Friday, August 17, 2018

NYNNINGEN – Complete albums 1972-1976

The major Gothenburg band along with Nationalteatern who they often collaborated with. Both were part of the grandiose Tältprojektet, and at times the two bands were almost like siamese twins. Nynningen was founded in 1970 by Bertil Goldberg and Tomas Forssell, and included several noted members such as bass player Nikke Ström, keyboard player Bernt Andersson, guitarist Bengt 'Bengan' Blomgren, and singer Torsten 'Totta' Näslund.

Man mognar med åren (MNW, 1972)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

”Man mognar med åren” is to Nynningen what ”Ta det som ett löfte... ta det inte som ett hot” is to Nationalteatern, i.e. an album very different to the sound the band's best known for. ”Man mognar med åren” is largely acoustic and in a style akin to Fria Proteatern and other political independent music theatre groups. It's an inferior album with unmemorable songs and rather poor performances.

För full hals (MNW, 1973)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

”För full hals” is a collection of poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky set to music by Nynningen and remains their best known album. It's considered a progg classic with the heavy and soul inspired title track topping it off. That track's pretty amazing, and although it's the best track in this lot by far, this remains their best album.

1974 (MNW, 1974)
Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: **

Similar to ”För full hals” but with a few more progressive touches as on the instrumental ”Marschen till Caobans rike” and on Tomas Forssell's ”När så tingen börjar klarna”. A couple of songs were written with Nationalteatern's Anders Melander. Still nothing here to explain why Nynningen is held in such high regard by so many. "Ingenting händer mekaniskt" is a track written by Leif Nylén and was originally intended for Blå Tåget who turned it down for being too politically questionable. Instead, Nynningen took it on without further questions.

Äntligen en ny dag! (Nacksving, 1975)
Swedish vocals 
International relevance: **
 
Last chance for Nynningen to demonstrate their alleged excellence. Unfortunately they fail to do so. The vocals were now mostly handled by Sam Westerberg, with Totta Näslund a member of Nationalteatern at this point in time. Regardless, this is bad blues, blues in name only, stiffly performed and forced into political sloganeering. For this album, Nynningen changed label from MNW to Nacksving, and the dull lifeless sound typical to the label's releases certainly doesn't help Nynningen to a more inspiring achievement.

In 1977 Nynningen released an album together with Nationalteatern, music from the stage play ”Vi skall leva igen”. A 1973 Swedish Radio session is included in ”Progglådan”. Nynningen has since reunited whithout Totta Näslund who died in 2005.

Man mognar med åren full album playlist
För full hals full album playlist
1974 full album playlist
Äntligen en ny dag! full album playlist
Tonkraft 1973 full album playlist (tracks 1-7)

2 comments:

  1. Hejsan! Ny till bloggen, superkul att läsa den. Smaken är som baken men en liten justering: På Äntligen En Ny Dag finns inte ett spår av Totta (han hade flyttat över till Nationalteatern då), den som sjunger mest är Sam Westerberg. Titellåten tycker jag tillhör "proggens" höjdpunkter just för dess poetiska vardagsbeskrivning, inga plakat så långt ögat når, men ändå med sådan kraft. Och Sam sjunger som en gud.

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  2. Tack för uppskattningen! Du har naturligtvis fullständigt rätt och jag ska omgående korrigera felaktigheten. Ibland får man hjärtnsläpp deluxe... Tack för påpekandet!

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