HOROSCOPE – Det är inte vårat fel att brännvin är populärt (TPL, 2025; rec. 1979-1980)

 

Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: **

The album title means ”it's not our fault that licquor is popular”, but having heard their only original release ”Come To Me” b/w ”Gryning” (recorded in '79, released in '80), I objected emphatically to that assertion as the only way to get through that dreck is to be properly pissed. The A side is particularly bad, with a conspicuous lack of understanding of what makes a good song good. ”Gryningen” at least has a decent riff that reminds me of Midsommar's first album, but the song is spoilt by the vocals. So when I learnt that a full album compiling the self-financed single plus two previously unreleased 1980 studio sessions... well, let's say I was skeptical.

But I'm happy to admit that while the songwriting is still a bit shaky here and there, Horoscope made some progress in only a year. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Andrija Veljaca occasionally came up with a few tight riffs and got a better grasp of his songwriting in general. His vocals are still a bit of a stumbling block, but at least they're mostly OK on the 1980 tracks. Far from being an 'A' grade hard rock band (with a couple of nods to punk), Horoscope still had their moments as proven by this album.

The sound quality is mostly good, but as the liner notes warn you of, there's some tape drag on especially ”Nytt land” that will make you nauseous if you suffer from motion sickness. The final tracks also have a more muffled sound than the previous ones. Also note that at least some copies have a manufacturing error with all 11 tracks playing as one long.

Horoscope fell apart in 1981 when Veljaca left for Karlshamn band Turbo (who morphed into long running hard rock band Mercy). He died before his time from a brain hemorrhage in 2005. Second guitarist Tommy Wirén joined Ocean after Horoscope's ultimate demise. 

Full album playlist 

ISTID – Istid (Urspår, 1980)

 
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

I don't know what put the misconception in my head that this was an album on the heavier side of things as it's clearly not. Istid's only album, released on the electic Urspår label (home to Kräldjursanstalten, Lars Hollmer, Von Zamla, Rena Rama, Lokomotiv Konkret and several others), is a rather spacious sounding effort in a folk influenced singer/songwriter vein. Two of the members were in other bands: singer/guitarist Lennart Lundgren used to be in Mendoza who cut one memorable CBS album in 1972, while bassist Christer Höglund made his presence known in two other low profile bands, Musikgruppen ACP that released one rare privately pressed single-sided LP, and the blues inflected Frontalrock and their self-released 7” ”Nattens Barn”.

Istid's capacious sound pretty much comes from them substituting regular drums with hand drums including tablas on a couple of tracks. Acoustic instruments are predominant, although best track ”Havet” adds a fuzz guitar solo to good effect. The rest of the material here is quite mediocre. 

Also, I don't like the vocals that often sound like a testosteronic Lasse Tennander. The songs are what they are, but ”Istid” would be more appealing had they skipped the vocal mannerisms. The album does have some nice characteristics but they are overshadowed by less attractive features. 

Väggen 

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Spanien 75: Solidaritet mot fascismen (YTF, 1976)

 
Featured artists: Malin Ek / Jeja Sundström / Eva-Lisa Lennartsson / Narren / Jan Malmsjö / Stefan Demert / Björn Ehrling / 27 Septembergruppen / José Barba / Monica Nielsen / Lasse Johansson / Stog Järrel / Kristina Adolphson, Grynet Molvig & Lis Nilheim
Swedish vocals, other languages, spoken word
International relevance: -

A charity album for Swedish Spanish Volunteers' Companions' Association Solidarity Fund (say that fast ten times) recorded live at an anti-fascist meeting against the Spanish Franco regime in 1975, the same year Franco died. The performers came from various genres. There's visa singers Jeja Sundström & Stefan Demert and Björn Ehrling, singing actors like Jan Malmsjö and Grynet Molvig, and a couple of acts closer to progg such as Monica Nielsen and Narren. Poetry recitals mix with Spanish and Swedish songs, and none of it is interesting to listen to fifty years on. As with basically every album such as this, it's a document frozen in time and it hasn't aged well at all. There's not one single track on this album worth hearing now. Once the proceeds from this album were transfered to the Swedish Spanish Volunteers' Companions' Association Solidarity Fund, ”Spanien 75” died just like artefacts of a purely temprary value die.

José Barba & 27 Septembergruppen - Julián Grimau 

PEDS POL – Blueskatarr (GoodWill, 1982)

 

Swedish vocals, English vocals

International relevance: **

A blues based band featuring musicians that would later go to other bands such as neo-garage rockers The Maryland Cookies and a reformed Solen Skiner. Peds Pol's only album was engineered by ex-Tempelrock guitarist Sten Tempelman.

I say ”blues based”, because Peds Pol wasn't an all out blues band. Judging by opening track ”Hungry Boogie”, they did count John Mayall among their influences, but there's a bit of straightforward pop rock here, as well as indistinct heartland rock. The most progg tinged tracks are ”Dimman” with a sort of Grateful Dead inspired ending, the ballad ”Kvinna i svart” and the jam soaked title track that ends the album. Overlong at 15 minutes, but still the best moment with some pseudo-psychedelic moves that would have livened up the entire album had they dared to show them more often. 

Dimman 
Kvinna i svart
Blueskatarr 

BENGT BERGER / ROLAND KEIJSER / KJELL WESTLING – The Vedbod Tapes / More Vedbod Tapes (Country & Eastern, 2012; rec. 1977)

  

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

This is such a beauty of a record! Beautiful for so many reasons. A unique document of a candid process reserved for the involved musicians only, secret to outsiders. A truthful representation of the naked creativity and mental interplay between a few select performers.

The select performers in question are three close friends that all have (or had, with two of them now sadly gone) a thorough track record. If you want to oversimplify it, you could conveniently express it as: Arbete & Fritid. Drummer/percussionist Bengt Berger, reed player Roland Keijser and multi-instrumentalist Kjell Westling were all part of the line-up for the first two Arbete & Fritid albums. It's fair to see them as a crucial co-founders of Swedish progg even in its narrowest sense.

The recordings on ”The Vedbod Tapes” were never made with an official release in mind. They were more of a memento for the three longtime buddies, a documentation of a friendly get-together in Roland Keijser woodshed. ”Vedbod” means ”woodshed” in English, and apart from the literal meaning, ”woodshedding” is an old jazz term for jamming. Keijser sheds (some) light on the origins of the recordings in his liner notes: ”We usually refer to this unique document as 'the Vedbod tapes'. The circumstances are not crystal clear, but the fact is that all of the music was recorded in a woodshed in south-west Dalarna in 1977. /.../ The 'archaeological digs' for the Vedbod tapes recently acquired a new urgency, and were further intensified after the sudden – too, too soon! – death in the autumn of 2010 of Kjell Westling. /.../ The music, in general, sounded good. a little sound-technique polishing but no real editing was done to these findings, we kept the documentary approach preferring to keep too much rather than too little. Ah, this is how it could sound, once upon a time, in certain Swedish realities. /.../ What do we play? Apparently free from the heart, memory and imagination. Mostly collective improvisations. But also a couple of Ornette Coleman tunes, some popular songs, the odd polska, waltz and halling, a few tango bars… But, above all, sundry lengthy chunks of unidentifiable inventions, the names of which are known only to the woodshed.”

Key words: ”free from the heart”. The trio had no rules to follow; it's like a free-flowing heart-to-heart conversation that needed no restrictions but relied on perfect equality. That's part of what makes these tapes so fascinating and rare. It's free music but on even deeper levels than as in for example ”free jazz” because it refers to more than just musical characteristics. It's the unfettered sound of a deep friendship.

Although all three of these master musicians contribute democratically to the process, the greatest triumphs belong to Kjell Westling. Although he was always happy to adapt to the prerequisites of circumstances known to the studio musician and did so with ease, here he really threw himself into the open-ended expression. If it came out as a folk fiddle or a wide open jazz jam didn't matter; he was free to follow his fancies without narrow considerations, and it's wonderful to hear. In many ways, I find this to be his grandest moments on tape because you can really hear him for all that he was – and that was a lot.

The CD features 70 minutes selected from hours of tapes, but Country & Eastern released another half an hour of digital extras in conjunction with the CD. The main portion of ”More Vedbod Tapes” is made up by the 26 minute jam ”Woodshedding 3” which in many ways is the distillate of everything that was going on during those days in Keijser's secret garden shed. Without a pre-set plan, Keijser, Westling and Berger move effortlessly between jazz, folk melodies and unprejudiced jamming, led only by their hearts, souls and deep understanding for each other. Like I said before: this is what a true friendship sounds like. 

The Vedbod Tapes full album playlist 
More Vedbod Tapes full album playlist 

HAPPY BOYS BAND – Bush (MNW, 12”, 1980)

 
English vocals, other languages, instrumental
International relevance: **

Happy Boys Band has strong progg connections as three of their members were formerly in Kebnekajse: Hassan Bah, Thomas Netzler and Rolf Scherrer. Netzler was also part of the Tillsammans collective and Scherrer used to be in Steampacket with Mikael Ramel in the 60s. Scherrer and Netzler wrote one of the 12” EP's three tracks with the other two being Bah compositions. The tracks all have a different feel to them. The instrumental ”Song To Maria (Smulan)” is unexpectedly spacey in a semi-fusion way, while ”Saturday Night” shows a clear inspiration from African high life music. ”Na Jo Na” is closer to afrofunk. Out of Kebnekajse's ouvre, ”Bush” is obviously closest to ”Ljus från Afrika”. What you think of it depends on your tolerance for African music, but even if it's not your thing, just listening to these guys play is satisfying. They're a really tight lot, and the solo contributions are top notch. Scherrer (or possibly Mats Dahlberg) delivers quite a few tasty guitar runs, especially on ”Song To Maria”.

If you're into them, you might also want to check out Happy Boys Band's Tonkraft gig from early 1981, a rather short but fiery set that at times is pretty close to Archimedes Badkar's most Afro flavoured efforts.

No links found 

THOMAS WIEHE & HULLIMULLAN BAND – Fågeln i mej (Silence, 1980)

 
Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: *

One of Thomas Wiehe's later albums recorded with backing group Hullimullan Band which is Grus I Dojjan in disguise. They're better here than on their own albums, but don't sit too well with Wiehe's songs and vocal style though. He often sounds a bit lost among all the instruments. It's not unlikely that he got a few of the ideas from The Incredible String Band's last few albums – ”Fågeln i mej” sometimes sounds like what Mike Heron's ISB songs from the 70s would have sounded like with Robin Williamson singing them. The best selection here is by far the brooding, country flavoured title track which could have been a good one by Wiehe's brother Mikael. A quite tasty number that clearly outshine everything else on the album.

Full album playlist