Monday, March 21, 2011

ISKRA-ALLEMANSRATT, LP, 1977, SWEDEN



Maintaining our recent course of Swedish underground offerings, here's a fairly crucial one. I'd long ago shared their final LP Fantasies, though their attack by that point had morphed into a sorta whimsical ethno jazz fusion ala later Archimedes Badkar. At the time of my posting that album some three years ago, I'd opined that this earlier and more lauded era of their work was of a lesser order. Truth be told, I'd probably still opt for Fantasies given the choice of any one of their albums, but this more overtly improv driven era of their work now sounds pretty damn remarkable to me, though being in the mood for it helps. If I remember their history correctly, Iskra were doing improvised childrens music workshops around this time, which certainly jibes with the whimsical spirit of some of the instrumental voicings here and their zoological call and response arrangements, particularly evident on the cuts that open and close the first side. This squirrelly approach manifests itself elsewhere in forms ranging from the ceremonial to celebratory, at various times evoking everything from Bengt Berger's Bitter Funeral Beer to Germany's Anima, with everything from Gamelan to New Orleans funeral marching band music coursing through these tracks.

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4 comments:

swr said...

At last a proper rip for this amazing record (Jim's older post had several problems)! Thanks you very much!!!

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fpunky said...

Thank You. At last a clean copy of this wonderful album.There is some superficial noise in those passages reminiscent of the AEOC but they really are minimal. I don't know Iskra's political orientation in 1977, but I always thought that the opening on side 1 was a sly reference to Godard's Weekend which came out a decade earlier. The fabulous traffic jam from Weekend can be seen in its entirety on youtube.

Peter said...

many thanks for this. just when you think you've heard it all, something like this comes along. it's one of the most enjoyable records i've heard in years.