Album Review: Pugh Rogefeldt
Author: Gerard Fannon | 
Review of His First Album Released on Metronome in 1969
Pugh Rogefeldt shows that there is more to Swedish music than just ABBA
It’s sometimes easy to pass over the amount of good music which came out of Europe in the late sixties and early seventies. Albums made on the continent tended not to make such a big impact on the American or British markets and as a result are often maligned as novelty also-rans or given their dues way too long after they deserved it.
Serge Gainsbourg was plumbing the depths of depravity with his sleazy releases in France (where else). In Holland the supremely brilliant Jan Ackerman was busy carving up the fret board with Brainbox and Focus. In Germany, Can and the other Krautrockers were crafting some of the greatest music ever transposed to vinyl.
In Sweden in 1969, Pugh Rogefeldt was taking the first steps on a long and varied career that would crown him as a cultural icon in his own native land. His first album Ja, dä ä dä, was recorded for Metronome and featured the talents of guitarist George Wadenius and respected Jazz and Funk drummer Jan Karlsson. The three of them managed to produce a fine album of psychedelic funk.
Pugh had been shipping out demos to various record companies, but by the time Metronome Records offered him a recording contract he had begun his military service. Leave wasn’t granted for making records at this time, so, in keeping with the sheer recklessness of the decade Pugh went AWOL and went off to the studio to record Ja, dä ä dä...and then spent 3 months in prison for doing so.
And it is a good thing he did because Ja, dä ä dä is pretty solid throughout. Stylistically it draws upon straight up blues rock, but with Pugh’s penchant for experimentation and playful compositional structures the album at times veers more towards early Pink Floyd and progressive rock territory.
Album Review: Porcupine Tree's "Lightbulb Sun" Author: Nick Meyer |
A Progressive Rock MasterpiecePorcupine Tree is quite possibly the best band you've never heard of. Here is a review of Lightbulb Sun, one of their most celebrated albums. Lightbulb Sun was once a rare collector's item that Porcupine Tree fans paid big money for on EBay and Amazon.com for. But now it has been re-released in America and other areas because of the cult-type success it has enjoyed and because new fans are just now discovering Porcupine Tree. Lightbulb Sun Album Review Many people who get into Porcupine Tree have the same reaction: they immediately want to hear the rest of their albums. With the slightly-more mainstream success of the album Fear of a Blank Planet, many people have begun to comb through Porcupine Tree's album discography looking for a more complete representation of the band's sound. Lightbulb Sun is a good compromise between Porcupine Tree's earlier more spacey, psychadelic sound and the newer, more alternative, heavier, progressive sound. Porcupine Tree's Lightbulb Sun Tracks The first track, Lightbulb Sun, is a solid song with a heavy, raw-sounding guitar riff that calls to mind Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying." The song is a workmanlike with some clever lyrics about the docile nature of modern society taking center stage. |