SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA

Samla Mammas Manna is a great experiemtal/ RIO rock band from Sweden. Their music is influenced by lots of different genres, and they end up sounding very original. It is note worthy that this album is from 1971. Even though that time was mostly dominated by symphonic prog rock bands a few bands stuck out and insisted on making something different and Samla Mammas Manna is certainly one of them.

The album is mostly instrumental, but starts with Circus apparatha which is a song with swedish lyrics and singing. I must say that even though the instrumental songs are very impressive Circus apparatha is my favorite here. This song has first of all a great instrumental track and on top of that the strange and funny Swedish lyrics that are just hilarious to me. The singing in itself is also very good here. The rest of the songs are also very good instrumental songs with lots of piano and organ led melodies. A lot of the melodies remind me of a day in the circus as they have that happy flavour of clowns, candyfloss and elephants. The songs rely heavily on rythm though, and with both a drummer Hasse Bruniusson ( now in The Flower Kings) and a percussionist Bebben Öberg, this is the part of Samla Mammas Manna´s music that is dominating and I promise you that they play some pretty impressive things. The songs are slightly complex yet memorable. This is not totally inaccessible RIO, but rather a pleasant variant. Handclaps are even thrown in to great humorous effect.

The musicians are outstanding and I´m especially impressed by that brilliant rythm section, but the funny little piano/ organ melodies are also wonderful.

The production isn´t the best but it doesn´t ruin the music and it has it´s charm.

This debut album is an excellent RIO album and I enjoy it very much. Had there been more of those funny vocals this could have been a masterpiece, but as it is I will rate it 4 stars.