Sunday, September 9, 2018

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Ruff & Fukt & Suck (Avanti, 1979)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

A split album with three one-syllable bands on the Avanti imprint, recorded during two April nights in 1979 at the Fasching jazz club in Stockholm, and produced by Mikael Katzeff (Elektriska Linden and others). All three bands are somewhere between progg and punk, occasionally a bit similar to Huddinge band Hela Huset Skakar. Ruff is the tightest of the three and also the best with some nice sax work by singer Malte Sjöstrand on for instance ”Barnen leker doktor”. Ruff's four tracks would have made for a pretty fine EP.

Fukt is rocking away like a bluesier version of Nationalteatern. ”Psykiska batonger” has a drive that is hard to resist. Their remaining tracks are in a similar vein and are OK enough.

Suck is the band closest to punk here, partly due to Elsa Beskow's grating vocals with an incredibly annoying vibrato. Even without her, the songs wouldn't be very good. ”Ann-Sofie” has lyrics by Roger Fjellström, writer, graphic artist and translator of several French modernist authors including Henri Michaux, Antonin Artaud and René Char.

Fukt - Psykiska batonger

2 comments:

  1. Uppdrag från Kommunistisk Ungdom Göteborg för deras bolag Avanti!
    Stor frihet att hitta på vad vi ville för att presentera ett tvärsnitt av det som pågick på den svenska musikscenen då. Turnén var i det närmaste utsåld.
    Har tappat bort mitt ex av plattan!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aha! Visste inte att det var ett beställningsjobb - tack för infon!

      Delete