Thursday, July 26, 2018

SOFFGRUPPEN – Greatest Sits (Nacksving, 1975)

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

You'd be hard pressed to guess that guitarist Clas Yngström appeared on Röda Ropet's ”Spänn bågen” the same year Soffgruppen released their sole album by listening to any of them, and there's certainly nothing about his later ZZ Top boogie with successful act Sky High to reveal his Soffgruppen past.

”Greatest Sits” kicks off with the free jazz title track before moving into more tranquil territories with the second track ”Jag tänker”. These are the two extremes ”Greatest Sits” darts between, with Yngström more or less constantly bouncing off against Matz Nilsson's jittery bass and Pierre Swärd's paroxystic piano and organ, all the while Anders Kjellberg provides volcanic drum patterns one minute and a steady and funky beat the next. Yes, they add some groove along the way, and some would perhaps define the album as fusion, and well, if you'd accept that description, insufficient as it is, then this is one of the most hard-edged and best fusion albums to come out of Sweden, with some similarities to Terhe Rypdal's Min Bul. It's also one of the few really worthwhile Nacksving releases. Ironically, it almost put the newly founded Nacksving out of business before they got it started, as few could relate to the uncompromising sounds within the wonderfully creepy cover.

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