Swedish
vocals
International relevance: **
I don't know what put the misconception in my head that this was an album on the heavier side of things as it's clearly not. Istid's only album, released on the electic Urspår label (home to Kräldjursanstalten, Lars Hollmer, Von Zamla, Rena Rama, Lokomotiv Konkret and several others), is a rather spacious sounding effort in a folk influenced singer/songwriter vein. Two of the members were in other bands: singer/guitarist Lennart Lundgren used to be in Mendoza who cut one memorable CBS album in 1972, while bassist Christer Höglund made his presence known in two other low profile bands, Musikgruppen ACP that released one rare privately pressed single-sided LP, and the blues inflected Frontalrock and their self-released 7” ”Nattens Barn”.
Istid's capacious sound pretty much comes from them substituting regular drums with hand drums including tablas on a couple of tracks. Acoustic instruments are predominant, although best track ”Havet” adds a fuzz guitar solo to good effect. The rest of the material here is quite mediocre.
Also, I don't like the vocals that often sound like a testosteronic Lasse Tennander. The songs are what they are, but ”Istid” would be more appealing had they skipped the vocal mannerisms. The album does have some nice characteristics but they are overshadowed by less attractive features.
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