Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting – Orosvisor. 2010 Sweden

Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting are a really fantastic new band from Sweden that has completely captured the mood of the anarchic 1970 Scandinavian underground. Long instrumental psychedelic journeys filled with loud acid guitar solos, droning violin and an active rhythm section. The mystical Dark Ages folk of yesteryear provide the basis for the melodies. No doubt Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting absorbed first album Flasket Brinner as a blueprint, and further added touches of the second Kebnekaise and some of the more lucid moments from Algarnas Tradgard. It's exciting to know that there are modern groups out there exploring paths that were stopped way too soon. Orosvisor could be considered a distant cousin to Dungen's debut.

Ownership: LP: 2010 Kommun 2. Single sleeve

12/16/11 (new entry)

Galliard - New Dawn. 1970 England

New Dawn is a strong brass rock entry from England, and compares favorably to other UK like-minded bands such as Brainchild, Heaven, Greatest Show on Earth, and Rock Workshop. Galliard adds folk and even a bit of sitar on Ask for Nothing. Great songwriting, and Galliard could have easily been a household name as a pop sensation.

New Dawn is their second album, and I was just about to add it to the CDRWL when I heard they planned on reissuing it. My favorite track is the instrumental 'Premonition', which sounds like Herb Alpert playing the music of Sugarloaf.

CD: 2009 Esoteric

The Norman Haines Band - Den of Iniquity. 1971 England

Post-Locomotive British rock from the accomplished keys player Norman Haines. Stylistically very diverse, and it takes awhile to get its sea legs. The title track and When I Come Down are the highlights of the first side. With side 2 we get a splendid near 10 minute jam, that truly catches a groove and allows for some excellent guitar soloing over the tranced out organ-led rhythms. Not lost is the longish electronic oriented piece with fuzz organ and electric piano that closes the album. The bonus tracks demonstrate that Haines' songwriting was to improve greatly, even if geared more towards an overt commercial direction with horns (Daffodil and Autumn Mobile were actually released in 1970). I was reminded of Dave Lawson's work with Web I Spider and Samurai in particular. This album takes a couple of spins to comprehend, but it's post British psych at its best. File next to your Nicholas Greenwood Cold Cuts album.

Ownership: CD: 2011 Esoteric. Jewel case with six bonus tracks, mostly made up of rare singles + excellent liner notes.

I had the French original on Odeon but decided to part with it (2/11/24).

2008; 12/12/11 (new entry)

Ske - 1000 Autunni. 2011 Italy

Ske is the new project from Paolo "Ske" Botta, keyboardist for avant progressive rock band Yugen. It's interesting to note that Ske's album is on AltRock's "symphonic progressive" sub-label Fading. I say interesting, because to my ears, 1000 Autunni fits the avant progressive definition better.

Like some modern groups, Ske seems to have compiled the best parts of what progressive rock has to offer, and reassembles them into a hodge podge of the entire genre. So, in effect, what you get with 1000 Autunni is Progressive Rock Extract. Especially the Canterbury scene, Anglagard influenced Nordic symphonic rock, and angular avant progressive (similar to his other group Yugen).

Is there anything wrong with that? Well no, not in my opinion. It almost guarantees a pleasant listen, though I do find myself hoping for a more individual persona and style to emerge. At the time of this writing, Ske's album is #1 on Gnosis for 2011 (and remains in that position as of Sept 2017), and it's easy to understand why. Though it's almost like a perfect reproduction, rather than an original. Perhaps more listens will reveal more of what I'm looking for and my rating will go up even more. In any case, I can only see Ske improving from here. All things considered, this is a fine debut.

Ownership: CD: 2011 Fading

12/8/11 (new entry)