TRAMSEBÖX

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!