamp)

THE GIMMICKS – Mixed Up Lydia's Pickin' Up Painted Ping Pong Balls (Polydor, 1970)

English vocals
International relevance: ***

”Mixed Up Lydia's Pickin' Up Painted Ping Pong Balls” (say that fast) is to me what people say Tropicalia spearheads Os Mutantes are to them. It's a flowering mix of everything available – psych, easy listening, bossa nova, jazz, baroque pop and then some. All tossed into the air and then put back together again in kaleidoscopic patterns with the healthy craziness of mavericks and wild curiosity, all for the love of music and all for the fun of possibilities.

Before and after ”Mixed Up Lydia”, The Gimmicks were a pretty straight-forward Latin loving lot à la Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, but everything exploded in 1970. It actually exploded twice, because also in 1970, they released the equally whimsical ”Make Feel Good” 45 with ”Bermuda Inn” on the flip – two tracks that would have blended in perfectly with the others on the album.

”Mixed Up Lydia” is so vivid and vital and effervescent and playful and bright there's no way I couldn't love it. It's so beautifully void of dead serious pretentions; intricate yes, and acheiving, but always inviting and never exclusive. I can honestly say there's no other Swedish album sounding like this, not before and not after. A lovely little gem! (Great cover by Swedish horror painter Hans Arnold too.)

Full album playlist

7":

Make Feel Good + Bermuda In:n

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