SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA

Debut album from the most important (by far) Swedish band in the progressive realm, as these guys would be part of the RIO legend, but had a very impressive existence prior to that chart's creation, almost delving in the Canterbury side of things, like Henry Cow had too with Leg End. Indeed, this self-titled debut album is already stretching the normal rock realm well beyond conventional boundaries, a bit in the Zappa sense, but without the dumb and cheesy humour of the Mothers. Don't get me wrong, SMM have also a solid sense of humour, but it's definitely more subtle than Zappa's Mother's' sketches or the later scatological obsessions of the late-70's. Just by the quartet's constitution, you can already guess that you're in for a wild trip: a keyboard-led quartet with a drummer and a percussionist. The album consist of 12 relatively short tracks

Opening on the SMM-like signature of Circus Apparentha, the album reveals itself to, be a very enthusiastic and enthralling trip into happy and joyous music, that's confirmed with the jazzy/Latino organ-lead Vidgat Läge track, sometimes close to Santana's Gregg Rollie. Satori is a repetitive but evolving descending riff on the piano. The album goes on with some musical insanities like the nearly-spoken introduction vocals of Manna Jamma, before the track veers wildly into an organ-led improv. The album remains entertaining throughout, but SMM is missing another solo instrument to be captivating enough through the length of an album-full of tracks. And while usually energetic, rather surprisingly, this otherwise superb album ends in a relatively low-key Pop Tai, which almost a deception as you'd have expected them to go out on a loud BANG!!!

Despite the uneven production, this album is a very worthy pre-RIO cradle that most progheads (even the neo-sympho-retro heads) should investigate, or at least SMM's next two albums, even if I suspect they will find this one more accessible. The two bonus track from the 01 Cd reissue are in the wild line of the album, but seem to be better produced. Even stronger than this excellent invigorating musical slap-in-the-face, SMM would go on to the even stronger Maltid album, but this is another story. SMM's debut album is certainly a fitting start to the most impressive and legendary Swedish bands, no matter what decade