BJÖRN FAMNE – Björn Famne (Rasp, EP 1975)

English vocals, instrumental

International relevance: **

Despite being only a five-track 7” EP, Björn Famne's lone solo outing is a split personality work musically speaking. It features a semi-spacey take on classic trad tune ”Visa från Utanmyra” with soft wah wah, vibraphone and acoustic guitar clearly nspirated by UK folk guitars such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Davey Graham. The acoustic twin guitar work of Renbourn and Jansch is also evident on ”Bach Goes to Town”, while ”Mañha De Carneval” is soft late night bossa nova. ”Njudungssjåttis” is a bluesy rock'n'roll track of little merit.

The track here that really stands out here is the EP's only non-instrumental and also Famne's most famous one, ”Vampire”. Full of wild, screaming electric guitars over a persistent heavy groove it wouldn't have been out of place on Scorpion's ”I Am The Scorpion”. It would also have been the best track on that album. Instead this example of excellent half sloppy hard rock was resurrected for the third volume of the comp series ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils" which turned into a fullblown classic.

Björn Famne is still active and has played with several bands in different genres over the years. His recorded output is relatively meagre though. Apart from this very rare EP (made a bit more obtainable by the Woah Dad! Record Store Day 12" reissue in 2016), there are a couple of tracks by Famne led band Famntag on the local ”Aktiv Ungdom: Alsterett” V/A comp. He also made an album and a couple of singles with Örebro band Lix in the early/mid 80's, and appeared on an EP by Christian youth choir Ingarps Ungdomskör, ”Jag vill leva nära dig” (release date unknown).

Full album playlist