COs second single, now aiming for the international market which they did quite well. It got a top position in sounds, or was it nmes, futurist-synth-toplist and lot of attention abroad. In old swedish magazines they say that they had intentions of releasing their material in english through an american recordlabel, but ive never heard of that record so i guess the plans didnt work out. Great cosmic-spacepunk:
Why Cosmic Overdoses records dont sell for hundreds of dollars on ebay is beyond me. Their music have all the great ingredients for a minimal synth-classic and even the great cosmic guitarplaying that would satisfy krautrockers as well as post-punknerds. This was their first album, recorded with extra member Regnmakaren on drums synths etc. and it has so many great tracks. Turs, about unearthly love, Puppan, the rants of an outcast, Vit Yta, an artist stuck with his white canvas and so on. The image of Hugo Ball on the cover makes some sense when you hear the semi-dadaistic lyrics. All neatly produced in the silence studio. You need this.
While im still at it, i might as well start to publish Cosmic Overdose's great catalog. Formed in 78 by Dan Söderquist(previously in Älgarnas Trädgård and Ragnarök) and Terminalkapten Gasleben (from Anna Själv Tredje) they played great spacepunk, punksynth, punk etc. with a very distinct nordic sound. This is their first single where the space in punk isnt fully developed yet, although their dadaistic approach to music is here allright. After two albums and two singles they continued as Twice A Man. Visit their myspace here. In my humble opinion the b-side is marvelous.
Okay you all better thank me for this! This single is so rare that in my years as a collector of great swedish music i have never seen this for sale once! So to my surprise i aquired this for a reasonable sum and got it in the mail today. This is maybe the best minimal synth-single from sweden ever, in parts it beats even Kitchen & The Plastic Spoons. The drummachines, the minimal guitars, the lyrics, everything is just right for a definitive classic. I have no idea who the two people behind the band is though. Iggo from Kitchen is thanked on the back cover and I guess they were from Stockholm and had some connection to Kitchen and that scene. I would be thankful for every information! But now let the music speak for itself, every one of the three songs a little masterpiece. Ah!
Svart were from Uppsala and were the brainchild of Jan Svenungson and Caiza Almén. They were heavily inspired by Souxsie and the Banshees but doesnt really sound like them, rather like great wavepop with pretentious and at times strange lyrics. On this release they were backed up by two members of local ska-punkband N-Liners, Peter Eriksson (bassplayer on track 2 & 4) and Peter Eriksson on drums, later found in Webstrarna, and Henrik Flygare who were part of Svart at this time on bass on the rest of the tracks. Jan nowadays is an acclaimed artist and you can visit his page here. Also make sure you check out their great and only album at mutantsounds. The Man Rayadaption on the cover is priceless and oh this ep was released on the famous Stranded label and also co-produced by labelowner Klas Lunding.
This has been a male dominated blog so maybe its time to see some women in action. Aptit were from Gothenburg, with bandmembers including Annica Blennerhed, later in Cortex and a solo career with a whole LP dedicated to Dorothy Parkers poems, and Ruby Berner later and at the same time a member of Abcess Exil. They played great moody postpunk/wave with sweet singing and lyrics about violence against women (Han vågar inte) and equality and the hottest topic around that time: being unique and oneself. Great band, a shame they didnt release more records than this single.
Here's a real rare one! I had never heard of them until i saw the cover in a recordshop and decided to listen to it there, and to my surprise it was really good new wave with a stomping bass through both songs. Sadly i have no information about them, the single is self-released by the band, apparently located in Malmö. Ok, the lyrics are crap but just listen to the bass and the singing. It should have been a hit back then but now it can be:
Another Heartwork release but this time with a band from Stockholm. I dont know much about them and they only released this single, its a shame because they had a really unique sound with punk blending over to art with trombone in the setting and songs about devious politicians and being oneself. Olle Schedin, who played piano, saxophone and sang in Guds Barn, previously played in Cellskräck and were later found in stockholm "supergroup" Global Infantilists with Mare Kandre. Also, Håkan Soold later played in Dom Dummaste and nowadays plays in the Plastic Pals. Great single, especially the track "Maskin". Get it:
Second and last single by great "lunda"band Anti-Stat. I dont know much about this band, and it took me a while to find their records. Mr Zetterberg had a few left in his store but, sadly, its closed down now. Anyway its more swedish postpunk:
Anti-Stat were from Lund but formed in the second wave of punk, so they were taken under the wings of the elder musicians in town. Mats Zetterberg of fantastic band Fiendens Musik acted as their manager and put out their two singles on his own label Tredje Tåget. This is really great angstridden post-punk with bleak lyrics, especially on the track Döfödd. I walked the streets of Lund with that tune in my ears. Now you too can experience the antisocial message:
More from swedens only gothband, at least theyre the only band that captured the gothic tendencies that international bands, say from UK or Middleeurope, used so well. The rest of the swedish post-punk leaned more towards an unique swedish feeling that cannot be heard from any other country. Not to say that Dansarna were poseurs or unoriginal, they did great music but i cannot see the distinct swedish quality about them. At least not on this album. This debut-LP was recorded live with songs from their early years. You can still feel the Killing Joke inspiration but also bits of the "batcave"scene in London and the lyrics is almost painstakingly gothic, with titles like "Cancerstad (Cancertown)", "Hennes Mörka (Her Dark), "Svarta Brev (Black Letters)" and so forth. My favorite line is "Jag kan få döden att skratta åt sig själv (I can make death laugh at himself)". Fantastic!
Swedens own version of Killing Joke: Dansdepartementet (here knowns as Danse De Partement 1, if pronounced in swedish it forms the word Dansdepartementet). They were from Jönköping and, unlike other postpunk bands in sweden, lasted quite long. They called it quits in 1989 and produced three LPs and a bunch of singles. All of them will appear here sooner or later as theyre all great. A funny thing though is that singer Mikael Syrén nowadays runs a comedyshow in sweden, which is kind of weird considering his gothic lyrics:
Avant Gaam were from Sundsvall in the north of sweden and only released this single and one track on a compilation that i dont have. As you can see the sleeve design is wonderful, and done by the bassplayer and singer Per Kraft who designed several covers for the local recordlabel Massproduktion, a very underrated label that released several classic records in their time and continued to do so to this day. Visit their website where i think you still can buy this single and support the independet life of sweden. Anyway the music is great Gang Of Four influenced post-punk and a real swedish classics. All classics:
As some of you might have noticed the chronological order is cast aside in this blog, I just put up whatever feels right for the day. So heres an EP from 85 by IS9, i think they were based somewhere around Gothenburg and released their records on Borås-label Vinylbolaget. This is their last release, which followed their first single and an LP. I have the LP as well and didnt quite like it when i bought it but so i was surprised when i listened to this in the shop. Its brilliant new wave with both english and swedish lyrics, of course with the middle-eighties feel but i think they managed to do something good with their sound. The title means "To search for ones tree", search it:
Another great band from Lund and as usual on the Heartwork label. Rädsla (meaning Fear) were fronted by "Lunds only skinhead" Tham, existed for about three years and were one of the backbone band of the whole Lund-scene even if their sound didnt quite match the darkness of TT-Reuter or Garbochock. Instead they played slightly catchy powerpop but with a dark edge, mostly found in their lyrics. The lyrics to Mannen is a perfect portrayal of teenage angst and depression in a seemingly meaningless world. I love it. A footnote is that wonderful singer Kai Martin does background vocals on mentioned "Mannen", so the sound you hear towards the end that sounds like a saxophone is in fact Kai and his falsetto. Their MP will follow soon, until then:
To follow up on the Att Som post here's the LP they recorded together with Unter Den Linden. Its a weird collaboration really because its not a split LP, the members of the two bands just played their instruments and material together so i guess the two bands morphed into a whole. This is another one of those "best records of the world ever" and i just love the heavy Joy Division influence that surges through the whole album. The production is great as well, as its produced by Hans Thunberg (member of Hjärnstorm, Elegi etc), and i find it very hard to point out a track that stands out from the others. Theyre all great! You all better learn swedish fast so you can dive into the black metaphors of the lyrics, with themes about death, love and accidental murders. The track "Att döda ett barn" is a musical adaption of the great swedish author Stig Dagermans short story with the same name. More Unter Den Linden coming soon but until then make sure you listen to this album many times:
Mutant Sounds posted their first single "Här i fabriken" a while ago and so here is their second and best single "Korpen och narren". They were from Landskrona, also in Skåne a region in the south part of sweden, and released a chameleons-inspired LP as well as the two singles. I had their LP but i lost it with my wife and my life. The b-side is a fantastic song about guilt and paranoia so if you dont know swedish its too bad. Its a great single though, sort of gothic new wave and im sure youll like it:
Todays offering to the gods is another compilation from Heartwork. The title means something like "Punk is nice, jazz is dangerous" and compiles a lot of great bands from the Lund/Malmö area in the south of sweden. TT-Reuter with singer/guitarist Venant does two great tracks, one livetrack from their first album, and one you dont find on any other album. The other songs is unique for this compilation as well. Another of Heartworks greatest bands, Garbochock, does two fantastic tracks and the first one is a real killer. Martti LeThargie in a pre-Blago Bung constellation also does two great tracks of minimal synth equality. The rest of the bands are quite obscure, except for City Kent, D.Kon were from Lund i think and existed only for a little while. Soldat Opiat were from malmö and i dont have any information about them at all. Both Hemliga Bosse (Secret Bosse) and Robert Widén released records on Heartwork but the tracks presented here are much better than their singles (though Widéns LP is really god pop-punk and will appear here later). Finally R. Metzenger where some of you might recognize Henrik Venants highly original vocals, i think it was a one-time band that only played a few concerts and then evolved into another loose band centered around Venant. All in all its a fantastic compilation, i mean, all the songs are pure masterpieces. Enjoy it:
This compilation is, again, one of the best records in the world. I will be saying that a lot since so many great bands came from sweden and recorded so many great albums and singles. Being another release from the great Heartwork label it contained many bands from the local scene in Lund with Svart as an exception, they were from Uppsala. The whole record is recorded live at the club 2000, located in the basement of students home Malmö Nation in Lund. Blago Bung does another great song, TT-Reuter fronted by labelboss and magic songwriter Henrik Venant plays a stripped-down version of their hit Ökenliv, Stry from Garbochock reads a poem to open up the record and then implies that the people present should consider if the world around us really is all that there is, City Kent plays their best song ever, a long brooding track about goverment control in the modern world, Svart's song is about a destructive relationship, "Ta alla mina slag!", and then... Vision does one of the best tracks ive ever heard. The bad part is that i dont have an information about them at all. If anyone knows anything about this fantastic band - contact me! And then... enjoy this fantastic compilation:
Okay, now were getting serious. Today i am speechless but ill tell you about this anyway. This record were released by Venants Heartwork label based in Lund. Martti LeThargie (or Martti Soutkari, his real name) were an old friend of Henrik and played together in a couple off bands. After a sort of solo offshoot under his own name (single coming soon!) he started Blago Bung together with Jan Fornell and Kamilla Lindström although i guess several others played as they went along, among others one Träfrack (if anyone have some info about this guy id love to hear it. was he even real?). This was their only recording and its one of the best records ever. I bought it directly from the label when i started discovering the swedish new wave and was blown away by the beautiful music. The bass-synths and the quirky, original guitarplaying! This is a total unique effort in the history of music! Just listen to the track Förruttnelsen, a sort of cover but a cover of a poem by swedish author Erik Johan Stagnelius, a grim tale of one mans longing to be cast from this world into the arms of death and decay. And Soldis, about life in the summertime. Maybe some of you will find it to pretentious but thats the beauty of it. Blago Bung also have some songs on compilations wich i will post soon, and they actually recorded another album but due to record labels ignorance it never came out although Heartwork made some of it avaliable on their great weekly mp3 handout on their website. Enough said, for gods sake listen:
Yes today I offer City Kents second single. They started out as a great punkband in Lund and later began to play a sort of post-punk mixed with influence from Black Sabbath but still within their punk roots. Their records were released on swedens best label ever, Heartwork, run by Henrik Venant, one of the few geniuses in the swedish music scene. Expect more Heartwork releases in the near future. Anyway, back to City Kent, their first single, Cancer, recieved great reviews from the punk press but this single were ignored and got bad reviews and i think they split short after. Still, this is a great record with some great swedish lyrics. I especially like the "chorus" in Blixtar: "Allt, allt är strålskyddsbehandlat!" which means something like "Everything, everything is radiationproof". Told you my english sucks.
