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Wasa Express - Wasa Express CD (album) cover

WASA EXPRESS

Wasa Express

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

2.88 | 16 ratings

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apps79
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars Another one of the mass of 70's Scandinavian Jazz/Fusion/Rock bands, Wasa Express came from Stockholm, Sweden and were formed in 1976.The band initially played instrumental Jazz- Rock, led by drummer Ake Eriksson (who had played with Egba, Coste Apetrea and Kebnekajse), guitarist Cary Sharaf el Din, bassist Bo Häggström (ex-Solar Plexus and Made in Sweden) and keyboardist Bo Hallgren.A self-titled debut appeared in 1977 on Sonet.

The first couple of tracks of the album are decent, especially the dynamic Fusion opener ''January Man'' with its powerful breaks and grooves, while ''Son of a Peach'' is a good Jazz- Rock cut with fine guitar solos.From this point the quality of ''Wasa Express'' drops dramatically.Most of the remaining length time is dedicated to funky Rock and slick, uninspired Jazz/Fusion with no surprises, while the keyboards sound really cheap and the few vocals present try unsuccesfully to add a ZAPPA-esque humurous touch, but the result is simply dull.It is really hard to describe how a great opening piece would lead to such uninspiring compositions shortly after.The next interesting track will come just a step before the end of this LP and it is ''Mr. Curry''.This is trully inventive Jazz-Rock with the complex rhythms and cool spacey synthesizers at the middle indicating that Wasa Express was a band capable of more.The closing ''Adventure'' is just another dissapointment, an average attempt to mix Rock'n'Roll with Heavy Fusion, which ends up as a fail.

Be warned that this album contains just a few tracks of great inspiration, while I doubt if the rest of it will satisfy even dedicated fans of Jazz-Rock.The album has seen a CD reissue in 2005 with three decent bonus live tracks, which may give this album a higher music value...2.5 stars.

apps79 | 2/5 |

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