FLÄSKET BRINNER

This is one of my favourite old school jam bands, and if you talk to anyone in Sweden over 40 worth his/her salt, they'll tell you how brilliant and saucy this act is. Especially in a live setting! Good thing too, because this debut of theirs is exactly that - Live. Maybe these tracks were based around certain motifs and ideas, but aside from that, everything is straight out of the bag. Much like ze Germans did around the same time, the emphasis was on feel and cutting each other enough slack to actually permeate the outer regions of the stratosphere with music that was as gelatinous, rocking and free as only modern day Nutella seems to be.

There's no getting around the fun factor as well, and I think this is one of the key elements in all of music. If you pay attention to this scene in particular, you'll probably also catch the unbridled exuberance and joy other acts like Kebnekaise and Samla Mammas Manna were wielding as well. You get the impression that the bands were playing in spite of everything, only to be in the moment with their best mates, trying to hit that fleeting groove - the invisible glimpse of sonic heaven. This is very much so with Fläsket Brinner, and to add a little bit to that fun factor - the name itself means something as crazy as The Bacon is Burning... Well if you thought these guys were insane, then it probably won't surprise you to know that their preferred way of showing up at a gig back then, was with their teeth painted black...

Before this band came into fruition, all of the band members had had bad experiences with the commercial music scene, and I think this played a huge part in the final sound - relying much more on wafting free structures and jams, than the one-two-three-four approach. Good thing too I say.

Just like Pedro (Mosh) has been pointing out in the Krautrock Space here on PA, I too think the free association music happening in Germany, and several other places like Sweden, - took its inspiration from the 60s. Bands like Quicksilver Messenger, Cream, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Jimi, Santana and a whole bunch of other acts are as much responsible for "Krautrock" happening as the drug culture and hang over caused by the iron grip of W.W. ll were.

Fläsket Brinner owes a lot of their sound to those aforementioned bands, although they infused quite a bit of their own thang into the mix. The music can be described as space rock with some slightly skewed folk aspirations and jazzy spices- coming through in the most unharnessed way imaginable. Furious guitar leads with loads of fuzz teamed up with a rhythm section so ingrained and pre-conceptive of itself, that everything else around it just flows as natural like a handkerchief in a tropical storm. Over and under this core in the music, you'll get saxophone and flute bits ornamenting things nicely, and the odd Bo Hansson organ bubbling away like a muddied lava swamp. Everything fits like a glove here, there are no superfluous ingredients, even if the band at this point in time had no real control over who was in it. Sort of like The Jimi Hendrix Experience - only with far more Scandinavians involved. One big happy family sponsoring freely flowing psychedelic jazz tinged progressive rock with lots of percussive splashes, cow bells, brawny wind sections and fiery guitar. What's not to love here?

Fläsket Brinner's debut has become somewhat of a cult record here in Scandinavia, and I fully understand its attraction. I fell for it head over heels truth be told. The music it contains is a wonderful blend of everything that made the end of the 60s great - combined with the newly found adventurism of the impending decade. Anybody into this particular period of time - the feel - the nature of things and how music could take on a life on its own: Be sure you don't pass this one by! 4.5 stars.

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