Saturday, December 11, 2021

Doctors Of Madness - 1978 - Sons Of Survival

Doctors Of Madness
1978
Sons Of Survival



01. 50 s Kids
02. Into The Strange
03. N o Limits
04. Bulletin
05. Network
06. Sons Of Survival
07. Back From The Dead
08 .Triple Vision
09. Kiss Goodbye Tomorrow
10. Cool (Live In The Satin Subway)


Bass Guitar, Vocals – Stoner
Drums, Vocals – Peter Di Lemma
Guitar, Vocals – Kid Strange
Violin, Guitar – Urban Blitz



The iceman cometh. If Doctors of Madness did not know they were dying as they recorded their third album, they didn't let their innocence show. Re-emerging over a year after the sophomore Figments of Emancipation, but still far out on a limb of their own devising, the Doctors reflected upon the first 12 months of punk rock with an album that mourned the members' own apparent old age -- "here we are the '50s kids, on collision course with 30" -- then let fly with more fire than rebels almost half their age. It was peculiar, at the time, to realize just how violent an electric violin could sound. Of course, that was always the instrument's role in the Doctors, but on past albums, Urban Blitz couched his psychoses in a chilling darkness -- as though saying, "I'll scare you, but I won't hurt you." Sons stripped away such pretense and pretensions, and the band emerged with an album that is probably still on the run. Catch up with it, and the blood will never wash away. "No Limits," bassist Stoner's solo vocal debut, is nothing short of brutality draped in a succulent melody, one of the finest songs and performances in the band's entire canon; "Bulletin," oddly culled as the band's first ever single -- is the bilious elder brother of Elvis Costello's "Radio Radio"; and the closing "Cool (Live in the Satin Subway)" is stuttering frenzy that progresses rapid-fire into feedback and heart attack, the last sounds the original four-piece Doctors would ever make in a studio and their most intense. If you ever wondered what "Sister Ray" grew up to become, look no further. Elsewhere, "Back from the Dead" is a stately slice of scream-laden apocalypse composed by Strange and the Adverts' TV Smith, but the crowning glory is the penultimate track. The end of the worldly "Kiss Goodbye Tomorrow" sees Strange pull out another of his unexpectedly tender, balladic masterpieces, couched in continental mystery, and strangely, sadly, nostalgic. It is brief -- just two verses offer a mere snatch of the version Strange would subsequently record for a solo B-side, but it is also a masterpiece and, as such, something of a consolation prize for everyone dismayed by the Doctors' dissolution just months later. At the time, Sons of Survival felt like a last will and testament. It was good to discover there'd be some life after death.

This was the last DOM and it hints at the directions the band would have taken if it had continued. Much harder and metallic than the first two, the influence of punk rages. But the DOM were too accomplished a set of musicians to settle for three minute, three-chord thrashes and it shows in the more complex arrangements. But SOS reveals moments of tenderness and self-reflection too such as the all-acoustic "Kiss Goodbye Tomorrow." As usual, Richard Strange's lyrics are complex, vivid and effective - along with TV Smith, he is one of the best UK lyricists.

Doctors Of Madness - 1976 - Figments Of Emancipation

Doctors Of Madness 
1976
Figments Of Emancipation




01. Brothers
02. Suicide City
03. Perfect Past
04. Marie And Joe
05. In Camera
06. Doctors Of Madness
07. Out

Bass [Fuzz Bass], Percussion, Vocals – Stoner
Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Peter Di Lemma
Violin [Violino Electrique, Baritone Violectra], Strings, Guitar – Urban Blitz
Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Written-By – Kid Strange




Starved for affection, yet marching deliriously on, the most critically cudgeled British band of 1976 released their second album just six months after their debut Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms, almost as if they'd never read a word that had been written about them. And certainly as if they never cared about any of them. Figments of Emancipation is so much the son of its predecessor that the two could have been recorded in tandem. They were certainly written so -- most of the album was present in the Doctors of Madness' live set even before they recorded Brainstorms. Whereas that album haunted the city of the damned, however, Figments is a less modest and, in consequence, considerably less inhumane set. The self-aggrandizing "Doctors of Madness" is an arrogantly swaggering sucker punch, while the sharp segue between the opening "Brothers" and "Suicide City" effortlessly echoed the medley effect which conjoined Late Night Movies' opening suite -- only without the sweeter passages to lighten the lurch. There's also room for a couple of love songs, however, and even beneath its affirmative surface, "Perfect Past" is nothing short of gorgeous tenderness. "Marie and Joe," on the other hand, packs a heartbreak so real it has to be autobiographical, and a pain so bitter that you're not sure you didn't live it yourself. Where Figments falls down, then, is not in the songs, but in a less easily definable manner -- the sense that it really was simply offcuts from the debut, neither conceived nor initially intended to be placed together on a single platter. By that token, its U.S. release as one half of a double album (accompanied by Brainstorms, under the title Doctors of Madness) probably makes more sense, although one cannot help but wonder -- the Brits didn't care for the Doctors of Madness, and the band was one of their own. What were the chances of America proving any more accommodating?

Friday, December 10, 2021

Doctors Of Madness - 1976 - Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms


Doctors Of Madness
1976
Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms



01. Waiting 4:04
02. Afterglow 3:49
03. Mitzi's Cure 4:50
04. I Think We're Alone 3:44
05. The Noises Of The Evening 8:33
06. Billy Watch Out 5:11
07. B-Movie Bedtime 3:16
08 . Mainlines 15:44

Bass, Vocals – Stoner
Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Peter Di Lemma
Guitar, Violin – Urban Blitz
Vocals, Guitar, Saxophone, Harmonica, Written-By – Kid Strange



Doctors of Madness, the band that prophesied punk – and then disappeared

They perfected angry screeching misanthropy before the Sex Pistols – and helped inspire bands such as the Damned and the Skids. So why have they been consigned to history?

We were John the Baptist, we weren’t Jesus Christ.” Doctors of Madness frontman Richard Strange is talking about his band’s prophetic-but-premature relationship to punk. “We didn’t know what was coming, we were just bored with what had been,” Strange adds, describing how mid-70s entropy – the lull between glam’s twilight and punk’s dawn – goaded the group into existence.

In recent years, cult interest has fastened on a phase in the 70s that has been called “punk before punk”: a catch-all for a musically motley bunch of bands who anticipated one aspect or other of 1977’s insurrection. In this not-quite-a-genre you’ll find stompy boot-boy rockers the Jook, the theatrical menace of Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Oi!-anticipating Cockney hooligans Heavy Metal Kids, the spiky New Wave premonitions of Jet and Ultravox, Musical Vomit’s shock-rock, and the back-to-basics blast of the Hammersmith Gorillas.

But no band fits the punk-before-punk tag better than Doctors of Madness. In 1976 alone, they released two major-label albums of fierce, scrawny rock with apocalyptic lyrics (one UK tour was named “End of the World”). Despite their heavyweight management, Doctors of Madness never made it. But many future punk luminaries – the Damned, Penetration, the Adverts, the Skids – were in the audience. Others – most significantly the Sex Pistols – played support to Doctors of Madness at gigs. Now, nearly 40 years after disbanding, the Doctors of Madness story is being retold thanks to the comprehensive box set Perfect Past. There’s even a happy ending, as the band are reforming for a UK tour this month.

The story starts in mid-60s south London, where the teenage Strange – sparked equally by Dylan and Beat writers like Ginsberg – decided that rock was the right arena for his poetic ambitions. Early on, he was an acoustic-strumming troubadour, a fan (and friend) of Roy Harper, whose declamatory style and dark absurdism is an influence secreted deep in the Doctors of Madness mix. But then Bowie hit the scene, spurring Strange to form a band with a kick-in-the-eye image and domineering theatrical presence. Ziggy had already done orange hair, so Strange went up a level: blue hair with green sideburns. In combination with his angular 6ft 4in frame and aquiline features, the look was striking.

Strange’s lyrics bore Bowie’s imprint, especially Diamond Dogs’s doomy visions. “I was singing about urban psychosis, control systems, paranoia, drugs,” Strange recalls. “All with this Burroughsian subtext of a dysfunctional dystopian society, where everything’s on the point of breakdown.” The band’s name also came from Burroughs: specifically Dr Benway, a recurring character whom Strange describes as “a total charlatan who masquerades as a doctor purely and simply to get his hands on drugs. As often as not he’ll be pocketing the codeine or cocaine while massaging the patient’s heart with a toilet plunger!

The name Doctors of Madness was, “a dream for copywriters and photographers”. The latter would dress the group up “in surgical clothes” or as asylum inmates. Each group member adopted a comic-book name: Richard Strange became Kid Strange, their electric violinist called himself Urban Blitz, while the bassist and drummer went by Stoner and Peter DiLemma respectively.

Morrison and partner Justin de Villeneuve were classic London showbiz hustlers with flamboyant largesse. After financing six weeks of rehearsal time so the group could develop their stage act, the duo threw a massive launch party even before a record deal was signed. Formerly Twiggy’s manager, de Villeneuve had an address book crammed with A-listers. All received invitations to the big bash at Ladbrokes Casino in Mayfair, where they sipped champagne while listening bemused to the Doctors’s tumultuous racket. “That evening we rubbed shoulders with the glitterati of international film and stage – Peter Sellers, Sophia Lauren, Omar Sharif, John Mills, Yves St Laurent,” recalls Urban Blitz. “Justin was upset because Warren Beatty didn’t turn up!” De Villeneuve also wrangled the group onto Twiggy’s BBC variety show, where – swathed in dry ice – Strange and the supermodel duetted on the song Perfect Past.

Another Morrison / de Villeneuve coup turned calamitous, though. Aiming to stir American record business interest and win a lucrative contract, they persuaded NBC to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary about a rock band’s rise to stardom. “The crew lived in our pockets for two weeks - they came on tour, into the recording studio, to management meetings,” recalls Strange. “They were incredibly charming and plausible.” But when the show aired, the footage had been edited into “a total hatchet job, about this manufactured band with no live pedigree, being hyped by a pair of industry hustlers. They had shots of Brian on his polo field! So that scuppered our American ambitions.”

Doctors of Madness subsequently signed with Polydor for the UK and Europe, in a handsome three-album deal worth £150,000 (more than £1m in today’s money). During 1976, they gigged constantly, playing ever-larger halls, and released two albums, Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms, and Figments of Emancipation. At a time when there were murmurs of discontent and clear signs of hunger for an angry young sound, Doctors of Madness fitted the bill. Out, on the second album, is a classic anthem of maladjustment – “out of time, out of place, out of touch/ I’ve lost everything but I guess that’s nothing much.” – that looks ahead to the scowling misanthropy of the Stranglers. It even features the word “fuck” a full year before similar expletives shot out of the vinyl mouths of Johnny Rotten and Ian Dury.

So why, then, was it the Pistols and their peers who led the charge, and not Doctors of Madness? Perhaps it was the violin, which – even though Urban Blitz drove it through distortion pedals and often used it as a hard-driving rhythmic bludgeon – was associated with prog-rock acts like Curved Air rather than street kid music. Maybe it was because for every frenetic pummel like (the song) Doctors of Madness, there was a slower melancholy tune like Afterglow or an epic like the 18-minutes-long Mainlines (the stand-out on Late Night Movies). “It’s very much a sound that’s between two genres, a schizophrenic sound – sometimes tender, almost contemplative, and other times an amphetamine rush, like the song can barely wait to get to the end,” says Strange. It could also be that Morrison & de Villeneuve’s promotional tactics tarnished the group: these “two really wide London boys”, as Strange puts it, were well-connected showbiz veterans, not outsiders touting revolutionary spiel, like Malcolm McLaren and other punk managers.

In Strange’s telling, the turning point in the tale comes when the Sex Pistols supported Doctors of Madness at Middlesborough Town Hall, on 21 May 1976. “Watching them from the side of the stage, I realised it was all over for us – the goalposts were suddenly moved. We were probably three years older than them, no more, but the generational difference was seismic.” Compounding the injury and insult of being consigned to the old wave in one fell swoop, Doctors of Madness’s clothes were rifled for cash during their headlining performance, with the guttersnipe Pistols doubtless scarpering from the dressing room and cackling all the way to the nearest pub.

Polydor shifted all their energy to signing New Wave artists (including the Jam, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure) while Doctors of Madness were shunted into the “last year’s things” file. They made one more album, Sons of Survival, recorded on a lower budget than the preceding Figments (done at Abbey Road) and with a discernibly punked-up sound and styling. Then, shrewdly, they called it a day.

Strange wasn’t done with the music business, though. He developed a solo act, using backing tapes and slide projections to stage a performance piece titled The Phenomenal Rise of Richard Strange. “It was my political fantasy of a glamorous but cynical character using what he’s learned in showbiz and advertising to become president of a united Europe.” Rather than money or even power, the character is “interested in doing it for the game, as a conceptual exercise almost,” says Strange, pointing to Reagan, and now Trump, as fulfilments of his prophetic satire.

The Phenomenal Rise was released first as a 1980 live album. By then Strange had become newly hip as founder/host/curator of Cabaret Futura, a Soho weekly where early performances by Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, and Shane MacGowan jostled with performance art and absurdist comedy (like Keith Allen’s nude ventriloquist act using a steak-and-kidney pie as a dummy). Although there would be other music ventures, Strange’s career then took a swerve into acting for TV, the stage, and most successfully, movies (roles in Mona Lisa, Batman, Robin Hood, and Gangs of New York, amongst others). Strange recalls that early on a director said, in reference to his commanding physical presence, “You’ll always work – you’ve got a look about you.”

In the 21st Century, Strange published a superior contribution to the rock memoir genre with 2002’s witty, well-observed Strange: Punks and Drunks and Flicks and Kicks. In 2010, encouraged by his teenage step-children, Strange relaunched Cabaret Futura as a monthly, which is still going. Doctors of Madness reunited for a one-off concert in 2014, as part of Strange’s Language is a Virus From Outer Space, a celebration of Burroughs’s work at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. But with Stoner now dead and Peter DiLemma not keen to travel, the current re-formation tour has been made possible thanks to a bizarre product of Japan’s super-advanced retro-culture: the Doctors of Madness tribute band Sister Paul, whose rhythm section are joining with Strange and Blitz to play 11 dates across the UK this month, in support of the Perfect Past box set.

Of the box’s contents, Strange says: “It’s lovely to listen to the songs again. They don’t sound particularly dated. Certainly the subject matter – the paranoia, the anxiety levels – really chimes with my teenage and twenty-something kids. They say, ‘I can’t believe you wrote these songs 40 years ago. This is exactly how things feel now.’

Doctors of Madness were a very remarkable band, who seemed all too ready to skip right over the punk scene and proceed directly to “post-punk.” Falling somewhere in the nebulous gray area between the progressive rock theatrics of Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator and the glam-rock theatrics of Roxy Music, David Bowie and Cockney Rebel, the Doctors sported an arresting sound; a wall of acoustic and electric guitars and wailing electrified violins they termed the “low budget orchestra.” While the lyrical conceits, guitar-based instrumentation and frequently manic energy seemed to anticipate the punk movement, there was too much frilly ornamentation here, too many overwrought emotions and too many extended songs (“Mainlines” is in two parts and stretches out over 16 minutes!) to appeal to the punk era. So the Doctors remain an odd footnote in rock’s history despite being highly influential on subsequent bands like Ultravox (whose early albums featuring John Foxx contain moments which could have been lifted directly from this very record).

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Jukka Hauru - 1975 - Episode

Jukka Hauru
1975
Episode




01. Enema Syringe (5:45)
02. When I Met My Wondergirl (8:52)
03. Waltz Bourgeois (4:20)
04. Episode (Santiago 11. 9. 73) (12:37)
05. Elegy (for Victor Jara) (4:11)
06. Goodbye Pinochet (3:05)

- Jukka Hauru / guitars
- Jukka Linkola / piano, synthesizers
- Esa Kotilainen / sring synth
- Heikki Virtanen / bass
- Tomi Parkkonen / drums
- Teemu Salminen / flute, saxophones, clarinet
- Pekka Pöyry / soprano & alto sax (1, 2)
- Pekka Pohjola / bass (1, 2)




Nowadays Jukka Hauru is best remembered, at least by Finns, as a music critic. His career as a musician - active mainly in the late 60's and the 70's - had an emphasis on being a session/live guitarist for several groups and artists. In the early 70's he also was a producer for a brief period (notorious for rejecting the future-classic prog band Haikara; in the end he only produced the Kalevala debut and his own debut!). Later he composed some songs for e.g. KOM Teatteri. Hauru's solo ouput consists of two albums only, Information (1972) and this one released by Love Records in 1975. Both are instrumental fusion comparable to Frank Zappa or Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's sad how few people, apart from the critics, noticed his albums at the time, maybe because Jukka Tolonen (Tasavallan Presidentti, solo) was THE guitar hero back then.

The opening track 'Enema Syringe' is a groovy, lively, fast-paced piece. At first it seems to focus self-poignantly on Hauru's guitar skills, but the whole group is totally involved, and also synths have solo moments. 'When I Met My Wondergirl' lives up to its charming title as a dreamy and romantic composition. These two tracks feature the bass legend Pekka Pohjola and the saxophone legend Pekka Pöyry. 'Waltz Bourgeois' contains lots of saxes played by Teemu Salminen. This is my least favourite; it attempts to be witty and humorous without really taking off.

The whole B-side was composed earlier than the A-side, ie. in the autumn of 1973, after the military takeover in Chile. As one can guess, the music is more 'serious' and complex, especially in the 12½-minute 'Episode (Santiago 11.9. 73)'. Sonically it sometimes reminds me of early Pekka Pohjola albums such as Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva or Harakka Bialoipokku. 'Elegy (for Victor Jara)' is a beautiful, moody piece in a slow tempo, starring bright guitar and electric piano sounds. 'Goodbye Pinochet' is the shortest track at three minutes, and easy to enjoy by any listener who likes jazz.

Episode is not a faultless masterpiece, but it's a strong work with excellent musicianship, and the music has good balance between technics and emotion. The album was re-released on vinyl in 2016.

Jukka Hauru - 1972 - Information

Jukka Hauru
1972
Information



01. Mai-Ling (6:16)
02. Room 1972 (1:52)
03. Jamsession The Finnish Yes Federation's Skinheaded Board (1:33)
04. No More Blues (6:55)
05. Evil (6:08)
06. Splitting (3:24)
07. Information (4:35)
08. Refilling Valve (3:40)
09. What? (4:44)
10. Waltz For The Straight Relatives (2:25)

- Mikko Kemppinen / photography, design
- Markku Marstela / soprano saxophone
- Sakari Kukko / soprano saxophone
- Matti Jakola / vocals, other
- Heikki Virtanen / bass
- Raimo Wallen / tenor saxophone
- Tapani Tamminen / bass, double bass
- Karl Tamminen / mixing, engineer
- Tapani Ikonen / drums
- Jukka Hauru / guitar, composition, producer, arrangements
- Reino Aaltonen / engineer
- Juhani Poutanen / arrangements, violin
- Reino Laine / drums
- Olli Ahvenlahti / piano




If your into Zappa influenced music this is a really, really good one out of Finland. Jukku is a guitarist extraordinaire and he plays in Frank's style at times but not always and this guy is exceptional. He released 2 studio albums in the seventies and this is the debut from 1972. Lots of musicians helped him out over the month of July when he recorded this. Plenty of sax and we get bass and double bass and yes this is quite jazzy. I was thrilled to see that the violinist on here is Juhani Poutanen the leader of the band JUPU GROUP who's album I just reviewed last week. We get that zany Finnish humour like on the closer "Waltz For The Straight Relatives" or the outstanding but short "Jamsession The Finnish Yes Federation's Skinheaded Board" where we get some incredible female scat singing.

Best song for me is "Splitting" with that nasty distorted electric piano along with Jukku's guitar work makes this a must hear. "What ?" is another winner but there's lots of those on here. The jazzy groove before the electric piano and guitar trade off then we get this uptempo soundscape of double bass, drums and the guitar lighting it up. Distorted electric piano too. Yes! Our very excellent violinist does his thing on the title track an uptempo and repetitive track with a Zappa vibe. More of that violin and Zappa like guitar on "Evil". Some humour with those funny vocal expressions that come and go on "No More Blues". So much going on late. So impressive. Suspense and Avant with the short "Room 1972" and what a great title. The opener has an Asian vibe at times and I like when it turns into a "Rock" mode late to the end.

Another awesome Jazz influenced album from the seventies. More please!

Mingo Lewis - 1976 - Flight Never Ending

Mingo Lewis
1976
Flight Never Ending




01. Aba Cua 1:36
02. Franckincense 7:02
03. Heartsong 8:20
04. The Wizard 7:35
05. Visions Of Another Time 6:30
06. Trapezoid 4:46
07. 'Maginary Monsters 1:02
08. Flight Never Ending 8:30

Mingo Lewis - percussion, synthesizers, congas, clavinet, and vocals
Louis Bramy - percussion, bells, vocals
Mike Kapitan - keyboards, piano, synthesizers, drums vocals
David Logeman - drums
Eric McCann - electric bass
Kincaid Miller - synthesizers, keyboards clavinet
Randy Sellgren - electric guitar, acoustic guitar




James Mingo Lewis (born December 1940) is an American jazz percussionist who played with Carlos Santana's band, Return To Forever (Chick Corea) and as a sideman for Al Di Meola. Aside from his extensive work as a session musician—Paiste states Mingo "has recorded over 100 records"—, the percussionist also released a solo album, Flight Never Ending (Columbia, 1976).

Legendary Bay Area progressive jazz percussionist Mingo Lewis began performing with Santana in his teens. Lewis also worked with artists such as Al DiMeola, Chick Corea and Return to Forever, David Byrne, Jan Hammer and The Tubes. Many people got a first glance at Lewis’ extraordinary musicianship through Al DiMeola’s debut album from 1976 “Land of the Midnight Sun” where Lewis contributed one of the most memorable compositions, the opening track “The Wizard” (1st sample below), which has become a DiMeola classic. Lewis' debut album was also originally released in 1976 and it also contains a version of “The Wizard” (2nd sample below). DiMeola’s version of “The Wizard” is melodically stronger, which perhaps suggest that DiMeola might have heard Lewis’ version prior to him releasing his debut album. Nonetheless "Flight Never Ending" is classic 70's fusion much in the style of Return to Forever & Al DiMeola. The music combines the primitive Afro-Cuban rhythms with the newest dimension in progressive rock at the time. It only took 30 years for this recording to appear on CD as it was finally superbly digitally remastered in 2007. Musicians include: Mingo Lewis on percussion and keyboards, David Logeman on drums, Eric McCann on bass, Randy Sellgren on guitar, Michael Kapitan and Kincaid Miller on keyboards, and A. Louis Bramey on hand bells.

Great lost fusion music from a great percussionist that has played with a variety of musicians and artists over the years. I have been looking for this album for years and finally someone came out with it on CD.

From the back cover of this album-

‘This music combines the primitive influences of Afro-Cuban rhythms with the newest dimension in progressive rock. The synthesizer. An endless flight of sound…. We call it electric percussive music from the sounds of your mind.’

Flight Never Ending was released after Mingo’s stints with Santana and Return To Forever. It’s a brilliant album of fiery fusion similar to the first Journey record with some incredible guitar work from Randy Sellgren. This cat just burns throughout the album and while the emphasis is on keyboards, it’s Sellgren’s fretwork that carries the record.

This is one of the best fusion albums I have ever come across and for fans of Santana, Return To Forever and again, the first Journey album (Both Lewis and Journey at this time were under the creative direction of Journey manager Herbie Herbert’s Spreadeagle Productions) Flight Never Ending is a must have. Unfortunately, this still has not been reissued to CD and why it hasn’t is anyone’s guess?

My highest recommendation!

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Björn J:son Lindh - 1978 - Bike Voyage II

Björn J:son Lindh
1978
Bike Voyage II




01. Introduction (0:33)
02. Helicopter Music (3:19)
03. Billathi Askara (5:14)
04. A Day at the Surface (5:32)
05. Loch Ensslin (2:05)
06. Ah Q (2:11)
07. Bike Voyage II (2:28)
08. Hotel and Drumsticks (5:04)
09. Boathouse Club (4:20)
10. Colwyn Bay (5:32)
11. Angela's Kite (1:14)

- Lennart Aberg / flute, sax (soprano), sax (tenor)
- Jan Bandel / violin
- Stefan Brolund / bass
- Jon Christensen / drums
- Nagi el Habashi / cello
- Malando Gassama / drums
- Björn J:son Lindh / flute, primary artist
- Peter Robinson / keyboards
- Janne Schaffer / guitar
- Peter Sundell / percussion
- Okay Temiz / percussion
- Georg Jojje Wadenius / bass

Recorded at Metronome Studio, Stockholm, June 19th-22nd, 1978.

Vynil LP Sonet SLP-2619 in 1978, later issues released under the name "A Day At The Surface"




After signing with Sonet, J:son Lindh appeared with this album which is marginally better than ”Raggie”, largely thanks to a couple of tracks with a pronounced Oriental feel like the traditional ”Billathi Askara”, enhanced by Egyptian Nagi al-?abaši fervent cello playing, and ”Ah Q” with a guest appearance from Okay Temiz on tablas. But it's ”A Day at the Surface”, ”Hotel and Drumsticks”, ”Colwyn Way”, and ”Boathouse Club” (the latter with an absolutely horrendous synth part) that define the album as just another bloodless fusion album, as stone dead as the granite bust on the cover. Released as ”A Day at the Surface” in the UK.

Björn J:son Lindh - 1976 - Raggie

Björn J:son Lindh
1976
Raggie




01. Love Machine (5:26)
02. The Pond (3:22)
03. Mannheim Rocket (3:34)
04. Bike Voyage (2:36)
05. Anniversary March (4:42)
06. Raggie (5:05)
07. Dry County (4:27)
08. Deer's Pasture (2:46)
09. Persian Supermarket (6:57)

- Björn J:son Lindh / Flute, Keyboards, Synthesizer, Piano
- Ernie Watts / Tenor Sax
- Don Grusin / Fender Piano
- Lee Ritenour / Guitar
- Ken Wild / Bass
- Joe Correro / Drums
- Joe Lala / Percussion
- Jim Gilstrap / Background Voice
- Angie Johnson / Background Voice
- Jan Kohlin / Trumpet
- Ulf Adåker / Trumpet
- Ulf Andersson / Tenor Sax, Soprano Sax, Clarinet, Flute
- Johan Stengård / Barrytone Sax
- Janne Schaffer / Guitar
- Stefan Brolund / Bass
- Malando Gassama / Drums, Percussion
- Mats Glenngård / Electric Violin
- Åke Eriksson / Drums
- Lars Carlsson / Alto Sax
- Barry Beckett / Clavinet
- Ken Bell / Guitar
- Jimmy Johnson / Guitar
- David Hood / Bass
- Roger Hawkins / Drums
- Tom Roady / Percussion
- Lars-Olof Kyndel / Organ
- Americo Belletto / Trumpet
- Bertil Lövgren / Trumpet
- Sven Larsson / Trombone
- Lars Olofsson / Trombone
- Jan Kling / Soprano Sax, Clarinet, Flute




Take a look at the cover and you've heard the album. The pink fuzz and soft focus of the sleeve is also prevalent on the album itself and turns the music into an unengaging smear – smooth perfection over musical content. The sole exception is ”Anniversary March” with Mats Glenngård's fiddle adding a much needed spirit. The softer tracks try to capture the low-key sense of wonder familiar from the 'trilogy', but they end up as hopeless slippery new age drivel.

Björn J:son Lindh - 1974 - Boogie Woogie

Björn J:son Lindh 
1974
Boogie Woogie




01. Jayson's Boogie Woogie
02. Second Carneval
03. House Of Lights
04. Stephan's Cake-Walk
05. Second Line Strut
06. Honky Tonky Train Blues
07. 3rd Meter Stroll
08. Pivo

- Björn J:son Lindh / Flute, Keyboards, Accordion
- Ulf Andersson / Tenor Sax
- Jan Schaffer / Guitars
- Stefan Brolund / Fender Bass, Acoustic Bass
- Ola Brunkert / Drums
- Malando Gassama / Congas, Percussion
- Merie Bergman / Vocals
- Beverly Glen / Vocals
- Okay Temiz / Percussion
- Jan Kling / Tenor Sax
- Sven Andersson / Trombone
- Bengt Edwardsson / Trombones
- Lars Wellander / Guitar
- Mads Vinding / Fender Bass
- Thomas Gartz / Fiddle



Things definitely began to slide with ”Boogie Woogie”. With it J:son Lindh took a further step towards the fusion amalgam, adopting a studio sound that pretty much killed the graceful mysticism of his previous albums. Only closing track ”Pivo” retains the Oriental influences to good effect, making it the self-evident high mark of ”Boogie Woogie”. Released as ”Second Carneval” in the US.

Björn J:son Lindh - 1973 - Sissel

Björn J:son Lindh
1973
Sissel



01. Bull Dog (7:15)
02. Surto's Pyle'as (2:46)
03. Storpolska (9:25)
04. Your Own House (3:22)
05. Sissel (8:54)
06. Games People Play (3:45)

Björn J:son Lindh: Flute, Keyboards, Synthesizer
Okay Temiz: Percussion Drums
Janne Schaffer: Electric Guitar
Jan Bandel: Vibes
John Christensen: Drums, Percussion
Jan Tolf: Percussion
Steffan Brolund: Bass (1)
Mike Watson: Bass
Lennart Aberg: Sax




 I love J:son Lindh's music and early 70's albums. At least that is true in parts. The whole jazz rock scene of the early 70's and late 60's fills me with gladness. The mix of jazz sensibilities and rock music results in a very enthralling combination of genres really not that far apart, yet still different.

J:son Lindh and Jan Schaffer are two of my favorite musicians from Sweden, though their musical output not always fits my taste but when it does it suits me in a splendid way. "Sissel" is the fourth album by Lindh and in my opinion his best. The combination of jazz, rock, prog and jams is excellent, really. Though the musicianship is flawless the result is a good but non-essential piece of vinyl.

The two tracks which I listen to the most are "Bull dog" and "Storpolska". They are simply irresistable pieces of music and jazz rock at it's finest moments. "Storpolska" is a mix of rock, swedish folk and jazz all rolled up in one amazing stew of thundering musicianship, energy and inspiration. I love that track and rate it with five (5) stars while "Bull dog" is a certified four (4). The remaining tracks are good, just not that explosive and splendid.

nclusion: "Sissel" is a really good example of (swedish) jazz rock and holds moments of genius. The musicianship leaves nothing to be desired, though the album as a whole is not up to par with the two magnificent "Bull dog" and "Storpolska". If you are able to get a hold of this album, buy it and give it a try. It's worth every penny and I am waiting for it to be released as a CD along with the others of Lindh's 70's output.

Björn J:son Lindh - 1972 - Cous Cous

Björn J:son Lindh
1972
Cous Cous




01. My Machine 4:06
02. Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues 2:58
03. Bobo 5:17
04. El Henna 2:51
05. Kiki 3:46
06. Elastic Springtime 3:30
07. The Booster Pump 3:22
08. Abdo 10:02

Janne Schaffer - Acoustic Guitar, Guitar, Electric Guitar
Palle Danielsson – Bass
Mike Watson - Bass [Fender]
Nagi el Habashy - Cello
Kofi Aivor - Congas
Malando Gassanna - Congas
Bengt Berger - Drums
Ola Brunkert – Drums
Bobo Stenson - Electric Piano
Kenny Håkansson - Guitar [Electric]
Abd el Rahman el Khatib – Lute
Bahi Barakat - Tabla
Jan Bandel – Tabla

Arranged By - Abd el Rahman el Khatib, Björn J:Son Lindh
Producer - Anders Burman
Engineer - Rune Persson




Swedish flautist Björn Jayson Lindh (later Björn J:son Lindh) was pretty active in the 70s putting out quite a few good jazzfunk LPs with three of them being distributed by CTI. Here's his second and one which received better critical reception upon release than most others, as evidenced in this review over at Vinyl Vulture:

A more composed affair this one, as Björn gets his mate Janne Schaffer in to beef up the axework, which he quickly does on the opening workout 'My Machine': nice chunky funk and a great start. There is much contrast to this and the more laid back tracks like 'Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues', which boasts a certain mellowness and a lovely string arrangement of his own creation. On the same theme is 'El Henna', perhaps one of his most graceful cuts; floating gently along as multi-tracked flute lines weave back and forth like angel's pillow talk. Truly beautiful. This LP also finds Lindh at his most Bob James-like on 'Elastic Springtime', which really is disturbingly similar to the Taxi theme and pre-dates it by some years. Naughty old Bob! And then, just when you are just starting to wonder what has happened to the Turkish Delight, the album finishes with a 10-minute trip down just those streets, which is not at all bad. Could well be top of the heap this one.

Finding this album in the early 90s was a bit of a relief. It helped me deal much better with my secret shame of harbouring an appreciation for the first (and only listenable) ABBA record since Lindh sweded up the horn and string arrangements for his fellow countrymen. One of my musical sins absolved, I could sleep a teensy bit better at night.

Björn J:son Lindh - 1971 - Ramadan

Björn J:son Lindh
1971
Ramadan



01. Lastbrygga (5:52)
02. Daphnia (3:52)
03. Min tulpan (1:30)
04. Tuppa (6:36)
05. Benitos Hare (2:32)
06. Ramadan (3:43)
07. Love March (3:09)
08. Kullens fyr (6:10)

Congas – Kofi Ayivor
Congas – Joseph Mocka
Guitar – Hawkey Franzén
Tabla – Jan Bandel
Drums - Ola Brunkert
Electric Bass – Georg Wadenius
Electric Guitar – Kenny Håkansson
Cello – Mats Hagström
Flute, Electric Piano – Björn J:Son Lindh



Björn J:son Lindh was born in 1944, and majored in flute and piano at the Ingesund University College of Music. He continued his musical studies at A Björn J:son Lindh was born in Arvika, Värmland, Sweden in October 25 1944. He majored in piano and flute at the Ingesund University College of Music, in Arvika, Sweden. He pursued his musical training at Musikhögskolan, The Royal School of Music, during the latter half of the 60s, then went on to play free-jazz with NILS SANDSTROM and, with ABD El RAHMAN El KHATIB, who appears on Lindh's album, Cous Cous he played Arabic flute music. Lindh has collaborated with the esteemed jazz-rock fusion/ jazz gutarist, JANNE SCHAFFER - a man best known as a session guitarist for ABBA. Linsh and Schaffer formed the band HORSELMAT. Lindh has played on many RALPH LUNDSTEN albums, who is a pioneer in electronic music and an artist.

While Lindh has worked as a session musician on many albums (he played flute on MIKE OLDFIELD's Islands), he released 14 studio albums under his name between 1970 and 1999, and also has composed music for films and TV. His music ranges from jazz to Eastern, Indian and Arabic music, to folk to pop to classical to ambient electronic relaxation/ new age albums. 

His first album, "Ramadan" is an Eastern flavoured jazz-rock Fusion (and folk) album. His second album, and my personal favourite of his, is the Eclectic "Från Storstad Till Grodspad", which combines classical, jazz, rock, pop and psyche. "Cous Cous" is Arabic/ Eastern inspired jazz-rock, and "Sissel" is a Krautrockish jazz-fusion album.

Lindh also collaborated with TRIANGULUS (in PA under Prog Related) for Triangulus' debut album, "Triangulus and Bjørn J:son Lindh".

Not only is Lindh an active musician (flautist and keyboardist who also works with synths and current technology) but he has composed music and produced albums for many well-known artists.

I do not know how many times I've listened to "Lastbrygga" and "Kullens fyr" and everytime I am blown away with the jazzy grooves of these two amazing tracks. Lindh's flute and electric piano are excellent in every way and always performed in a flawless fashion on every recording of his.

The music could be described as late 60's, early 70's movie soundtracks with it's kind of minimalistic grooves and funky jazz rock. At least that is true in the two tracks previously mentioned. For me that is musical heaven. It is something truly mesmerizing about that sound.

While "Lastbrygga" and "Kullens fyr" are excellent pieces of music the tracks inbetween are pleasent but not really to my taste. They are a bit too similar in sound, I find. The album is framed in the two groovy jazz rock tracks while the main body consists of more mellow pieces. I have always thought that the album would have done better if Lindh put one more groovy track in the middle, making it a more varied album.

For me Ramadan is, and always will be the different way of seeing the flute playing.

Dominantly influenced by Ian Anderson, Thjis Van Leer and Elio D'anna, in the moment I started to listen to J:son Lindh, the whole world of jazz flute open before me. I did memorize every track of this album - that highlights a great competence in making a variety of styles and melodies works, from begning to end.

It is, perhaps, that kind of album thats speaks particularly with particular individuals. Well, it certainly did to me. And I do came back at Ramadan too often to consider this a simple and "just good" album. We're going with four on this one.