V/A - Batongen TAPE 1986

Excellent compilation from small swedish industrial label omnium gatherum, who released at least three cassettes in the late eighties (sadly just recently gone out of print). this is "thee" first tape in the series, displaying what went on in the very interesting swedish industrial scene in the mid-late eighties. skuggan rukar gives us three fantastic minimal synth-tunes, apparently compiled from some of the rare tapes they released on their own. i dont know much about the band, though, but i think one of the two members later joined swedish industrial pioneers en halvkokt i folie and nowadays works with various swedish comic books. he said that there were plans to release a vinyl edition of their cassettes, so stay tuned for more info on that. among the other artists we find arvid tuba, famous industrial/synth-pop/drummachine-poet, who released a lot of tapes of his works which i havent heard. bilaffären does two tracks of silly, but charming punk-synth bits with loads of humor. they also released at least one cassette which ill be getting in the mail soon. no surprise in seeing halvkokt i folie on this sort of compilation but they display their usual silly cut-up humor. but the real weird thing about this is that swiss band young gods is included with two tracks from their early period. i wonder why they were included in a swedish industrial compilation. still, the songs are really good and just dont miss this.
BATONGEN