In a world with justice, Swedish label Transubstans would reign supreme above all. Some of their releases are so good indeed that they make me wonder why I even bother listening to extreme music.  But theirs is another world, one where each musician is somehow able to balance superb chops with true feeling and beautiful jams. One where music isn’t a violent racket but a harmonious and ageless arrangement of melodic and classic notes. As the label advertises its shop Record Heaven, this is ‘Scandinavia’s biggest store for Metal, Progressive, Stoner, Psych and Kraut’. And they ain’t talking about sauerkraut either. Needless to say, if all prog rock was the Transubstans kind of prog rock, Dream Theater wouldn’t exist. The same can be said about other genres their bands dwell in. Read on and spread the word...

Abramis Brama is a so called stoner rock band from Sweden. They’ve been around since 1997 and Smakar Sondag is their fifth full-length of original material. Maybe what differentiates Abramis Brama from the rest of stoner rockers is their willingness to play with a clear head. Their execution is flawless. Like most of Transubstans releases, the musicianship here is impressive. Also like most of the Transubstans releases, this is a throwback sound to the 70’s.  The American rock influence is prevalent, from the boogie rock of “Langsamt (Edd Troll I Min Hiarna)” to the country flavored acoustics of “NEJ”, to the rising guitar throbbing of “Vagskal”, this screams bell bottoms and handlebar mustaches.  So now that we live revivalist times does Abramis Brama have a chance in the States? Not in a million years. The vocals are in Swedish, a total turn off for close minded American audiences. This is no “Du Hast”!

The following album took me by surprise. I looked at the cover artwork and my expectations were lowered beyond belief. But that’s not why I loved Good Planets Are Hard to Find, the fifth album of Danish/Swedish improvisational jammers Øresund Space Collective. Quite frankly, after listening to this record I was at a loss of words. It is that good. It is that fluent and staggering. To know that these are the results of improvisational jams is to know that we truly are in the presence of greatness. Øresund Space Collective sound like the greatest kraut rock band as fronted by Ravi Shankar. Believe me when I say that you’ve never heard a sitar played this way.  The Beatles could only dream of this stuff.  This basically sounds like a great prog rock band where a duel between the greatest sitar player and the most subdued guitar player is taking place.  The winner is the one who listens to it.

I have literally listened to this album about twenty times. At first I wasn’t sure. So I gave it another chance. And then another. It slowly grew on me. Nowadays, I am a fucking Magnolia groupie. Maybe it was that the vocals of Ronny Eriksson sit too heavy to an Americanized ear, those hard syllables literally twist your arm, but with time it’s become hard to resist a musician who plays the guitar as soulfully as Mark Tholin. The dude could have fit perfectly in a wide array of stellar bands, from Blue Cheer (Magnolia takes its name from one of their songs) to Rainbow. The rest of the band isn’t far behind, Erikkson is a killer bassist and drummer Anders Hedstrom had to have serious training to keep the beat this gracefully. Magnolia’s songs sound like they’ve grown out of trees, it’s a sound that had to be cultivated. The music of Falska Vagar (their second album) is pure 70’s rock bliss. It’s strange, people don’t make albums like this anymore.  

This is another album that left me in awe. I kid you not. No chance I am exaggerating. Detta Har Hänt, is the astonishing second album of Swedish quartet Gösta Berlings Saga. After listening to this beautiful piece of work, I had only one question, where do they breed this people? Is this much talent a matter of luck, hard work, or the results of arts friendly governments? I read somewhere that in Sweden, the government offers a great deal of support to musicians. If so, these may just be the results.  But this is not only what happens when sweat and practice meet, but of musicians exercising their right to express themselves freely. No boundaries, no strings attached. Laissez-faire-muthafuckas! In occasions, while listening to it, I thought of Radiohead and how for the past ten years or so, they’ve been trying to make music as bold as this.  Transubstans says, ‘the songs range from full-blown epic soundscapes via dissonant darkness to minimalistic powerful grooves without compromising when it comes to the strong melodies’. Ok, that was a bit convoluted, but is right on.  This is hypnotic, robotic, thankfully long and yet somehow, so damn soulful. Also, I haven’t heard a Fender Rhodes being played like this since like forever. I volunteer this album for album of the decade. It doesn’t  get better than this.

Here is another Swedish trio. They are called Mangrove and Endless Skies is their debut. It is also strangely confident. This band takes cues from 70’s blues based hard rock combos and ups the fuzz factor. Like in the rest of Transubstans releases, the musicianship is once again stellar. At times I was reminded of a  jam-prone keyboard-less Deep Purple. At others, it made me want to forget every other stoner rock band that ever existed. Vocalist guitarist Jani Kataja has the natural power. You know, people like Paul Rodgers used to have it too. The man is a natural without the need to over sing, ‘cause yeah, that would have been overkill. Like any other Deep Purple clone  without a Jon Lord, Mangrove’s music is filled with awesome guitars, (badass riffs, even better solos), and an approach to music that if done right is timeless. Endless Skies is on occasion timeless. “Time of Sorrow” is an impressive centerpiece; short, to the point, grandiloquent, and memorable.  

Here is yet another trio. Only this time they hail from Italy. They are called Johnfish Sparkle and their self-titled debut is a straight up classic rock affair.  The influences are obvious, from Led Zeppelin to The Who, this album sounds like that of a revivalist band. However, on any other label Johnfish Sparkle would have been stars, but in the world of Transubstans, they are a small fish. And rightly so, most of the tunes lack not only the finesse but also the imagination. The band doesn’t take enough steps to literally bring itself to the next level. To that add the limited range of vocalist Al Serra and a recording that doesn’t bring out the band’s best musical attributes and what we have is a so so record.  The spark is there though, at times shining, only to go out seconds later. The guitar solo in “Freedom at Last” is the perfect example. Maybe Serra should concentrate on the guitars. Or next time around they should hang with a better producer.

Rock and roll wisdom is sure to tell you that only a Swede can out-redneck a real redneck. Enter Ponamero Sundown, a furious stoner quartet native of Stockholm. They remind me a great deal of the good Fu Manchu stuff (not that Fu Manchu is a band of rednecks, but some of the ideals are shared), except with a vocalist that has power, lung strength and girth to his voice. Hell, even the artwork cover and the choice of colors screams Fu Manchu. That’s not a bad thing by any means, especially for someone like me who’s been missing those Cali boys for way too many moons.  Stonerized is full of fuzz and groove. It sounds like it should have been released on Man’s Ruin in the second half of the 90’s.  Needless to say, there is not a note of originality here, but there need not be, the performance more than make up for it. Especially the drumming of Peter Eklund, dude’s got the soul around here. 

With a name like Gargamel, what can we expect? Actually, I really have no idea. I was thinking this would be very small music. Small and blue, blue as in sad I guess. Dude’s don the suits. In this day and age that’s typically not a good thing.  But Descending, the band’s sophomore record, starts in such slow, low and warm fashion I can only get ready for better things to come. The most distinguishing aspect of Gargamel’s sound is the prevalence of piano, mellotron and the Hammond organ. The guitars are almost buried in the first cut, a song that’s one second shy of ten minutes. You got it, these Norwegians play prog rock and they aren’t afraid to stitch their songs together in hasty fashion. The title track is almost nice, but also so subtle it goes over our heads. Twelve-minute long “Prevail the Sea” starts off in an even moodier note; lounge arrangements, jazzy drums, and enough disjointed changes to drive the listener mad. It doesn’t help that none of the passages is all that engaging. The playing is nice and warm, even that flute in the middle is inviting, but dudes, I need at least one hook to engage. Descending features such long songs at times it even sounds like the soundtrack to a Broadway rock musical.  

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