The Nordic psych/folk/forest rune tape echo band thread

[mynameisjonas]

I'm not sure Amason technically belong in this thread, but it's a great band that should be mentioned, if only for the Gustav Ejstes content.

[Jaguar018]

Good stuff guys.

Nice to take a sonic vacation to distant lands. I have nothing to contribute aside from praise and thanks.

Edit: Shit that Lau Nau is fucking good.

[mijmog]

Got to mention the mighty Les Big Byrd from Stockholm. Their set at Liverpool Psych Fest the other year was blinding, such presence on stage too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwrYAf2-tOY

[shadowplay]

Edit: Shit that Lau Nau is fucking good.

nanamour picked some great stuff, Valolle is like an anthem in the House of Shadowplay but it's also worth checking out their earlier material which is such delicate forest folk, it's pretty much living up in the trees, plinking on spiders webs and whittling flutes from deadwood.

Lau Nau - Kuula(on the Kuutarha elpee)

D

[Slow-Pop]

This thread is an amazing treasure for me! I remember mijmog posting several bands a while back, but it was just enough to wet my appetite. I haven't had the time to delve too far, but this thread is doing the legwork for me...thank you guys!

[Ursa Minor]

This thread is an amazing treasure for me! I remember mijmog posting several bands a while back, but it was just enough to wet my appetite. I haven't had the time to delve too far, but this thread is doing the legwork for me...thank you guys!

Here here! I keep coming back, slowly consuming the nordic greatness before me. Thanks all for posting!

[mynameisjonas]

Got to mention the mighty Les Big Byrd from Stockholm. Their set at Liverpool Psych Fest the other year was blinding, such presence on stage too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwrYAf2-tOY

Good call! It's wonderful hearing Anton Newcombe singing in swedish

Jocke Åhlund's old band Caesar's Palace/The Caesars also had its psych moments, at least on the first two albums. I've always liked this one, a lovely little pop song buried in fuzz, wah and tape echo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGYGL9viiV0

[shadowplay]

The Entheogens probably fit here, I guess the are a bit like a crosslegged Swedish version of The Heads rushing headlong into...I don't know...an orgy in the Amon Düül Kommune. This album is vinyl only and I recommend it highly if that means anything to anyone.

In with their sitars and flutes* and bongos and wahs and things. *Lisa Isaksson again

The Entheogens - Io Pan! (which takes up the whole of side 2 of their elpee The Gnostic Mass)

Going older, I forgot Folque, who are Norwegian and incredibly frustrating, when they are good they are great but it doesn't happen too often.

Their version of the Cruel Sister, while being essentially a soft focus 12 strung rerun of the Pentangle arrangement is still good and their Twa Corbies version is OK, if treading all over Steeleye Span's rustic clogs.

Folque - Harpa + Reven Og Bjornen (Twa Corbies)

Harpa reminds me of Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh - Uti Vår Hage which is great version of a Swedish traditional. I noticed a cool outdoor live version when I was looking for the link.

D

[mijmog]

The Entheogens - Io Pan!

Holy shit David, great stuff. How did I miss that on Subliminal Sounds?

Folque - Harpa + Reven Og Bjornen (Twa Corbies)

Really enjoying this too, sort of a darker Scandinavian version of Dando Shaft or North Star Grassman by Sandy Denny.

On the more folky-dolky side of things, I can't get on with Turid (I want to try), I can't help thinking that the language barrier doesn't quite mask it feels like Melanie.

------------------------

On another astral plane all together, we can't let this thread go by without a mention of these mighty Finns:

Pharaoh Overlord

Dark Side

I remember seeing them at Roadburn Festival in Holland and they opened with a 30 minute version of Spacemen 3's Suicide.

Circle (of course!)

The live clip below remains one of the greatest examples of motorikmetal this side of Jupiter:

Circle live on a bus, San Francisco

[shadowplay]

The Entheogens - Io Pan!

Holy shit David, great stuff. How did I miss that on Subliminal Sounds?

Easily missed, I was really hoping someone would be into it. I hadn't realised the record was so expensive these days but I also didn't know you can buy it on itunes.

I'm really conflicted with Circle. I'm a total rock panty waist that hides under the sofa when they (or anyone) get all riffaage but I'm into the more motorik sorcerer style stuff like Lokkioff Sunrise..

D

[nanamour]

The Entheogens - Io Pan!

Holy shit David, great stuff. How did I miss that on Subliminal Sounds?

Echoed! Dimension shifting stuff, D. Shame about the price on the LP.

While we're in this corner of the galaxy, does anyone know Our Solar System? I really liked both of their albums and somehow forgot to hoist their flag earlier. An extensive cast including Tias from Dungen and Lisa Isakkson (I too always have my ear to the ground for anything she's part of) loosen their [astroid] belts and throw down some the down-on-the-kommune kosmische.

Our Solar System -Vårt Solsystem The first album takes a journey through our cosmic neighborhood stopping for a track at each planet. Their second album Our Solar System - In Time is amazing; Side A is like Pärsson Sound do Jazz Nite at the Observatory and the flip side goes on a (ok, not really>)motorik march backwards through time till it lands square in a bowl of primordial soup and is engulfed in drippy paleozoic synth.



I too really liked the Folque track, as well as that Helena Espvall+Masaki Batoh

I'm really conflicted with Circle. I'm a total rock panty waist that hides under the sofa when they (or anyone) get all riffaage but I'm into the more motorik sorcerer style stuff like Lokkioff Sunrise..

I'd usually be in a similar camp as shadowplay with the hard-rockin' thing, but their motorik groove hypnotizes me a la the Manchurian Candidate.

*eyes glaze over* Circle is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful band I've ever known in my life.

[shadowplay]

While we're in this corner of the galaxy, does anyone know Our Solar System? I really liked both of their albums and somehow forgot to hoist their flag earlier. An extensive cast including Tias from Dungen and Lisa Isakkson (I too always have my ear to the ground for anything she's part of) loosen their [astroid] belts and throw down some the down-on-the-kommune kosmische.

I DO NOW! They come on like Julian Cope's dream band and I was roughly a minute into the first track before I'd bought the double pack of the last two physical albums.

I'd usually be in a similar camp as shadowplay with the hard-rockin' thing, but their motorik groove hypnotizes me a la the Manchurian Candidate.

*eyes glaze over* Circle is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful band I've ever known in my life.

I don't know what it is about me but I have something of a flinch response to rocking. Amon Duul II rocking I can cope with but most American and British rockers I want to burn at the stake. A lot of this is simply that I'm a child of Post Punk, I suppose I'm a child of punk but for me Punk was only conceptually interesting, the ideas were far ahead of the music and it only become interesting musically in the years after. I was but a child but my folks weren't into rocknroll and I could only really afford to buy records as they came out, so any exploration of the pre 76 world came some years later and even then I still mainly buying records as they came out (and that's still 90% or more of my buying). I knew kids into rawk but until much later in life (81ish), my musical life and my friendships were mutually exclusive. However in the early 80's I started to get into German stuff and folk and while none of this was hard rock really, it was older music I could identify with, even though the only folk I knew into either (pre Krautrocksampler) were stringy haired, waistcoated beardies selling me records at fairs. Weirdly I think a lot of the modern Swedish psyche draws on the less well known and more folk likes of my beloved Sergious Golowon (or the local equivalent), I guess Ghost come from a similar place.

Forum member jaguar018 got me up to a point with this;

Unlike distorted guitar-averse Shadowplay (I imagine him to be like a campy vampire hissing at sunlight when he hears them ) I DO like guitars playing chords and distortion just fine.

I maybe need to work my way through the Circle records I've got and buy a few more. My cadres Long Playing Alan, and Psychedelic Jack, regularly try to encourage me to buy more stuff like this and two of my Circle records were gifts.

I've ordered in Pharaoh Overlord 'Circle' which sounds great"Madonna of Viggiano" and miles from anything that has me scampering for the shadows (you can dance to it). That track's like a fuzztone Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus.

Again, brilliant thread, I was so disillusioned with the music section, I was close to fucking off for an extended period, don't get me wrong the chat goes where the chat goes but it's just not went anywhere recently I've fancied going. It's been great hearing about some records I didn't know and reading other peoples thoughts and interesting, well written and entertaining insights into this realm. Though when I was telling Mrs S about this thread she was all; 'how many records have you bought since it started?' I was like; cough 'just one maybe two'. She was like; 'One maybe two, in your world is the one next to the two, meaning twelve'. She knows me so well.

I thought their most recent Allas Sak was a great and it's different (a lot less reliant on Mr. Fiske's guitar) but it's a treat seeing their psych galleon drifting into the waters of dulcimer, mellotron, sax, vibrophone, and harp, with some tighter production to boot. As one reviewer put it, they've wrapped Reine and drummer Johan Holmegard's fists in velvet and given frontman/multi-instrumentalist Gustav Ejstes a bit more breathing room.
]

I forgot to comment on this. I love Allas Sak, kinda the romantic Dungen album, it makes you (OK me) want to dance with a lady, it's quite (apex level) Library music (praise) you could almost take the vocals out and stick a KPM or Themes International Label on it.

D

[nanamour]

I'd usually be in a similar camp as shadowplay with the hard-rockin' thing, but their motorik groove hypnotizes me a la the Manchurian Candidate.

*eyes glaze over* Circle is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful band I've ever known in my life.

I don't know what it is about me but I have something of a flinch response to rocking. Amon Duul II rocking I can cope with but most American and British rockers I want to burn at the stake. A lot of this is simply that I'm a child of Post Punk, I suppose I'm a child of punk but for me Punk was only conceptually interesting, the ideas were far ahead of the music and it only become interesting musically in the years after. I was but a child but my folks weren't into rocknroll and I could only really afford to buy records as they came out, so any exploration of the pre 76 world came some years later and even then I still mainly buying records as they came out (and that's still 90% or more of my buying). I knew kids into rawk but until much later in life (81ish), my musical life and my friendships were mutually exclusive. However in the early 80's I started to get into German stuff and folk and while none of this was hard rock really, it was older music I could identify with, even though the only folk I knew into either (pre Krautrocksampler) were stringy haired, waistcoated beardies selling me records at fairs. Weirdly I think a lot of the modern Swedish psyche draws on the less well known and more folk likes of my beloved Sergious Golowon (or the local equivalent), I guess Ghost come from a similar place.

For me it was Maximum Ronson era Bowie being blasted at Psy-Ops levels of repetition throughout my childhood courtesy of my dad, coupled with scarce access to music outside of (virtually identical in content) my parents’ record collection and the local classic rawk radio (unless you count organ wank at the church services my mom dragged me to) inherent to growing up in a Western Canada backwater that led to my desensitization to any interest in chunky distorted guitar in much the same way as a sardine plant worker might get desensitized to the smell of rotting fish (which is the olfactory equivalent of how I feel about a lot of rock). Rockin and rollin distorted guitar just sort of became white noise and totally unappealing to me and by the time I was 13 I was doing odd jobs to buy music I thought was at the opposite pole to rawk, eventually leading me into the (under?)world of Krautrock and labels like Sub Rosa. I can more than get behind meandering rocking like in kosmische and splattery auroric fuzz guitar has always been a love of mine. I’ll even gladly drop anchor at a few islets in the rock n’ roll archipelago here and there like for instance Uncle Acid, but a lot just doesn’t do a thing for me.

Again, brilliant thread, I was so disillusioned with the music section, I was close to fucking off for an extended period, don't get me wrong the chat goes where the chat goes but it's just not went anywhere recently I've fancied going. It's been great hearing about some records I didn't know and reading other peoples thoughts and interesting, well written and entertaining insights into this realm. Though when I was telling Mrs S about this thread she was all; 'how many records have you bought since it started?' I was like; cough 'just one maybe two'. She was like; 'One maybe two, in your world is the one next to the two, meaning twelve'. She knows me so well.

Honestly I’m just over the moon that some people on here enjoy this world as much as I do. It’s been an absolute treat reading through yours, mijmog’s, and Jonas’s posts full of great suggestions, insight, opinion, and quality writing and I’ve loved tracing where everyone’s individual spheres of expertise overlap and diverge from my own-I feel a healthy spirit of camaraderie in this little corner of OSG. It’s nice to be able to rant on about an obscure progg album without feeling like a madman like I often do out in the wild (or maybe I’ve just found the right asylum ). I got kind of a similar response from my better half--I told her about this thread a few days back and last night came home to a little stack of LP mailers on the table with a note left on top “I see you’re getting a lot out of your ‘conversation,’ or at least discogs is”

I forgot to comment on this. I love Allas Sak, kinda the romantic Dungen album, it makes you (OK me) want to dance with a lady, it's quite (apex level) Library music (praise) you could almost take the vocals out and stick a KPM or Themes International Label on it.

Yes! Danceability confirmed at the nanamour residence. I’ve always thought that some of the songs on 4 could have been 70s TV themes penned by Alan Moorhouse’s Saab-driving cousin in a not-so-alternate reality

[Jaguar018]

^Jeez. Get a room you two!

I have found that most musical relationships are one-sided-- which is to say that generally, one person knows (or likes, or pays attention to) a lot more than the other person. I can count on one hand the number of people that I have met "in the wild" that give a shit about even 10% of the same music I do. When you find a person that is on a similar plane and you can both contribute and share it's a wonderful thing.


Shadowplay's distaste for rockist elements is sort of amusing. If he liked all the rawk out there he'd be doomed. I mean... think about all the piles of vinyl he's already getting. One ripe Nordic Pschye thread and poof! He's fully vested. If some kind soul had reached out to the wee Shadowplay at some crucial junction he'd probably be on some other forum holding the flag for Bruce Dickinson and Ronnie James Dio. [Like a few of my facebook friends do ]

[shadowplay]

Bruce Dickinson and Ronnie James Dio. [Like a few of my facebook friends do ]

I went out with an older lassie into that sort of shite, I even squired her to see Iron Maiden do Powerslave but I thankfully sorted her the fuck out with Songs of Love and Lust for her birthday and she's never so much as looked at a cunt in a patched up denim jacket since.

D