BOOJWAH KIDS – Med beat (Grisbäck, 1980) / Till skydd för minnet (Grisbäck, 1981)

I have something of a default appreciation for albums straddling the line of progg and punk. The ambiguity doesn't necessessarily equals great music, but the dual mindset of the combination sometimes makes it more interesting than just straight-up progg or plain punk. I have featured several bands in that ilk here before, most recently HelaHuset Skakar and prior to that Fiendens Musik, Ruff & Fukt & Suck and Kräldjursanstalten to mention some of the better ones, and there will surely be more in the future.

Från Boojwah Kids med beat (Grisbäck, 1980)

Swedish lyrics, instrumental
International relevance: ***

If Kräldjursanstalten are the prime example of Swedish Captain Beefheart-influenced angularity, then Boojwah (= bourgeois) Kids were the second tiers. Nowhere near as good and certainly not as heavy and tight as their competitors, they score high on the intention scale. ”Med beat”, released on Ulf Beijerstrand's Grisbäck label, is a 12” with six short tracks, the shortest clocking in on just 40 seconds. The arrangements are credible for what is basically non-professionals, but what holds it back is the vocals. Drummer Bertil Lundblad too often adapts a deliberately silly style. At the time, it might have seemed anarchic and tauntingly disrespectful to conventions, but forty years on, they sound stupid more than anything. The lyrics are often too contrived too, trying to hard to be ”different” and ”Beefheartish”. Foreign listeners won't notice however, but they don't ring very convincing or clever in the ears of a Swede. The best track is by far ”Med Oasen mot asen” a tribute to the punk joint Oasen in Stockholm suburb Rågsved from which also spawned Sweden's best known punk act Ebba Grön.

Till skydd för minnet (Grisbäck, 1981)

Swedish lyrics, instrumental
International relevance: ***

Boojwah Kids followed their mini-LP debut with a full-length album in 1981, also on Grisbäck. In the meantime, they'd got a tighter grip of the convoluted arrangements, but they unfortunately also recruited an additional singer named Marianne Stedstedt. With a true nerve-grater of a voice, thin and peculiarly timbre-less, she makes the album just about unlistenable. Her tuneless chanting sounds like an asylum intern which might have been the point anyway. Good for Lundblad though, whose tracks are far more digestable with Stedstedt's unmusical vocal spurts obscuring most the other tracks here. Needless to say, the instrumentals – too few in numbers and including a remake of "Boojwah Bas-tu" originally in a shorter version on their debut – are the most appealing efforts in this could-have-been-a-lot-better selection.

An early live version of ”Med en duns slutar alla att hoppas” from the full-length album had already appeared on the 1979 various artists live disc ”Oasen – En dag måste nånting hända när allt slår in”, recorded at the very same Oasen stage they celebrated on ”Med beat”.

Boojwah Kids returned in 1983 with one further 7” EP entitled ”Fake Golden Palmtrees” on the Slick label. Fittingly enough, as their music had gotten a bit more straight-ahead and polished by then, and also sung in English. Thankfully they had lost synapse sniper Stedstedt – but also a fair bit of their relative relevance. A live tape from the Tonkraft radio session also exists but remains officially unreleased.

"Hatten av" + "Med Oasen mot asen"
"Trång tågkorridor"
"Boojwah Bas-tu"
"Spansk sluttning"
"Telepati"
"Med en duns slutar alla att hoppas"