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Klossa Knapitatet (1974)Genres: progressive rock, jazz rock |
Samla Mammas Manna - Lasse Holmer (piano, accordion), Lasse Krantz (bass), Coste Apetréa (guitars) and Hasse Bruniusson (drums) – perform their music with a playfulness that sometimes makes them sound like a bunch of (quite able) drunks performing the soundtrack to a “looney tunes” cartoon. The music is instrumental except for occasional yodelling or outbursts from the drunks in the backing choir (you can almost hear the frustrated cartoon director threatening to give them the boot if they don't shut up). Maybe I am exaggerating the silliness a bit; there are parts of the album that sound more serious (parts of “Liten Dialektik” and “Ramlösa Kvällar” come to mind). Those parts are usually dominated by guitar soloing and have a more jazz oriented sound than the playful parts (that mix a lot of styles including polka, Scandinavian folk and jazz). Even though both sides of the band are good I definitely prefer the playful side. I find the "silliness" refreshing and amusing (you got to love that (uncredited!) bicycle-bell in “Kom Lite Närmare”), while the serious parts seldom do anything for me. But then I often have a problem with serious instrumental music. If you do not have a problem with that (or the silliness) chances are good you might enjoy "Klossa Knapitatet".
This album has two sides: one that is often longer serious instrumental jazz-prog songs and the other one that’s shorter songs of musical madness with silly voices and unusual instruments. I like the latter hybrid songs of classical, folk, circus, progressive, jazz, blues, waltz and rock music, and pretty much everything else you can imagine. And these songs are played on, besides the normal ones, such instruments as bicycle-bells, clown-horns and accordion and then even some yodelling in “Långt Ner i ett Kaninhål”. Many of the jazz-prog songs sound like Zappa/Mothers in their jazz period in the early seventies with el-piano and much guitar and these are for the most of the time quite uninteresting, at least to me. Amusing mixture of music in the short non-serious pieces, at least for some time but in the end the good, funny stuff can’t hold up this album on their own; they’re not that good and besides they’re not the dominating side of the album.
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Snorungarnas Symfoni (1976)Genres: progressive rock |
The music on “Snorungarnas Symfoni” (Symphony of the Brats) is composed by Gregory Allan FitzPatrick and performed by Samla with guest musicians on sax and trumpet. If you were unaware of the fact that Samla didn't compose the music themselves you would hardly suspect anything though. The "cartoonish" atmospheres and up tempo dance rhythms that you expect from Samla are still present (but were are the silly voices?), as is the more serious stuff. The brass instruments fit perfectly with the sound, especially in the playful and up tempo parts. Samla even ventures briefly into the symphonic field of prog with some beautiful and sublime piano parts scattered around the album. A strange coincident (?) worth mentioning is that the intro to the third track clearly resembles the soundtrack to Super Mario Bros (the underground areas of the first NES version, I believe). I haven't had the chance to verify it by playing SMB again, but anyhow it is a highlight of the record. You will certainly like this one if you like early Samla Mammas Manna, even though it is not quite as good as “Klossa Knapitatet”. I must say I miss the playful improvisations and silly voices that were a trademark of that record.