ZETA – 1974 (Mimo Sound, 2019; rec. 1974) / Svart Dag (Mimo Sound, 2024; rec. 1977) / Speleman/Walking Down The Starway (Sonet, 7", 1978)

After drummer Björn Malmros's stint in Alexander Lucas, he formed his own band Zeta in 1974. Originally a four-piece, they went through a couple of line-up changes before debuting for Sonet with single ”Speleman” in 1978, followed by a second 45 ”Vicken tjej” in 1979. By that time, the sound had changed fundamentally to a mainstream kind of AOR of no interest to this blog. However, very different sounding recordings by previous incarnations of the band exist and have trickled out on streaming platforms over the years. 

1974 (Mimo Sound, 2019; rec. 1974)
Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***

From their formation year of 1974 comes this 26 minute studio session. Three tracks are untitled instrumentals, and as they don't really hold up as such, my guess is they are unfinished backing tracks supposed to have vocals overdubbed at a later stage. That leaves five tracks that reveal a band surprisingly mature in their fledgling year. The vocals are a bit weak (especially on the only English speaking track ”Burning”), but the music is good-to-great early hard rock that surely would be in high demand among collectors had it only been released back in '74. Some tracks are straight up excellent, such as ”Jag går genom staden” and most notably ”En alvkung” – a classic had it been given the chance to become one. The tapes are a bit hissy, but if someone took the time to clean them up, most of these tracks are well worthy of a proper release.

 

Svart dag (Mimo Sound, 2024; rec. 1977)
Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***

Three years later, and Zeta had become a power trio with only Björn Malmros left from the original incarnation. Despite being recorded in 1977, this nine-track tape – only 21 minutes long – is quite unaffected by the burgeouning heavy metal sound of the era and is much closer to old school hard rock, with the possible exception for the closing instrumental ”Fantasia”. ”En alvkung” makes a reappearance here in a version standing up for itself not needing any comparisons to the original take. Again, some careful noise removal and sensible remastering is all it takes, and then this is ready for vinyl. Make it side 2 of an album with an accurately trimmed down version of the 1974 session on side 1 and you'll have a pretty brilliant slice of long-lost underground hard rock from the classic era.

 

Speleman / Walking Down The Starway (Sonet, 7". 1978
Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: *

The first proper release from Zeta was this 7”, but the last to warrant inclusion here. The decline into a very uninteresting mainstream sound had already begun, even though it's not as bad as it soon would be. ”Speleman” is decidedly the better track of the two, with some light progressive touches, but compared to ”1974” and ”Svart dag”, this is ignorable. Issued in red vinyl in Sonet's "Swedish Tracks" series.

Like I mentioned earlier, a revamped Zeta released one further 45 (in 1979), and there are more previously unreleased tapes available for streaming. But none of these are attention worthy, with very little left of what made them so good in the beginning.

1974 full album playlist 
Svart Dag full album playlist 
Speleman full single playlist 

NORRTELJE ELITKAPELL – Oskapliga låtar (Oktober, 1978)

  
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, other languages
International relevance: *

Second album by a largely unsatisfactory folk group with an emphasis on fiddling. ”Oskapliga låtar” sounds like a mix of Norrlåtar and Skäggmanslaget but much more lightweight and less finesse than any of those. The best track in this lot is ”En gång i min ungdom” which sounds a lot like Folk & Rackare's mid-period albums with crumhorns added.
 

”Oskapliga låtar” was originally released by Oktober but reissued in the mid 80s by Sonet. The reissue has a different cover (see above), confusingly enough similar to the one used for the band's first album ”Luffarschottis” from the previous year.

Noteworthy guest appearance: Malanda Gassama on percussion. Per ”Puma” Hedlund is now a fairly wellknown key harpist.

Full album playlist 

PURPLE HAZE – Det är så man undrar... (Plebb, 1981)

 

Swedish vocals, English vocals

International relevance: **

Purple Haze were the continuation of Plebb who released the excessively rare ”Yes It Isn't It” on their own label in 1979. The hard rock leanings of Plebb were mixed up with an AOR style in Purple Haze. Although ”Yes It Isn't It” wasn't a particularly great album, it was better than ”Det är så man undrar...”. The vocals are still the weakest link – I hear what Purple Haze are trying to do, but they don't get there because of the lacklustre singing.

Originally a mini album of six tracks, ”Det är så man undrar...” was expanded with four songs when reissued on streaming platforms in 2013. There's no info on when those were recorded but they sound similar to the original album so perhaps they were outtakes left off to cut pressing costs. Ironically enough, their best track ”Koppla av” is among them. It's not great, but a tad better than anything on the original release.

Full album playlist with bonus tracks

PETER WARTIN & CLAES NORDENSKIÖLD – Claes Nordenskiöld & Peter Wartin (PETCLA, 1978)

 

Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: *

Claes Nordenskiöld isn't a too familiar name, but Peter Wartin was in semi-hard rockers Baron Bult who released two 45s, and later still in the imperatively ignorable synth poppers Super Tele Group.

This duo album shows only little of what was to come in only a few years. The foundation is vocals and acoustic guitars – no drums – with some electric guitars, piano, soprano sax. One track even have a fusion violin that sounds like a garage take on Jean-Luc Ponty. The few short (semi-)instrumental tracks scattered across the album has a slight relaxation music vibe, but there are in fact a couple of boogie styled numbers that reveal that Wartin had some premature Baron Bult inclinations already at this stage. But apart from those, there's very little resembling actual rock music here. 

Being recorded in the internationally renowned Decibel Studios in Stockholm the sound and production is on a high level, but the album nevertheless retains a slight underground feel I can't quite put my finger on (I guess the homemade looking album cover helps). The songwriting is indistinct, some lyrics lightly political, and the album as a whole feels vague and unsharp. And with neither Wartin nor Nordenskiöld being particularly memorable singers, the album just passes more or less unnoticed.

Hur mycket är lagom 
Väntan 

RUBBET – Skörden är stor (KN, 1982)

 
Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: **

I hoped this would be a great lost Christian hard rock album. I was right in three respects: it's lost, Christian and hard rock but it's not particularly great. More than half of the songs come from a musical Rubbet wrote about a fictional character named Ben Josef who witnessed the crucifixion of Christ and then turn to him just in time for the resurrection. All songs except one have vocals, many of them with rather dark lyrical concerns which is a rather welcome change to the usual rose-coloured jubilation marring so many Christian releases. The lyrical level isn't too impresive though, and pretty much like the album in general: a rather mediocre effort with uninteresting vocals and a mish-mash of then current hard rock clichés. But the clichés are still preferable to the lame attempts at reggae (”Hej BJ”) and funkiness (”Vaktens sång”) plus a couple of dutiful and unimaginative ballads.

”Skörden är stor” looks like a private pressing but was in fact released by the small Skellefteå label KN – initials for label owner Kjell Nästén – which had a couple of progg related items out (including a late 7” by Kurres Kapell) before folding in the mid 80s. The production is rather professional sounding but a little bit to close to the sound aesthetics of the era.

Rubbet had two songs on the "Rockplock" compilation, and a second album in 1984.  

GAARDA BAND – Vi bygger landet (A Disc, 1980)

  
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Another A Disc album to test your patience. This time by Gaarda Band, an acoustic three-piece stylistically somwhere between hootenanny folk singing and jolly Swedish visa. All lyrics are in Swedish and rich with the usual bland political platitudes typical to A Disc releases. Bad to begin with it gets even worse with embarrassing stabs at ”humourus” portrayals. ”Om det händer mig nåt” is surprisingly enough a pretty good song, but there's no way it can outweigh the otherwise ropey songwriting and singalong message ditties.

Full album (poor sound)

OMAR – Archival releases 1978-1982

 

 Omars Greatest Hit... And 14 More 1978-1986 (no label, 2014; rec 1978-1986)

Swedish vocals, English vocals

 International relevance: *

Omar were a four-piece from Värnamo in the Småland region who released one sole 12” on private label Lucas in 1978. But they taped a lot more, although much of it was live recordings, rehearsals and demos, eventually released on streaming-only compilations. ”Omars Greatest Hit... And 14 more” contains the full 12” thus including their best song ”The Love That Once Bled”. The rest is what standard rock music of little personality. Their ”greatest hit” was apparently ”Värnamo, Värnamo” about their hometown, here featured in a live version. There are no recording dates given, but judging by the style and sound, a little more than half of the material is from 1982 or earlier. The assumably later songs is similar to what Ulf Lundell did in the mid-80s.

 

Live, Demos & Studio 1978-1986 (no label, 1999; rec. 1978-1986)

 Swedish vocals, English vocals

 International relevance: *

Covering the same period but with entirely different songs. Sound quality varies heavily from terrible to decent but the style is similar to ”Omars Greatest Hit” only with fewer songs in the 1986 style. Best track is ”Kärlek bränns” but it's still too undistinguished to make an impression.

 

Live 1982 & 1984 (no label, EP 2022; rec. 1982-1984)

 Swedish vocals

 International relevance: *

Again in the streaming-only format, this four-track live EP has only two songs within the blog's time frame and one of them was already on ”Live, Demos & Studio”. ”Om dom bara visste” was on ”Live, Demos & Studio” but in a different version, but it still sounds like most of their usual pedestrian repertoire.

 

Värnamo, Värnamo (Live och i replokalen 1978) (no label, single 1998; rec. 1978)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Two versions of the same song, the live one also being on ”Omars Greatest Hit”. Not a good song to begin with, and the rehearsal take hardly makes it any better. Probably only of interest to the friends of the band and others living in Värnamo hating the town as much as Omar did.

Several other releases of later Omar material exist, also only for streaming.

Omars Greatest Hit... And 14 More full album playlist (Spotify)
Live, Demos & Studio 1978-1986 full album playlist (Spotify)
Live 1982 & 1984 full EP playlist (Spotify)
Värnamo, Värnamo full single playlist (Spotify)