DIVING THE SWEDISH DUMPSTERS

PHILEMON ARTHUR AND THE DUNG
- CD 9 (Silence)
Fuck SONIC YOUTH - P A & THE DUNG were the true inventors of lo-fi pop! and if you need just one Swedish 70's rekkid, dodge NOVEMBER, ÄLGARNAS TRÄDGÅRD and SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA and grab this baby! I've never heard anything even remotely similar from this decade, or any decade for that matter. I'll admit to the fact that if you don't know Swedish you loose half the fun with the beautifully insane lyrics, but trust me - only half the fun is fun enough. Most of their material was recorded on a 2-track in the attic on various occations '69-'72. Instruments used: Guitar, accordion, pots and pans. Humans used: 2 young (definitely no more than teens at the time) anonymous musicians (bored). Result: a batch of demented "children's songs" to truly warp the minds of kids aged 1-100. Unlike THE RESIDENTS "secret" identities, who anyone with any insight in the history of the band has a pretty good idea of at least the 2 main characters, to this day the true identity of 'The Dungs' is totally unknown to anyone outside the inner core of Silence Records. Their Grammy (the Swedish Emmy) for best album of the year in '72 caused a public outcry and was one of the main reasons the festiveties where canceled for over 10 years (!). The abovementioned CD includes the LP + most of the trax from a cassette released in the 80's with recordings predating the LP.

Swedish Extra-Special new wave - ca. 79-82

APTIT
- "som vatten/han vågar inte" 7" 82 (Nacksving)
The kid-sisters of ELEGI and I'm NOT being unfair here. Some late RAINCOATS too I guess (for the psyche bits), but APTIT are really striving for that "sneaky night music"-sound as their "big sisters" did so well on their brilliant album. There's six of them this time and this gives them a richer and less clinical sound. The A-side is an OK track, real "power wave" in lack of better pidgeonholes, and they could've been really great if it wasn't for the over-dramatic lyrics and vocals that make them come off as a bit too pretentios for me to handle. All in all little more than a paranthesis in the history of Swedish extra-special new wave.

ATT SOM
- s/t 7" EP 81 (Amalthea/Plattlangarna)
- split LP w/ ?
Fuckin warped band with some serious RESIDENTS and DEVO-kinks. They did everything right: punk riffs, zany keyboards, quirks, even some kraut electro-psyche bits. The EP has the usual roughness in production and musicianship and it's my qualified guess it's a debut record. I was told they made a split-LP with another band, I don't remember who. Could very well be a masterpiece.

BILJARDAKADEMIN
- "fallbilder/arbetarmelodi" 7" 8? (private)
Ooooohh... Aaaaaahhh... This is it! This is what I'm talking about when I try to explain the value of really digging DEEP. I found this enigmatic single (or maybe it found me?) in one of Stockholms better vinyl stores, and belive me, it didn't look like much. No cover, just a blank white label 7" in a plasic bag. The only info available was a stamp on one of the labels reading: "Biljardakademin: Fallbilder/Arbetarmelodi", no bandmembers, no year of release, no record label or anything. Don't know about you, but these things always make me curious. They practically gave it away so thought "what the heck!" and brought it home. In maybe 4 times out of five these white labels turn out be useless crap, this time it turned out to be one of those who makes all the bad buys worthwhile. This is what pop could be like in a better world! They really remind me of the better parts of THE MONOCHROME SET, but I know that can be too obscure a reference to some, so I'll explain further: Think mellow (but not slow and boring), uppety, jazzy, bendy pop with fem vox and lots of sunshine in it. Think nonsense lyrix and innocense, think CARDIGANS lovingly shagged by the mellow, carnival side of MR BUNGLE. Now quit thinking and start dancing!
Really can't tell if this is early, mid or late 80's, but 80's it is and soundwise they belong in this extra-special wave dept. I DEFINITELY need to know more!

COSMIC OVERDOSE
- "observation galen" 7" 78?-81? (Silence)
I think it was this single that opened my eyes to the possibility of Swedish extra-special wave. The A-side "observation galen"(observation mad) is quite reminiscent of bands like DEADBEATS, THE RED CRAYOLA a la "wives in orbit/yik yak" and early DEVO - in other words a KILLER jazz punk tune! Mean lyrix with angressive sax/keyboards and vocals and offbeat chorus. The flipside "isolatorer" isn't half as exiting, but this EP is still a must if U find it. They later made 2 albums in a more calmed down electro-pop manner. Not overly recommended.

DAGENS UNGDOM
- "en melodiskiva" 7" EP 80 (Mistlur)
- "picknick på bilparkering" LP 82 (Mistlur)
DU were Swedish prog wave of purest form. Musically they could often be described as a mix of early DEVO and SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA without the robotnics and muso-extravaganza, or maybe a tidbit more punked TIN HUEY. They had some truly great songs, lots of humor and snappy, intelligent (Swedish) lyrics, but were let down by not so great vocals. Not that he totally spoiled the band, but DU would have been so much more interesting with a more energic personality behind the mike.

ELEGI
- s/t LP 81 (Slick)
This is one of my favourite new wave albums of all time, seriously top 10 material. It's sooo original, I really can't come up with one single band to compare them with. 4 girls and 1 guy doing really dark but still fun and very original new wave. There are hints of both SOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES and Nina Hagen, but ELEGI are seriously more dark and sinister, without being difficult or ruining their songs with pretentiousness. "Sneaky night-music" someone called it. Songs like "mat", "bakom ryggen" and "lilla fågel" are really energetic, original new wave rock songs with truly powerful harmonies. The other side of ELEGI is that dark and moody vibe found in songs like "torsk", "moderna kvadrater", the desperate, almost MAGMA-prog-from-hell monster of a track, "kärnfamilien i kärnexplosionen" ("nuclear family in nuclear explosion") and last but not least, the 6 minute instrumental "elegi", almost ambient in it's pitch-black minimalism. There's nothing "gothic" or tacky over them though. "Cold" and "clinical" are 2 monickers that usually come together. ELEGI are warm and clinical. Another band I'll have to track down and interview some day. I'd love to recieve some tips on where I might find them.

GUDS BARN
- s/t 7" EP 80 (Heart Work)
Really heavy NW - "Doom Punk" in the vein of MURDER THE DISTURBED and early JOY DIVISION, the kind of punk you can headbang to! The riffing on this baby sticks to you like napalm to little kids. A pretty unique style of music that I wish more bands would have experimented with. An album full of this stuff would devastate! Tips anyone? For sure one of the most interesting Swedish NW/punk ever released.

KITCHEN AND THE PLASTIC SPOOONS(sic!)
- "happy funeral/fantastic" 7" 80 (private)
- "icecream to god" flexi 81 (Castor)
I've heard them being referred to as "Sweden's DEVO" on several occations and I guess it's not that bad a description. The 7" is the most interesting release, sounding like a skeewed and slightly more minimal "Freedom of choice"-era DEVO, just slightly darker in sound. The flexi isn't hopelessly mundane, much more slow and moody but not half as fun as the single. They also had an excellent track on a comp. LP on the classic Swedish alterno-pop label Stranded and I remembered it to be the best of all 5 K&PS-songs ever released.

KRÄLDJURSANSTALTEN
- "fyra nya vitsar med:" M-LP 80 (Zurr 0)
- "voodoo boogie" LP 81 (Urspår)
I had this review all written down at work today. At the time of writing I hadn't listened to the albums for about 6 months, and the original review compared them to HALF JAPANESE with a few more harmonies and occational bright moments between violent attacks of free-jazz punk. Before I turned on the computer I put on the LP and after listening to 2 or 3 songs I realized I had to rewrite the whole review. They obviously needs a few spins, but once you get into them, they come off as one of the most interesting Swedish bands from this era. Comparing them to Beefheart and David Thomas is a compliment that goes both ways, coz KA is right up there with the greatest of extreme jazz wave. The excellent lyrics (in Swedish I'm afraid) are aggressively spoken more than sung. Seriously brilliant musicianship too, no punk-hacks. Probably classically trained the whole lot. Zillions of riffs and timechanges, but if you just relax and slowly let all those little jazz-bugs crawl inside your skull (yes, that's acctually what it feels like!), it really isn't that difficult to get into. Every single song they made had at least one ingenious bit in them, beautiful guitars and paces which sends chill after chill down your spine. Many bands that try to tread this "new-jazz wave" territory have a hard time balanceing all those twists and turns and loose themselves. KA is not, I repeat NOT one of those bands. Definitely world class stuff within this narrow genre. The title of the M-LP translates "four new puns from:" which could indicate an earlier release, but I really don't have a clue. I'm very curious about this, so anyone is welcome to update me.

MÖGEL
- s/t M-LP 81 (Slick)
Another platter that forever changed my attitude towards Swedish New Wave. It wouldn't be too unfair to call MÖGEL the Swedish RAINCOATS (early). Here we have 4 grrrls doing a similar (but not identical) stuttering, stripped-down, "prodigal" punk rock. The beautiful, oversimple drumming of Montan is only second in genius to that of Palmolive's. They stick to the classic drums-bass-guitar format though, and they don't use time-changes in the same anarchistic way (although it's there), but the typical, rhythmic free-thinking of someone who hasn't been told "how to do it right" is as prominent as ever. Until I discovered ELEGI, MÖGEL was my favourite Swedish girl-group for years.

PINK CHAMPANGE
- s/t 7" 80 (MNW)
- "2" 7" 81 (MNW)
If MÖGEL was the Swedish RAINCOATS, maybe the 2 first EP's by PINK CHAMPANGE could be called the Swedish LILIPUT? Why, coz they're girls? Nah, fuck that. They sound like alot of other 78-79 punk bands with the exception of 2 trax, "särskilld sort" and "alternativa", which have some offbeat quirks in them and here they really do sound like LILIPUT. They did more singles and even a couple of albums after this, but they were more in an ordinary new wave pop/rock fashion.

TERMINALPATIENTEN
- "antistatskivan" split-7" EP w/ RUKORNA '80
I've only heard this band once, on a compilation CD of early Swedish punk from the town of Gothenburg. They were the humorous side-project of 2 members of classic-style punkband RUKORNA and in short the Swedish answer to SPIZZ OIL. Vocals + 1 guitar only, albeit a bit more zany and with really short songs. They managed to squeeze in 13 tracks in about 5 minutes on their abovementioned only release. I remember them as alot more entertaining than early SPIZZ.

The 80's - Jazz Core & Folk Thrash

THE KRIXHJÄLTERS / OMNITRON
- s/t 12" EP 86 (Rosa Honung)
- "hjälter skelter" M-LP 88 (Chickenbrain)
- "evilution" CD 89 (Chickenbrain)
- "a krixmas carol" 7" 90 (CBR)
- "masterpeace" CD 90 (CBR) as OMNITRON
If you intend to check out only one Swedish rock album in your life, this album should be "Masterpeace" by the band OMNITRON, formerly known as THE KRIXHJÄLTERS ("The Warheroes", with a Swenglish twist). The reason for this is because it's the best Swedish rock album ever made, and definitely one of the most original. I use to call their music "Anti-thrash" because they used traditional thrash metal riffing and concepts and did something totally unique with it. Not a single metal-chliché in sight and still so familiar in their uniqueness, with their folk, swingpop and lovey tuneful songstructures. (Could they have been CARDIACS in speedbeat disguise?) The album opens with birdsong and balalaika, and after a few jolly bars the thrashing commences, and then - WHAM! - a powerful, epic chorus with all aucustic guitars and then back to thrash again. "I am he", "eroticon", "how the steel was tempered", they are all such totally ultra-cathy SONGS it should have been their secret weapon with which they conquered the world. There's not a single uncool bit on the album and I could write an essay on each and every one of the 10 songs, but I'll leave it for you to discover. The album isn't too difficult to find in second hand shops over here, so let me know it you need a hand.
...And what about their other material under THE KRIXHJÄLTERS monicker? Well, the self-titled debut displays a very untight and very average hardcore punk, although the embryos of original ideas where there already from the start. With the follow-up "Hjälter Skelter" the magic shows it's first gentle sparks. They are now more speed/thrash influenced that HC, but a handfull of tastefull trickery like a folk-harmony, a bit of sax, a bit of piano and a few major key-choruses makes them stand out as a band with no intentions to go where they are expected to go. The "Evilution" CD is everything its predecessor promised and much more. From the lovely folk-metal intro "evilution" to the epic "I" which closes the album, this is original rock with a heavy thrash-influence much more than it is an original and heavy thrash album. The incredible "i" (not to be confused with the capital "I"-song) deserves special notice. Imagine a melodic speed/thrash metal song played by THE SMITHS! Soft, sensitive vocals, fast thrashing guitars and an amazingly beautiful, spinechilling chorus. Surely one of the most unusual moments in metal history. Still the major part of this album consists of very traditional, METALLICA-influenced thrash riffing, but is executed with an attitude totally unique in this scene. Last release before the namechange was the X-mas single. A jolly carol with no metal whatsoever in it, about the bombing of Hanoi on christmas day by US troups during the Vietnam war. The B-side contains 4 one-minute trax, each by one of the 4 bandmembers. Not overly essential. Then came the divine OMNITRON album and then some of the members continued with the band COMECON, pretty average death metal using a drum machine, with ENTOMBED's main growler L G Petrov on vocals. In '94 they reappeared for a short instant when 2 members released a pretty lame industrial/rap/metal single. It's a pity they let us down like that. R.I.P, OMNITRON.

KRUNCH
- "hello bob" 7" 84 EP
- "the almost complete Krunch, but more..." CD 93 (Massproduktion)
(included: "mys & kel" 12" EP 85, "tjafs & dalt" 7" EP 85, "mor & far" 12" EP 87, "tack & hej" 7" 89 + comp. & unreleased trax)
1st 7" is mediocre crust punk to be ignored, but the rest of KRUNCH is VERY classy stuff indeed. Partly they could be considered the Swedish answer to more noisy, groovy, chaotic American odd-core like DIE KREUTZEN, NO TREND etc. Not as catchy as RAPED T., KRUNCH's songs are mad ugly trolls on the warpath, up to no good in the woods of northen Sweden. Heavy, brutal yet very musical and inventive, often more hardcore rock than hardcore punk, even if the DISCHARGE-element is apparent in one way or another through all their releases. Their bizzare sense of humor consisted mainly of enigmatic in-jokes, but you could see they had alot of fun and this feeling was very contagious and easily infected the listener. They recieved brilliant reviews in foreign mags and the song "brunst"(rut) even got played on BBC radio. It's not likely they would have done so if they had understood the lyrics ("Suck my cock! you ugly cunt! cock! cunt! cock! cunt! cuuuuhhnt!!...). Despite these seemingly pervy lines, they wrote some of the best rock lyrics ever by a Swedish band. Sheer poetry that really hit the spot.

RAPED TEENAGERS
- "jag gillar blommor. jag gillar träd. jag gillar naturen som den är" 7" EP 84 (private)
- "kalaspuffar" 12" EP 87 (Over The Top)
- "i kräftans klor" promo-flexi 88 (Chickenbrain)
- "i kräftans klor" LP 88 (Chickenbrain)
- split-7" w/ RÖVSVETT EP 89 (Chickenbrain)
- "live" LP 89
- "f.r.e.d." 7" EP 90 (CBR)
- "klok" LP 90 (CBR/Arda)
Seminal Swedish hardcore punk, with serious influences of Swedish prog wave like DAGENS UNGDOM and KRÄLDJURSANSTALTEN, as well as classic, top-quality underground hardcore like early ARTICLES OF FAITH, HUSKER DÜ, early ISM, KURO etc. The 1st 14-song monster 7" is one of my favourite hardcore recordings of all time. Despite the intricate songstructures and start&stops it's still extremely intense, pissed and in-your-face and the music literary pops out of your speakers = the trademark of all extra-special hardcore. On "Kalaspuffar" the quirky & progressive side of the band has developed further. Especially the opener, the instrumental title-track is pure prog-core mayhem! "I Kräftans Klor" show the first signs of pop-influence, but the catchy hardcore and inventive quirks is still their main feature. This album is a seminal RAPED-release and considered by many to be their best, probably because it neither "too quirky" nor too poppy. The last album is, as it usually turns out, the poppiest of all. Not to worry, though. They are still hardcore at heart, but the melodies has developed even further here, and "Klok" in an album chock-full of hits. Even if they took a tiny step in a poppier direction with every release, they never fell off the cliff and into the crevice of throwaway pop. They kept their edge and did just as awsome quirky, prog-core as they did quirky pop-core. They always had songs, good songs, and lyrics that lasted all the way from the 1st 7" to the last LP.

The 90's - Trall Punk & Prog Death

BIG FISH
- "the natural powers" demo 90
- "hydrology" split-LP w/ NEW FORM 90 (Tango Train)
- "död mans vals" demo 91
- "vargavinter" CD 92 (Strontium)
- "dans mot tiden" MCD 93 (Strontium)
- "sånger ur sten" CD 94 (Birdnest)
- "nyårshambo" CDS 94 (Birdnest)
- "blues för paranoia" CDS 95 (Birdnest)
- "andar i halsen" CD 95 (Birdnest)
One of the most exciting Swedish bands ever together with OMNITRON and PHILEMON ARTHUR AND THE DUNG. Their music was a unique and excellent blend of NEUBAUTEN-inspired scrap-metal industrial, Swedish folk and punk and it really worked! The 1st demo and split was more punk-influenced industrial with English lyrix. Not bad and fairly unique in their genre here in Sweden, but with the second demo and especially the "Vargavinter" CD (their seminal masterpiece!) the folk and minstrel-music influences have flowered, without them losing any of the industrial harshness. The songs are cachy yet abrasive, melodic yet noisy, soundwise very naked but still so rich - in short an album full of contradictions. "Inmarch" and "aldrig riktigt fram" are stripped down and angst-ridden industrial, while songs like "död mans vals", "missbrukarvisa" and the heavy mother-of-an-anthem "vargavinter" basically are industrialized folk songs, all of them performed with the warmth and unpretentious attitude of punk. They even feature a cover of the legendary 18th century Swedish bard C M Bellman which fits perfectly with their own material. On "Sånger Ur Sten" the production is just a tidbit cleaner, but their music are even more folk-influenced and this time with a few hard n' heavy metal riffing between their hardcore troubadour melodies. Last album "Andar i Halsen" proves they have the talent to do a 3rd album without running out of good songs. Lots of great trax, but unfortunaltely the scrap-metal and noise isn't as prominent as before. On the 2 best trax "horn i pannan" and "allt jag har sett" they have however added some heavy KYUSS-influenced riffing, luckily not in a bandwagon kind of way, but with the attitude of "let's incorporate yet another element into our music!". Sadly, playing folk/industrial-influenced rock in Sweden in the 90's is quite an ungrateful affair, even if the band had a large group of devoted fans during their 6 years of existence. In 1996 the band was declared defunct and its members scattered, some abroad, some into other bands not nearly as interesting.

PAN.THY.MONIUM
- ".....dawn" demo 90
- "dawn of dreams" CD 92 (Osmose)
- "dream II" 7" 92 (Obscure Plasma)
- "khaoohs" CD 93 (Osmose)
- "khaooohs & con-fus-ion" CD 96 (Relapse)
In the late 80's/early 90's Death Metal had it's major breakthrough and like most other metalheads at the time I started sniffing around this exploding scene. Not much raised an interrest, but as always the oddballs of the genre came to my attention and soon got incorporated in DaN's Collection of the Musically Extra-Special. I still remember when a friend played the advance tape to PAN.THY.MONIUMs debut CD back in '91. At this time DM was already getting stale(r) and repetitive, and to hear a Death Metal band playing 20min+ songs, water-filled saxophones, and totally off-beat rhythms only ever used by obscure Italian progressive rock bands really blew my mind. They mixed classic DM-riffing and gloomy keyboards with mellow, sometimes "uppety" harmonies and the weirdest timechanges. Not in a boring American DREAM THEATRE/NOCTURNUS(OK, Nocturnus were pretty cool..)-way, but in a more fucked up and eerie, MAGMA-meets-VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR-manner. Listening to this album today it still sounds fresh, although not as unique as it was at the time of recording. the 2 following releases continued this style with honor, the slightly more cool-jazz influenced "khaoohs" CD being the 1st DM album with 90% of the lyrix in Swedish (not that you can still hear a single word..) As always full of insane ideas like handclapping grind-parts and nonsense-poetry breaks. They then went into silence for a couple of years and suddenly reappeared in '96 with their farwell-album "khaoos & con-fus-ion", their best recording ever! This last one's got two 11-12 min pieces including some of the coolest riffing, jerks, quirks and musical innovations I have ever heard in metal + an ambient/electronic piece & a one-minute piece of just silence. Buy Or Die In Heavy Evil Hell-Fuck! Adding to the otherworldly music, like all good prog-heads they also invented their own mythology, worshipping the god of all and nothing, Raagoonshinnaah, dwelling in the depths of Geheeb... A pun from start to finish. Their one major letdown was that they insisted on the "classic" vocal style of Death Metal, i.e. extremely guttural grunts not revealing one single word of the lyrics. P-T-M were as far as I know the 1st "Progressive Death Metal"-band (not counting CELTIC FROST ofcourse!) and I still consider them no. 1 in this fast growing genre.

STINKING SOCKS

GIRLIEGERM