HÖGTID

When I started listen to "Högtid" I imediately felt that this is high quality music which is unique and very well performed. I also noticed that I loves many aspects and I know that many of you would love this record, especially if you like psychedelic folk rock.

"Agusa" is a band from Malmö of southern Sweden. It's a new band which started last year and "Högtid" is therefore understandable their first record. The cover goes in the psychedelic style and the musicians are Tobias Pettersson(bass), Mikael Ödesjö(guitar), Dag Strömkvist(drums) and Jonas Berge(organ). Important for making this deep and interesting sound is Berge's organ.

The album starts with "Uti vår hage", inspired by the old Swedish folk song with the same name and which melody the band plays with. I like the though of the composition and it sounds good but the result is a bit to monotonic for me(7/10).

"Melodu från Sankt Knut" which comes then is the highlight of the album according to me. The music is light and hits the listener with the well performed and joyful melody(9/10). "Östan om sol, västan om måne" is also well played with good instrumentation and it contains fine and enjoyable themes, but the song as full is quite monotonic too(7/10). "Stigen genom skogen" has some fine instruments but the result is a little bit boring(5/10) and the conclusion "Kärlek från Agusa" is fine but too short(6/10).

Finally I can state that this is a high quality record with fine and folk inspired psychedelic music with a wonderful organ as main instrument. It's a part of a Swedish tradition with for example "Hansson & Karlsson" and "Bo Hansson" and more artists which have told mystic tales on organ. Though do this music contain to little melodies and interesting thing such as lyrics to really please me. I especially recommend "Melodi från St Knut", to anyone!