Review: First Band From Outer Space, Impressionable sounds of the subsonic

I downloaded this from a Swedish bittorrent site. I thought it would be weird forgotten obscure '60s Swedish psychedelic rock. It wasn't. Well, it wasn't all of those things.

It's not so weird (it's not anything like The Godz). It's too new to have been forgotten yet (and, by the way--if obscure music was so obscure, doesn't that mean no one should ever have found out about it before forgetting about it? but never mind). It is Swedish, yes. It's psychedelia, by some definitions.

I suppose the who-do-they-sound-like on this record is something like "Gong meets Hawkwind, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Acid Mothers Temple, Pink Floyd (early Gilmour era), and Jethro Tull in Stockholm". But don't hold any of that against them. They're really good. Jethro Tull? Flute! Black Sabbath? Guitars! Riffs! Deep Purple? Organ! Gong? Spacy synths floating over glissando guitar and jazzy riffy jams. Hawkwind? Ditto, more-or-less. Pink Floyd? Spacy synths with Gilmourish guitars and marimba. Acid Mothers Temple? Oh, I dunno. All the above, I guess. Oh, and there's a techno-y side occasionally, as well. And American Indian chants. So, basically, here's a band that somehow slides effortlessly between Black Sabbath and The Orb, by way of Gong. It works, too. Well, musically, it works.

But then there are the words.

OK, granted, English isn't their first language. But, is that any excuse for...

Is it possible to be acknowledged for who your are,
If everyone wears the same clothes, and drives the same car?
Some have the urge to wreck the world, and they're nuts.

To be seen as the underdog

If you're being told off by a person with more power,
the risk of falling down into a hole is getting higher.
Unless your plan of defence is someone mightier than[incomprehensible]

You are seen as the underdog.

Elimination is a skill that's hard to find
And you can ask for ill to draw the line

If you make the choice to be the victim you have to stop.
Set your mind on something difficult and don't give up.
It increases your self-confidence; you'll be on top.

You're not seen as the underdog

OK, well, yeah, rock lyrics don't really usually look good in print. But the rule of thumb (as I remember it) is that lyrics are supposed to look worse in print than they sound on the record. In this case, though, they look better in print.

They also sing in Swedish here. Are the words better in Swedish? I dunno. I don't understand Swedish, so they're great--nothing to cringe at, then. So these guys will probably never read this, but just in case: Hey guys, you guys sound GREAT when you sing your songs in Swedish. You know, like all those African guys sing in their native language, and it sounds so exotic? Yeah, do that!

But don't hold it against them. This is a fine album. I'll pull out for a listen again (perhaps many times again) in the future. I recommend it.

Waltermeter? "Interesting sound, but not enough real songs for me, I guess."