Samla Mammas Manna (& related) ~ Sweden

Kaka (1999)

I bought this when it came out and gave it quite a few listens on my commute to work back then. I had high hopes that it would have aged well for me. But unfortunately it didn't. It's true to their legacy, and mixes progressive rock with carnival like sounds and motifs. I kept a few of the classic 70s / 80s Samla / Zamla works, so this one becomes superfluous. 

Former ownership: 1999 Amigo (CD). Acquired in 1999. Downsized in 2024.

1999; 5/1/24 (review)

Klossa Knapitatet (1974)

I go back and forth on this title. Some of the instrumental work is divine, but there's plenty of room for circus and silliness too. Those styles don't age as well for me. What was I saying about some albums don't inspire me to write much? 

Ownership: 1974 Silence (LP). No insert. Acquired in 1999.

1999; 2/1/22; 1/17/23 (review)

Måltid (1973) 

Samla Mammas Manna are a difficult band to pigeonhole, somewhat like contemporaries Arbete och Fritid and Archimedes Badkar in that way. They mix rock, folk, humor, jazz, and other unidentifiables into a very satisfying stew of progressive rock goodness. At times they seem ready to rip off a cool jam, but always pull back, never really wanting to associate with traditional rock tropes. It's not surprising to know they were a charter member of Henry Cow's Rock in Opposition troupe. They answer to nobody, and sound like no one. With any kind of music like this, there are some off bits to endure (including some cartoonish vocals), but mostly this one stayed in the rails. Which can't necessarily be said for all of their albums (though most are satisfying). In later years, the avant prog tagged would be appended to bands such as these, but I hear Samla far more organic than the usual cold and sterile albums that proliferate that scene. Great album artwork as well.

The CD offers bonus tracks, but it's weird how the label (or the band) did them. The first one 'Minareten II' is a shorter version of a track on the album, and a bit rawer. It's quite good. The last track 'Probably the Probably' is definitely bonus fodder, and not something to make you want to keep it. The middle of these three is the opening track on their debut album, which makes no sense.

Ownership: 1973 Silence (LP). Acquired in 2000.

2000; 1/8/22 (review)

Von Zamla - No Make Up! (1983)

Second album from international version of the zany S/Zamla Mammas Manna bunch with ties to Albert Marcoeur’s group. Featuring an expanded lineup of six, including Univers Zero reeds man Michel Berckmans, No Make Up! is undeniably an avant progressive tour de force. The album opens, interestingly enough, with ‘Forge Etude’, a rework from Zamla’s (then) final album Familjesprickor. A rarely mentioned fact, possibly due its obscurity, is the relationship of Von Zamla with the German fusion band Munju during this period. Both recorded for the German based JA&RO label (aka Exil). And not only do they share a full time member, bassist Wolfgang Saloman, but Berckmans also played extensively on Munju’s Le Perfectionniste album. This collaboration is reflected on the third track ‘Für Munju / Indojazz’, one of the livelier pieces on No Make Up!. Throughout the album, it’s once again Lars Hollmer’s familiar accordion, that drives most of the Nordic European style folk melodies. The ensemble work is tight, in typical chamber music fashion, with the aggressive rock edge provided by guitarist Eino Haapala, the same role he played for the Zamla clan prior. It’s fair to say that most of the groups in the Rock in Opposition camp find it hard to avoid some crazy improvisation, sort of their bitchslap to the establishment. Here Von Zamla only utilize one piece for that, the unbelievably irritating (and mercifully short) ‘Voice Improvisation’. Fortunately the remainder of the tracks remain composed, energetic and satisfying. No Make Up! was slotted to be reissued on CD in 1998, but for reasons unknown, did not happen.  Highly recommended to fans of the original RIO movement, the collective avant progressive sound, and those who have recently arrived through the Nordic front door via the Northside label.

Former ownership: 1983 JA&RO (LP). Acquired in 2008. Downsized in 2020.

Still no CD as I update this (5/28/26).

2008; 1/9/20 (review)

Other albums I own: Familjesprickor; Von Zamla 1983

1/9/20 (new entry) 

Mike's Top 30 Unreissued Titles (Part 4 of 6)

16. Chris Hinze Combination - Sister Slick One can not start a large list without expecting it to change even during the duration and this 70s Hinze album put an immediate dent in the top 30 with a first listen. Like Mission Suite, this is just titanic, intense, creative and energetic jazz rock in that early 70s idiom where the style hadn't quite crystallized into the quasi-Return to Forever-ish style it would in just a couple years ago, in fact this is actually kind of hard to compare to other jazz rock bands in that it manages to stay much more in the rock circle than many of its contemporaries. Very few new albums manage to bring this much grinning delight to my musical intake, it's the kind of record where it's difficult to do anything else as it just constantly begs for your attention due to the musical chemistry and their absolute mastery of the rise and fall of energy with playing. Honestly this is likely to chart a lot higher than 16 when all is said and done and could easily move up into my top 5. It's crazy to think that the only reissued album from this era is basically soundtrack music when there are monsters like this still in the vault. 

17. Emmanuel Booz - Dans Quel Etat J'Erre (Reissued by Musea 2011) Booz is now an actor, in fact I believe he starred in one of the Bourne movies, if I've got the IMDB citation correct, but over his long career he managed to get out four solo albums, starting with an early French version of Alice's Restaurant, likely to be lost on anyone not speaking the language, all the way up to this torturous and delirious progressive rock masterpiece, where finally the level of lyrics and vocals gets the right balance with twisted and incredibly well-played instrumental segments. It's a short one and I've forgotten the list of fairly high profile musicans who helped out with this, but it's also quite sweet, three tracks that you'd think Musea would have knocked off a long time ago, but like Ma Banlieue Flasque and Eider Stellaire this one's long overdue (and I'd throw his third Clochard in there for good measure as well, even if it would fall much lower on a list like this). 

18. Michel Madore - La Chambre Nuptiale Progressive rock fans, including my cohort here, prefer Madore's more overtly progressive rock first album, and while it's certainly a nice one, I think his second, electronic piece is the more overtly original and interesting of the two, with a view to the atmospheric and concept. Very different from the German styles so popular at the time and the French scene it was perhaps part of due to the label (Madore's Canadian), Madore drew more on concepts of musique concret to fashion the music and there's hints of Pierre Henry in this work as well as hints of Wendy Carlos Sonic Seasonings in there, with a combination of huge electronic soundscapes merged with found and recorded sounds. It's huge, heady, and somewhat mystical given that the concepts of marriage are often alchemical metaphors. And the production's a lot better than on the first as well, which doesn't hurt. Where the debut seems to be practically a predestined Prog Quebec release, the question is whether this one fits their agenda or not given it probably plays to a different or at least expanded audience. I'd call dibs on both. 

19. Von Zamla - No Make Up Apparently the live Cuneiform release was created as something of a substitute for No Make Up, with the idea that it was never destined to be a CD release, which would be a crying shame as it's be the best of the third incarnation of the Samla Mammas Manna family, in fact their best release since Familesprickor. To my ears there's just a lot more kinetic energy and tight compositions at work here and I don't think the live release quite rises to the level of the album except for in a couple spots. Perhaps a precursor to the Swiss band Nimal in some ways. 

20. Pinguin - Der Grosse Rot Vogel Superb German progressive rock album and a very different one as it diverts the usual expectations by being more English inspired than the usual German release but then does the same type of diversion by actually singing in their own native language rather than using English, perhaps making it one of the few albums from that country to create this kind of flip flop. I hear quite a bit of Canterbury in it which probably makes its closest cousins bands like Brainstorm or even the Tortilla Flat album I mentioned yesterday. Tom put up a review or blurb on this one recently on this blog or the reissue wish list blog, so there's little need to add to that, accept I think we're both in accord on getting this one out to the public.