TURN ON, TUNE IN, DROP OUT

Baby Grandmothers is a band that played mostly as a house band in Sweeden back in the late 60's. Their music was a psychedelic space rock style jam and for a long time, the only record in their discography was a single, until 2006, when a collection of some of their live recordings was finally released. This resulted in an interest in their music, which also resulted in the release of a live album, this EP and an album of new material in 2018, the excellent 'Merkurius'. Throughout their tenure as a band, the three core individuals have been Kenny Hakanssen on guitar, Pelle Ekman on drums and Bella Linnarsson on bass. They have jammed with guitar greats such as Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa's Mothers.

'Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out' is the EP that was released in 2007. The title is named after the phrase made famous by Timothy Leary. The only way that this EP was available was that it was attached to the book 'The Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Music 1967 ' 1969. The recording is a jam recorded in a live setting at Filips Caf' in Stockholm in September of 1967. It is a 3 part jam that lasts just over 30 minutes and is divided up into 3 tracks: 'Opus 1: Ascending', 'Opus 2: Floating' and 'Opus 3: Descending'.

The recording is okay, though it sounds somewhat dated. The jam is quite guitar heavy as Kenny explores every avenue and sound with his guitar. 'Ascending' quickly grows in tempo until it reaches its plateau, barreling along like a train. After 10 minutes, things slow down a bit and keep chugging along until 12:49. From there, it moves into the 'Floating' section. The music continues on very minimally for about a minute before the bass comes up to establish a soft jazz-style rhythm with brushed percussion and minimal guitar. Squeaky flutes stay far in the background as the guitar plays softly around the bass and drum foundation. This continues for over 8 minutes before the rhythm drops off and it moves into the third part 'Descending'. Percussion comes back in and pushes the rhythm faster and faster as the guitar and bass play a repeating pattern. Once the tempo is reached, the bass and guitar mess around a bit. Then the guitar picks up a new quasi-melody to improvise off of. It eventually builds into a nice rock jam. This section continues for over 10 minutes.

I'm not necessarily fond of long jams, but being divided up like this make them a little easier to take. The recording is not the best, but it isn't too bad either. It is a good enough EP, but not as great as the latest album, which has a lot more variety. The addition of a jazz foundation in the 2nd part also improve the overall experience. The recording itself is not easy to find, so if you are curious about the band, you would be better off to find one of the other recordings, preferably Merkurius.