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HÄNDER

Kaipa

Symphonic Prog


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Kaipa Händer album cover
2.42 | 79 ratings | 7 reviews | 6% 5 stars

Collectors/fans only

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Studio Album, released in 1980

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Äntiglen (5:32)
2. Händer (6:21)
3. Regn (5:50)
4. Staden Lever (4:20)
5. Elgrandi (2:38)
6. Krig (5:05)
7. Älska Med Mig Igen (6:52)
8. Med Trasiga Segel (4:57)

Total time 41:35

Line-up / Musicians

- Mats Löfgren / lead vocals
- Max Åhman / guitar
- Hans Lundin / piano, synths, backing vocals
- Mats Lindberg / bass
- Ingemar Bergman / drums, backing vocals

Releases information

Artwork: Lasse Ermalm's Egenart with Torbjörn Calvero (photo)

LP Polar ‎- POLS 311 (1980, Sweden)

CD Tempus Fugit ‎- TF VÖ 39 (2016, Germany) Remastered by Martin Igelström

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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KAIPA Händer ratings distribution


2.42
(79 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(6%)
6%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(5%)
5%
Good, but non-essential (33%)
33%
Collectors/fans only (41%)
41%
Poor. Only for completionists (15%)
15%

KAIPA Händer reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars ONE MAN IS GONE AND THE WHOLE COLLAPSED

Ouch! This album really hurts. How is it possible to go that low?

Only in a two years period of time. Two explanations: Roine is gone, which with no doubt has an enormous impact on Kaipa's music at the time and two years have passed since their last album.

Meaning that the early eighties were not the best times for prog. And one can figure this out while listening to this album.

It is quite a shock to listen to the first two tunes. Awful AOR all the way round. Kind of pre-Asia if you see what I mean. And at this time, the Swedish vocals really don't help. Mats Löfgren was not really great on their previous album (which was very good by the way), but here he sounds rather poor.

After this disgusting start, "Regn" appears as a jewel. A wonderful and melodic instrumental (which is by far their strength) reminds us that "Kaipa" can still deliver true symphonic moments. An excellent track which is by far the best of this album (but it is not difficult).

Another good moment is the instrumental (again) intro of "Elgrandi Krig". Scary, bombastic. For three minutes or so. Just before the nightmare starts all over again.

Just avoid this album. Two stars, no more (and I am generous).

Review by Evolver
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
1 stars At this stage is their career, Kaipa should have changed the pronounciation of their name to "kao-pai".

This album, at best, sound like a weak imitation of Peter Gabriel, around the time of his second album through So. Vocalist Mats Löfgren even sounds quite a bit like an aging Peter Gabriel, if Gabriel sang in Swedish. When they aren't sounding like Gabriel, they are sounding like late era (boring) Genesis. This is not a good thing. Aside from a few tolerable keyboard riffs, there is nothing to recommend this piece of imitative drivel.

It's not surprising that Roine Stolt left this band.

Review by b_olariu
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars By the 1980 Kaipa was no more in that excellent form that were in 1978, this album named Hander or Hands in english caught Kaipa in a more pop zone but with some good moments here and there. The brain of the band Stolt now is gone living a hole in the entire mechanism. Not very much to add, just a good album to my ears, ok sometime mediocre, some tracks sounds like a more dark version of ABBA pop songs, Krieg for ex. Now, here is a piece that is absolutly brilliant, dark, moody, slow but with some very fine arrangeents, is the instrumental one named Regn or Rain in english. I love this piece a lot, the best from here for sure, another fine moments are on Elgrandi , another instrumental one. The rest of the album is from pop zone with some good keybords and guitars here and there, the symphonic prog is no more present, but in the end an ok album, not something special for sure and kinda miles away from Solo, previous album but pleasent. 2.5 rounded to 3 only for Regn and Elgrandi.

Latest members reviews

3 stars 5/10 Welcome to the 80s, Kaipa! Yes, the Swedish group was also one of those changed their sound with the advent of pop music and the end of the golden era of progressive rock. Probably the output of Roine Stolt had a significant impact on this controversial change. Here they sound like ba ... (read more)

Report this review (#626066) | Posted by voliveira | Saturday, February 4, 2012 | Review Permanlink

3 stars Well, they´ve done better in the past. But quite well recorded i ABBA:s studio in Stockholm right after Genesis had finnished their weak Duke album. The most peculiar with this album "Händer" is that I just saw them live a couple of month before the release of this album. What I remember from ... (read more)

Report this review (#52954) | Posted by | Sunday, October 23, 2005 | Review Permanlink

2 stars Roine Stolt left KAIPA after SOLO, and Hans Lundin seems to be completly lost. What exactly was his goal with Hander? I suppose he wanted to create a more accessible music based on keyboards with " modern sounds". But the resut is really very poor :pompous and really boring. The worst is the s ... (read more)

Report this review (#41616) | Posted by | Thursday, August 4, 2005 | Review Permanlink

4 stars After three fantastic albums, Kaipa suddenly decided to cut a deal with ABBA's label Polar Records and go pop, as all other bands at the time and I must say they did pretty well. The sound-quality is amazing, using Polar studios (the same studio that Led Zeppelin used to record their swan song ... (read more)

Report this review (#41555) | Posted by progrocklover | Thursday, August 4, 2005 | Review Permanlink

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