Mikael Ramel's debut starts off almost like a children's album on
Swedish Public television, in a silly folk manner with cartoonish
voices. After about six minutes of that, the music becomes far more
interesting in a progressive folk rock direction starting with 'Pengar'.
Wonderful flute and guitar throughout the album, and the melodies stick
with the listener. The next two following tracks further draw the
listener in, until we get to the massive one-two punch of
'Långt in i Naturen'
(7:41) and 'Artificiell Prana'
(10:52). When in the midst of the large scale
percussion and voice piece that suddenly appears on the latter track,
you begin to realize you're in another zone completely. And then the
subsequent high energy jam that blows out of that, with wah wah
"electric speed guitar" blistering your speakers (and your ears),
completes the wallop it set out to do. The album then closes as it
starts, with a goofy two minute outro. This is the type of album I often
refer to as the "wonderful freaky underground". The liner notes mention
that Ramel had experimented with various tape recording techniques,
which no doubt gives the album those odd dimensions. In some ways, I
believe the artist intended to release something straight forward, and
ended up with something far more different... and yea, freaky. Love it.
If you're looking for the inspiration of modern sensations' Dungen, then here it is!
Ownership: CD: 2003 Universal / Sonet / Mellotronen. Triple FOC digipak. Filled with liner notes (in English), photos, bonus tracks, lyrics, and perfect sound. The Ljudspår label had rolled up into the Universal chain, and fortunately this album, along with the second Flasket Brinner that we featured long ago (and Ramel was a member at the time), has been lovingly restored with the assistance of Mellotronen.
Former ownership: LP: 1978 Sonet. Gatefold.
2009 (first listen); 3/26/12; 10/11/13; 1/20/14 (review / new entry)
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