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Cesar Inca Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator
Samla Mammas Manna's third album "Klossa Kanapitatet" finds them exploring their
extravagant yet classy jazz oriented avant-garde prog a bit further than its brilliant
predecessor "Maltid". The show is going on; here the listener will continue to find that
bizarre mixture of jazz rock, Northern and Eastern European folk, circus music, dadaist
absurdity (yodeling, falsettos, wicked funny twists), a mixture accomplished with both
fluidity and musical genius. As always, keyboardist Lasse Hollmer acts as the leader of
the instrumental approach with his piano melodies and chords, and some added touches
on accordion, while guitarist Coste Apetrea displays his finesse from his lieutenant's
position; meanwhile, the rhythm section lays a properly volatile foundation for their
partners, when not collaborating on the enhancement of the melodic/harmonic side of
the repertoire. Whenever the latter happens, it just seems so incredible how the band
can sound so chaotically free and cleverly ordained at the same time, during a specific
complex passage. Well, SMM is most certainly a particular pinnacle (yet to be
discovered and appreciated by prog heads all over the world) in the history of prog.
The 2-minute opener 'Ingenting' starts folkish and ends as a merry-go-round waltz
(claps, whistling and humming included), only to be segued into 'Liten Dialektik', an
amazing jazz driven piece that goes places on the basis of successive diverse musical
motifs. 10 minutes and 10 seconds of pure prog genius. After such an impressive track,
it would be hard for anyone to keep the listener's attention with the same degree of
awe and amusement. anyone but the SMM, who then offers 'Sucken', a cryptic, brief
excursion towards the low tones of acoustic guitar and piano, segued into the half-
polka half-jazz 'Lang ner i ett Kaninhal'. And once again, for the third time in a row, a
brief piece ('Kom lit narmare', actually more a comic gag than a proper track) is segued
into a high-spirited jazz number with some combined nuances of rock'n'roll and ragtime
somewhere in the middle ('Musmjiolkningmaskinen'). The fun never ends, indeed. The
intro motif of 'Influenser' comprises the most dadaist passages and the most dissonant
chord progressions in the album - enjoyable only by those who are already embedded
with the spirit of SMM's music. It also contains some of the best soling by Apetrea. The
title track is actually an accordion solo performed by guest Bryn Settels: the street
sounds in the background create an intimate ambience, something that has actually
been there all around. I mean, the experience of listening to this records makes you
feel like you are part of a collective clever joke in a silly party. The closure 'Ramlösa
Kvällar' shows the band at their most meditative: yes, they can get serious too, but of
course, not without a touch of weirdness. The marching tempo of the final jazzy motif
works as a most effective ending for a real Scandinavian musical gem, a prog masterpice, indeed.
Cesar Inca |5/5 |
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