The Day After The Sabbath 75: Midgarðsormr [Swedish Special]

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TDATS 75: Midgarðsormr [Sweden 1] by Rich Aftersabbath on Mixcloud

For Vol 72, I concentrated on Denmark [edit: Here is Norway,  Finland and Iceland]. Here is the second in my Nordic quadrilogy, a Swedish special. The name is from Norse mythology, Midgarðsormr is the sea serpent that encircles the world, which it's feared will fall apart if he ever releases his bite on his tail. Lets hope that doesn't happen in the next hour at least.

What has become clear is that Sweden has by far the largest and most varied rock history of all the norse countries, so it's been a pretty mammoth task listening through it all to find the right-sounding bands for this one. I'm sure there is still a lot more to find so don't expect this to be the last Svenska volume... Sweden's 'Progg' movement was one of the reasons. It can be likened in many ways to Germany's Krautrock scene; musical collectives exploring ways to use avant-garde rock music in their left-wing, anti-commercial protests against the establishment. While the sound of the 'Progg' movement is not the driving force for this comp, it appears in a few tacks and if you want to know more I recommend a box set called "The Essence of Swedish Progressive Music 1967-1979: Pregnant Rainbows for Colourblind Dreamers".


TRACKS
01. Baltik - Leslie Briggs (1973)
       from album 'baltik'
02. Björn Famne - Vampire (1975)
       from e.p.
03. November - Starka Tillsammans (1972)
       from album '6:e november'
04. Asoka - Tvivlaren (1971)
       from album 'asoka'
05. Wildmarken - Vad Vill Dom (1977)
       from album 'och nu på sjuttiotalet'
06. Epizootic - Sunset, Emotion (1976)
       from album 'daybreak'
07. EF Band - Self Made Suicide  (1980)
       single
08. Kebnekaise - Kommunisera (1971)
       from album 'resa mot okänt mål'
09. Neon Rose - Night Birds (1975)
       from album 'reload'
10. 4 Ever - Vansinniga Berta (1974)
       single
11. The Outsiders - Inside Of Me (1968)
       single
12. Midsommar - Till Morsan (1972)
       from album 'belsebub är lös ...'
13. Scorpion - Hey Girl I'm Ugly (1970)
       from album 'i am the scorpion'
14. Charlie & Esdor - Fuck The Cops (1970)
       from retrospective 'charlie & esdor'
15. Rävjunk - Snöspår (Del 1,2 Och 3) (1977)
       from album 'uppsala stadshotell brinner'

We start with a band that has a link to Sweden's most successful musical export, and to a few bands that have appeared on the blog. 'Baltik' was a one-off studio project that included occasional Abba guitarist Janne Schaffer and Roxy Music/Quatermass/Hard Stuff/Ian Gillan Band bassist John Gustafson. Janne played guitar for many of Abba's hits and is a well known prog-jazz guitarist in his own right, he also worked with John Gustafson in the Swedish band Ablution. Baltik's "Leslie Briggs" is a great heavy opener which can easily be described as the earliest in 'prog-metal', though not typical of their album which was a curious mixture of folkish prog with a few heavy moments.

Björn Famne e.p.

The most information I can find on Björn Famne's 'Vampire' is on oscarowski's Youtube clip : "..private release recorded in the religious Falk studios in Sweden... the rest of the tracks veer towards classic guitar (no other instruments) and it is believed that this song was recorded when the sound engineer was out to have a coffe or something... what would the "almost priests" working there have said if they found out... hahaha. Compiled on the great 'Who will buy these wonderful evils'...."

Stockholm's November have appeared here before, way back on Vol2 and here is another stunning timeless sounding track that sounds as though it could have been recorded last week by a contemporary stoner rock band, though it is actually from 1972. November really were a talented bunch and had a distinctive approach to their heavy blues-tinged riffs. Though they were only together for three years, thankfully they made three albums in that time. The awesome production job is the other aspect that belies this recording's age.

Asoka were from Malmö and their background was in older band 'Taste Of Blues'. The sound changed a lot and resulted in their manic and unusual s/t album which had a playful air while maintaining the heaviness. Wildmarken were from the Sollefteå area. It's been hard to find info on them even though they were together for 5 years and had two albums on EMI, there is a little here on progg.se. They were pretty average commercial hard-ish rock but I do like this track "Vad Vill Dom" (Eng: What do they want?) which has a cool phased riff and menacing, grinding pace. Tomas Jansson and Janne Åhman went on to 'Circus' who made one e.p.

Next up is a couple of linked tracks; from 'Epizootic' and 'E.F. Band'. They both included Bengt Fischer and Pär Ericsson. Little is noted regarding Epizootic, they had one apparently self-released album called 'Daybreak' with some multi-instrumental prog and their track here 'Sunset, Emotion' is a heavy keys-assisted slab. EF Band ('EF' was derived from the first letter of Ericcson and Fischer's names) were based in Gothenburg. They made some impact in the NWOBHM scene, English member Roger Marsden went on to Angel Witch and guitarist Andy La Rocque (aka Anders Allhage) joined King Diamond. They were included on the 1st installment of the classic 1980 'Metal For Muthas' compilations and had three albums before breaking up in 1987. 1979's 'Self Made Suicide' was their first single which was recorded at Red Ball studio in Shropshire, UK in 1979.

Kebnekaise (the name taken from that of Sweden's hightest mountain) have quite a prominent place in Swedish rock history stretching back to the mid sixties. They evolved from Baby Grandmothers, who was one of the country's first heavy psych bands and supported Jimi Hendrix's Swedish appearances in 1968 along with Mecki Mark Men, another of Sweden's formative heavy psych acts. Kebnekaise resulted from a coming together of members of these bands and some more including 'Homo Sapiens' and Tages, an accomplished band that were Sweden's best answer to The Beatles.

The Baby Grandmothers' guitarist Kenny Håkansson was the driving force of Kebnekaise and as was popular in the progg scene, folk influences crept in too. It's hard to describe the first Kebnekaise album, but it's definitely unique. There's elements of everything that was happening in commercial and underground progressive rock of the time, and plenty of extremity, but it's all infused with quirky Swedish melody and personality. For instance, the track 'Resa Mot Okänt Mål' is fast and brutal by anyone's standards and it's over-laid with pinky'n perky style speeded up vocals.

Neon Rose

Stockholm's Neon Rose were a band clearly following Deep Purple's lead during the mid-seventies development of hard rock into speedy heavy metal, as the blistering 'Night Birds' demonstrates. They were lucky enough to get signed to Vertigo almost immediately on formation. After listening through all their recorded output, it's clear they had the musical chops to make it. The problem seems to me that none of their 3 albums were quite consistent enough to adequately maintain the Motörhead-like intensity which they hinted at. A good example of where a little more quality control could have made all the difference.

'4 Ever' were the initial incarnation of Stockholm's Solid Ground who I used back on Vol28. The strange thing is that the two tracks they recorded as '4 Ever' sound a lot more professional than the album that was released under the Solid Ground moniker two years later. If anyone out there can explain, please do... Stokholm's 'The Outsiders' are up next, they only recorded a few singles and both sides of their 'On My Magic Carpet / Inside Of Me' 1968 single are excellent heavy slices of freakbeat punk. There is now an interview on youtube regarding the 2024 release of previously unheard music from the band (link).

Scorpion

Gothenburg's Midsommar began life focusing on political subjects with their first album but the next one in 1972 was musically far stronger and rocked hard in places with hints of November vibe in the guitar riffs, and some pretty good brass backing it up.

Scorpion's 'I Am The Scorpion' one-album curio was produced by american producer and cult music figure Kim Fowly, who later managed The Runaways, how it came about that he was involved in this obscurity is still for me to find out.... It also has drummer Pelle Holm who was in a late lineup of Kebnekaise. 'Hey Girl I'm Ugly' is a catchy piece of acid-bluesy rock.

Bo Anders Larsson, born November 8, 1946 in Avesta parish in Dalarna County, is a Swedish sound engineer and music producer. In the 1960s, Larsson was a member of the band Tintacs from Vaxholm , which later changed its name to Ron Faust and which also included Lorne de Wolfe . Larsson was one of the founders of the record company MNW and was active there until 1973 as a sound engineer and producer, including for Hoola Bandoola Band and Blå Tåget.

Larsson released his own solo album in 1970 under the stage name Scorpio, which was produced by Kim Fowley. This album, I Am the Scorpion, is stylistically very varied and also includes tributes to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, both of whom were deceased at the time of recording. Musicians are Lasse Summanen (from Charlie & Esdor ), Hasse Jonsson (from Rowing Gamblers ), Pelle Holm (later in Kebnekajse ), Rolf Adolfsson , Sam Ellison and the entire Contact . A single was also released from this album and the following summer a new single came out with Scorpion, now with Lasse Summanen on guitar, Esdor Jensen on bass and Charlie Franzén on drums, but then Larsson's solo career was over.

After leaving MNW, Larsson worked as a producer and sound engineer in other studios. He reunited with Lorne de Wolfe in 1975 in the band Vargen , but returned to the recording desk when this band evolved into Hansson de Wolfe United.

Charlie & Esdor

Charlie & Esdor's first recorded music appeared on the 'Festen på Gärdet' live album, a collection of performances from Stokholm's 1970 outdoor festival, which according to Wikipedia, was 'inspired by the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock..... and came to serve as something of a unifying starting point for the 'progg' leftist progressive music movement.' In 1972 they made an e.p. called 'Grönt är skönt' and in 2005 Mellotronen released a great retrospective which shows the duo's varied skills in heavy folk, blues and rock, from which 'Fuck The Cops' is a particularly scathing instrumental.

Rävjunk

We wind up this one with Uppsala's Rävjunk, which literally means Fox Piss in english. They began around 1970 and played many of the progg movement's free festivals but did not record until 1977. At this time they were in a quandary about whether to follow the new punk trends or continue with their earlier space rock sounds so their only album, the home-studio made 'Uppsala Stadshotell Brinner' ended up as punk on one side and space rock on the other. Both are great though and they were clearly good at what ever they did.

Thanks for listening, Rich.

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