Made in Sweden – Made in England
Perhaps fitting of a band calling themselves Made in Sweden, the trio of Georg Wadenius, Bo Haggstrom and Tommy Borgudd were, in fact, Swedish.
Equally as fitting for an album entitled Made in England, it was indeed made in England, produced by Colosseum bassist Tony Reeves, and, perhaps more importantly, performed in the Queen’s own tongue.
Released in 1970 (and originally issued in Britain as Mad River) Made in England is a multifarious mixture of psych, jazz, straight rock, orchestral… the various elements cooking up a more than palatable soup of tasty progressive rock.
Fortunately the aforementioned jazz is never outright, forming more of a bubbling undercurrent to the proceedings and therefore saving the CD from a lifetime’s servitude as a beermat.
‘Winter’s a Bummer’ kicks things off, a wall of mellotron-infused lazy vibes, and the style and pace chops and changes thereon after. ‘Mad River’ with its orchestral arrangements is particularly noteworthy, as is the melodic fable of hippy harassment during the 1968 Democratic convention, ‘Chicago, Mon Amour’.
Elsewhere, things tick along nicely, never hitting the dizzy heights of remarkable but remaining an entertaining enough example of a more laidback style of progressive rock, throughout.
Made in England is reissued by Esoteric Recordings, marking its CD debut in the UK, and available from Amazon.co.uk
Don’t just read and applaud. Subscribe to the rather splendid RSS Feed
Recent Comments