Monday, August 20, 2018

FREEDOM SINGERS / DE FÖRENADE FNL-GRUPPERNA – Albums 1968-1974

Two groups, closely related to both each other and the Gothenburg communist party KPLM(r), with anti-imperialist lyrics dealing with the liberation of Vietnam. Maria Hörnelius and Marie Selander were both among the many Freedom Singers members.

FREEDOM SINGERS – 68 (Befria Södern, 1968, 10”)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Freedom Singers first album, an eight track ten inch, was a joint venture by the FNL groups of Gothenburg and Stockholm. The music is part American sounding protest songs (ironically enough), part Swedish styled singer/songwriter, and part standard fare communist anthems. ”Befria södern!” has become a classic of sorts in the circuits of like-minded, and also gave name to the bands' own label.

FREEDOM SINGERS - Antiimperialistiska sånger (Befria Södern, 1970)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Second album is mainly the work of the Gothenburg FNL faction, but it doesn't helped making the music much better. If you've heard one of these albums, you've basically heard them all. But at least this one has a couple of decent songs if you can look beyond the dreadful genre typical fist-waving, more precisely ”Wall Street”, the Jefferson Airplane inspired ”Richard Dollarhjärta” (their best track), and Fugs cover ”CIA-visan”, the latter two with full band backing including fuzz guitar. ”Bläckfisken” (not the Björn Afzelius song) is passable. Anthem ”Befria Södern” makes another appearance.

DE FÖRENADE FNL-GRUPPERNA
Till det kämpande Vietnam (Befria Södern, 1971)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Includes contributions from various FNL groups from Stockholm and Uppsala in a standard protest style with few variations. Some tracks sound like Fria Proteatern with accordion. Horrible. And for the third time, ”Befria Södern”. 

DE FÖRENADE FNL-GRUPPERNA - Vietnam är nära (Befria Södern, 1972)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

More of the same, although the lush string arrangement on ”Vid läsningen av Ett tusen poeters antologi' is an (temporary) advancement. ”Maktens män” and ”Roten till det onda” feature a full band but aren't as 'good' as ”Richard Dollarhjärta”. ”Avskedet” and ”En kamp på tusen slagfält” are the least maddening tracks here. And oh, ”Befria Södern” finishes off the album.
DE FÖRENADE FNL-GRUPPERNA - Framtiden är vår (Befria Södern, 1974)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

”Vi hjälptes åt” almost sounds like something UK folk prog band Spirogira could have done, for what it's worth. ”Basarbetaren” has some of that ”Richard Dollarhjärta” fuzz but it's still a crap track. And in case you thought they had forgotten, they didn't: Here's the fifth version of ”Befria Södern”.

Freedom Singers released on further album, ”Lär känna Vietnam”; recorded live in 1973 with a Vietnamese song and dance group (and including ”Befria Södern”). They also released a 1975 EP, ”Vietnam Kambodja befriade!” to celebrate the end of the Vietnam war. Thankfully, that was the end of Freedom Singers/FNL-grupperna as well.

Of course I concur with the sentiment here – it's needless to point out that the Vietnam war was a disgrace to mankind, but the fundamentalist vibe to these record is as repellant as on many political albums in a similar style. Sitting through these albums one more time for the review made me nauseous. I felt physically ill, I kid you not. Also, they are outdated, at best an academic reminder of the dogmatism of bygone days.

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