Reviews: Bootlegs

I really don't need to stress yet again the importance of Änglagård to the current progressive rock scene; almost certainly the most important band of the '90s, their two studio albums, Hybris and Epilog, have no real equals after the late '70s. Most of the original band's last live appearance, at Progfest '94, was released two years later as Buried Alive (nice title, Musea...), but while still brilliant, they were clearly imploding in front of our ears, leaving a gaping void needing to be filled by a totally ripping performance from some time during their brief career. Failing that, the fairly easy to find boot from Milwaukee on December 18th '93 may well have to do.

Having been booked to play two concerts in Mexico City, oddly, the band tacked two US shows, in Houston and Milwaukee, onto the 'tour', making it their second trip of the year to the States, after playing the inaugural Progfest in May. On that first appearance they played all of Hybris, finishing with Genesis' The Musical Box, a strange choice considering how much the original relies on massed 12-strings, an instrument Änglagård rarely, if ever used. By the time they came over again, they'd begun writing the material for Epilog, including the 'in-betweenie' Gånglåt Från Knapptibble, that mutated into the second album's Skogsranden. To fill out a longer set, they included a jam (never the best jamming band, but never mind) and a cover of Trettioåriga Kriget's Krigssång I, along with a reprise of The Musical Box as an encore.

The set opens with a solo Mellotron strings version of the second half of Prolog, while Vandringar i Vilsenhet, shorn of its apocalyptic ending, leads into the scrappy Milawukee Jam, which finishes with the intro to Prolog on the 'Tron flutes. Kung Bore loses its acoustic intro, and The Musical Box is played faithfully enough, with the rest of the first album's pieces played pretty much as is. Mellotron all over, of course (the band flew theirs over, amazingly), and it sounds like just the one, with no obvious choir use at all. Most of (presumably) Tomas' use is the ubiquitous strings, although the cello part in Jordrök is present and correct, and the aforementioned flutes. The chief problem with the 'Tron on this recording is in the tuning department. Yeah, I know, "Tuning a Mellotron doesn't", blah blah blah, but actually they're usually pretty good; I suspect the US/Europe 50/60 cycle issue reared its ugly head here, with several discrepancies, the worst being the few seconds of strings inserted at the end of The Musical Box, which are so woefully out as to be almost in the next count(r)y. Overall, however, this is probably the essential 'original' Änglagård boot to go for, and it seems to be on everyone's trade list, and shouldn't be that hard to track down. Recording-wise, this sounds like a desk recording; odd instrument levels, almost nonexistent crowd, etc, but vastly better than your average audience recording.

In 2002, eight years after their original split, Änglagård decided to have a second stab at it, sans guitarist Tord Lindman; somehow or other, I managed to travel with the band to three of the five dates they played in summer 2003, although that's a story for another day... Their third gig was an appearance at fêted US festival NEARfest, essentially the new Progfest in importance, albeit on the opposite coast. At the time of writing, over 1100 people have signed a petition to the band to release the show (recorded onto multitrack), although Mattias Olsson has commented, "When it comes to matters like these, Änglagård is a slug on valium". Oh, good. In that case, I feel perfectly entitled to review the bootleg of the show, which only seems to be circulating as an MP3 download, or as audio CD-Rs of said MP3s, sounding a little thin compared to the original, no doubt, but needs must...

The second version of the band differed from the first by only being a one-guitar five-piece, meaning certain parts had to be farmed out to various members to maintain the pieces' integrity. In line with the Epilog material, the band was also entirely instrumental, largely avoiding their vocal material, although strangely playing an instrumental Gånglåt Från Knapptibble rather than Skogsranden. Shows opened with Thomas Johnson playing Saknadens Fullhet on piano, morphing into Höstsejd, before the first of the evening's new songs, generally known as New Song #1. Now, I heard the new songs three times actually on stage, plus maybe another couple of times at soundchecks, and bits of both of them stuck like glue, to the point where they were completely familiar upon re-hearing over a year later. And people say prog has no tunes? I believe both tracks metamorphosed during the band's brief lifespan, and I'm not convinced the versions here are the ones I heard a mere fortnight earlier, though I can't be sure without being able to compare them. Anyway, #1 starts with a guitar/bass duet, before flute and vibraphone enter the (very quiet) fray, building up to a memorable unison riff and generally carrying on in true Änglagård fashion. Gånglåt Från Knapptibble is probably more Skogsranden, really, and New Song #2 has a totally sublime 'chorus' section to die for, leaving a fairly standard version of Jordrök, Sista Somrar with an extended ending and a slightly uneasy medley of the end sections of Kung Bore and Vandringar I Vilsenhet to close.

On the Mellotron front, the setup differed from gig to gig, with Anna Holmgren playing the band's own machine at Würzburg and Saint Palais sur Mer (appalling weather notwithstanding), with Thomas on samples, with roles reversed in Stockholm, while three were provided at NEARfest, and an extra two at Verviers to add to their own, including mine. As a result, all the 'Tron parts on this boot are for real, shared between Thomas and Anna, although I seem to remember Jonas nipping round behind Anna to play a few chords at one point, while she was otherwise engaged. Unsurprisingly, the only 'Tron-free track is the brief Saknadens Fullhet, with both new tracks displaying healthy amounts of the Great White (or black) Beast. In fact, there's Mellotron everywhere, which shouldn't surprise anyone at all familiar with the band's music, leaving me absolutely no option but to award the full five stars and Ts. Hurrah!

If you're tapped into trading circles at all, you shouldn't find it that difficult to source these two boots, though (fingers crossed) there's at least a vague possibility that NEARfest will appear officially at some point; let's hope they don't chop bits out to fit it on a single disc, as Musea did with Buried Alive, eh? Classics both.

Black Sabbath  (UK)

	Convention Hall, Asbury Park, New Jersey, August 6th 1975  (99.58)  ****½/T
	Supertzar/Introduction/Killing   Yourself to Live Hole in the Sky Snowblind Symptom of the Universe War Pigs Megalomania Sabbra Cadabra Jam/guitar solo	Drum solo/jam Supernaut Iron Man Orchid/guitar solo/Rock'n'Roll Doctor Black Sabbath Spiral Architect Embryo/Children of the Grave Paranoid

By 1975, Black Sabbath were arguably at the peak of their considerable live powers, touring the stunning Sabotage across the civilised world. And Lewisham. Their August 6th gig at Asbury Park's Convention Hall was recorded for the legendary King Biscuit Flower Hour, source of so many great boots, and is a fab document of the Sabs gleefully promoting their new album to a doubtless typical quaalude-popping American audience. The recording is fantastic - way better than the officially-available Live at Last - and the playing is top-notch, too, with none of the drug-induced torpor of later tours. As for the set-list... The only problem with a Sabbath set from this era is that it could never be long enough to include everything you want to hear, the band (as always) fall back on several crowd-pleasers, and Tony Iommi's solo guitar spot was already well out of control, gobbling up a sizeable chunk of their on-stage time. As it is, they touch on all their albums, playing unexpected classics like Hole In The Sky and Spiral Architect in a 100-minute set.

I was under the impression that live keyboard player Gerald Woodruffe played Mellotron on two songs, although closer inspection reveals the strings on Megalomania to be string synth. However, the string part on Spiral Architect, which has a good go at replicating the studio part, is definitely 'Tron, which means they hauled one around for all of one song. Bizarre. There's none of the 'Tron work of some years later, not least the bells on Black Sabbath itself, but one 'Tron track is better than none... It seems that the Mellotron in question was Geezer Butler's; he still has the machine in storage, though I hate to think what sort of condition it's in these days.

All in all, this radio broadcast is more than worthy of official release, and should be sought out by anyone who considers themselves a fan of the band, although it's a bit thin on the ground, Mellotronically speaking. Other relevant info... According to Black-Sabbath.com, the mighty Fireballet supported that night, though sadly their set presumably wasn't recorded. Unless you know better... One version of this boot is available as Behind the Wall of Spock, referring to the band's sometime engineer Spock Wall, although I've also seen it as A Hole in the Spectrum, and at least half a dozen other titles.

Kaipa  (Sweden)

Stockholm Symphonie  (1976,  54.55)  ****/T Allting Har Sin Början Förlorad i Istanbul Saker Har Tva Sidor Musiken är Ljuset Korståg Stengrodornas Parad/Inget Nytt Under Solen Hoppfullheten/Överheten/Vilseledd

Kaipa's Stockholm Symphonie is often sold as a legitimate release, originally appearing on a Japanese label in 1993, but its no-show on their recent The Decca Years 5-CD box pretty much proves its lack of legality, I think. Definite information is hard to come by, but going by the tracklisting, it appears to be a radio broadcast (no audience track) from around 1976, featuring material from their first two albums, Kaipa and Inget Nytt Under Solen. The playing is excellent, as is the song selection, including the brilliant Musiken Är Ljuset from their debut, the only problem being that Roine Stolt's guitar seems to be mixed noticeably higher than Huns Lundin's keyboards, although it's clearly a desk recording.

Now, I know the band never owned a Mellotron, hiring one in for their two relevant albums, so it's quite surprising to hear one used here. Lundin seems to have effectively reproduced his album parts from Inget Nytt, with choirs on Korståg and Hoppfullheten (part three of Skenet Bedrar), although all strings are string synth generated, for some strange reason, as on their albums. This isn't that difficult to find, and can even be bought from some retailers, working on the assumption that it's at least condoned by the band, so if you like their studio work, I doubt if you'll be disappointed. Very little 'Tron, however, making you wonder why they even bothered.

Ragnarok  (New Zealand)

Live  (1977,  55.01)  ****/TTTT½ Raga Butterfly Sky Rainbow Bridge I Fall Apart Pink Floyd Medley Led Zeppelin Medley

While Ragnarok's Live is often sold as an official release, it seems highly likely that it's actually a bootleg. It opens with a 'test tone', then a radio announcer giving some spiel about the band, with the audience cheering in the background; he even mentions some of their gear, including the Moog and Mellotron. Although plenty of radio broadcasts have been released officially, this one seems unlikely; I don't even know for certain that it appeared in '77; I'm just going by the info I've been given. What I can say is that it must've been recorded in '76, as the announcer refers to their 'forthcoming' album, Nooks, which was recorded late that year. The first three tracks are all from their debut, and are slightly stripped-back versions, without the studio gloss, although Butterfly Sky features the same phased 'Tron as its studio counterpart. They betray their pub scene roots with a decent version of Rory Gallagher's I Fall Apart, and their Pink Floyd and Zeppelin medleys, though, making the album well over half covers.

Loads of 'Tron throughout, of course (keys man André Jayet would've been largely silent, otherwise), mostly strings, but with choir on Raga and flutes on Rainbow Bridge, with the highlight being on the Pink Floyd Medley. Ever wondered what Dark Side of the Moon would've sounded like had Rick Wright used a Mellotron? (You haven't?). Wonder no more. Ragnarok play from Us And Them to the end of the album, and as the cliché goes, it's absolutely 'Tron-drenched, mostly strings with a bit of choir, with the odd bit of synth emulating the original. Wonderful.

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