International relevance ***
Like a gift from above, this album appeared without much ado in late 2023. Who would have thought it? A vintage live recording to add to your collection of glorious Mikael Ramel albums! Just like that! But... in only 200 copies on vinyl, no CD, and no streaming. It's a somewhat secretive release in general -- it's an official release, not a bootleg, but it has no record label name anywhere. (The Spinroad logo on cover and label is for the pressing plant.) It's bound to become a massive rarity which is a great shame as this is an essential album to any Ramel head.
So what exactly is it? It's a recording
made for the Swedish Radio live show Tonkraft in March 1973, in
pristine sound quality. Who are backing band Unga Hjärtan? Basically
a diminished Fläsket Brinner with Gunnar Bergsten, Bengt Dahlén,
Erik Dahlbäck and Göran Lagerberg. Where has this been tucked away
for years? Who knows, but it's not a newly discovered, long forgotten
recording as it's been available to listen to on Mikael Ramel's
website. It should be pointed out though that the website has more
songs – ”Hälsa på som förr” actually loses two tracks plus
the coda to ”Pengar” from the original broadcast. Very strange as
they kept the radio presenter's intro to the show, wasting a couple
of minutes that could have been used for something more uself. And
the Dahlén sung cover of ”Heartbreak Hotel” is unnecessary – I'd much rather have seen the half-deranged
live take of ”Artificiell prana” in its place. The set list is
also jumbled. So, some small flies in the ointment but you can live
with it. Because most of what you do get is bloody marvellous! And
the mix sounds better balanced too.
The show was recorded
before Ramel's second album ”Extra Vagansa” was released, and
several songs are presented here in vastly different versions than
how they appeared in their finished studio forms. ”Så länge're
svänger” that kicks the whole thing off is a light and swiftly
moving number on the album, but here it's immersed in a heavy and
incredibly sexy groove bordering on the nasty. ”Apfigur” is
brooding enough on the album but almost ominous here. ”Lukter runt
holken” is lilting sweetly in the studio but goes bonkers here,
almost approaching chaos in the best sense of the word. And so on.
The playing is sometimes ragged (but again in the best sense of the word) but as you'd expect, also brilliant – Bengt Dahlén is particularly striking on guitar (no news there). Even the slower tracks generate so much energy that you could light up a room with it. Ramel's studio albums never sounded this mean and halfway out of their seats, so ”Hälsa på som förr” isn't just one hell of an album, it also adds something important to what we already knew about the genius of Mikael Ramel. 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished that this will get a CD release too, preferably in complete, unalduterated form. It deserves to be heard in full by more people than the tiny vinyl edition can satisfy.
You could not be more right! This is A must hear!
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