RADIOMOBEL

RADIOMOBEL were a five piece band out of Sweden including a female vocalist, bass, drums, guitar and keyboards. They released two studio albums in the second half of the 70's including this one "Gudang Garam" from 1978.

I was a little frustrated with this album because there are some really good compositions on here that I feel get ruined by either the female singer who has such a thin voice, I just don't care for it at all but also these high pitched synths that make my eyes squint. Abrasive is the word but worst of all is the lo-fi, mono sound quality. I guess that's why many call this a Garage Rock band but man check out some of these songs, this could have been great!

Obscure Swedish Prog-Psych outfit,who was formed in 1973 in the city of Lund in souther Sweden.In February 1974 the band attempts their first live performance,while a mass of live gigs would follow.1975 finds RADIOMOBEL having suffered from line-up changes,but this wasn't enough to prevent the band from releasing their ''Tramsebox'' debut.

A private press actually, ''Tramsebox'' was reportedly released in a member's basement,carrying all the problems of such a recording.The mix is pretty amateur,the vocals are too loud sometimes,while the drums have a very cheap sound.Musically speaking,this a decent release of Psychedelic Rock with lots of progressive elements by a band with a typical rock instrumentation and a limited use of keyboards.Some ideas in here are very cool and interesting with guitarist Andrus Kangro delivering some smooth solos and obscure chords close to ALGARNAS TRADGARD.The vocals,though a bit high in the mix as refered,are quite strong and expressive and the compositions are characterized by the alternating dynamic jams and the relaxing psych passages.The bass work is a question here,as its sound is almost buried in the production.The overall result is a good yet not fully conveincing Prog-Psych release by a talented band,but the main problem around will always be found in the amateur recording procedures.If you don't mind of the bad sound,RADIOMOBEL's ''Tramsebox'' might be of some interest.

3.5 Stars. Unlike the first reviewer, who seemed to strongly dislike this music I quite enjoy this album. Sure it isn't as mature, polished, well-produced, confident, and musically skillful as most of the great sweedish prog and krautrock genres and it is noticeably more amateurish, but I find it quite pleasant to listen to, quite engaging, emotive, adventurous, and ambitions, and very charming if you accept and look past its slight lack of maturity. I'd say this album sounds somewhere between Kebnekaise's second album (which I like less than 'Tramsebox') and Algarnas Tradgard's first album (though less diverse, experimental, or well-recorder, etc,), and slightly psychedelic experimental krautrock like Agitation Frees's Malesch (though nowhere close to as great as that album, which is one of my favorites) or Amon Düül II, with perhaps slight hints of Camel or Italian Prog. There is some great songwriting on this album, and many very enjoyable wandering melodies played by the lead electric guitar. Almost every song is creative, ambitious, inspiring, engaging and seemingly somewhat virtuoso for the musicians' ages, which are never stated in the album booklet but can be guessed to be teens for a few remarks made therein. At this point I have heard one song-"Flugornas herre"-from Radiomöbel's second and only other (as I understand it) album, 'Gudang Garam', released three years later in 1978. That track demonstrates a higher level of maturity and confidence and production abilities. In other words, it brings out the amateurish quality in 'Tramsebox' but noting and hearing this doesn't compromise the album's charm. Despite its production flaws, the lack of consistent precision in playing, the slightly out-of-tune instruments, and a slightly amateur sound, this is still a very enjoyable album. Between the time I got this album and the time I wrote this review (two months) I have gotten over 110 albums (most of higher quality), but the music here has enchanted me such that I have listened to 5 of the 8 songs at least 5 times, a relatively large number for me.

Sounds surprisingly close to Krautrock, and that is a good thing!

Dusty, hissy garage prog from this clunky quintet with out-of-tune guitars, flat bass, distant drums and a singer who should've kept his day job. Vaguely jazzy and donning a kind of Bo Hansson sensibility but with none of the musicianship to achieve it, the 'album' sounds remarkably like a rehearsal session - a failed one at that - complete with false starts, abrupt cut-offs, confusion and a lot of wasted studio time. Not to mention one of the worst productions these ears have heard in many, many years. You've been warned.