RESA MOT OKÄNT MÅL

You could say that KEBNEKAJSE were more or less formed out of the ashes of the legendary Swedish band MECKI MARK MEN, where three soon-to-be KEBNEKAJSE members were playing. KEBNEKAJSE's debut album "Resa mot okänt mål" (A Journey to destination unknown) is a Swedish classic, although it differs a lot from the albums that would follow. This album was released before KEBNEKAJSE discovered the Swedish folk music. Now it has finally been available in the CD format, 30 years after the original LP release.

The music is loud guitar based hard rock with reminiscences to CREAM, MECKI MARK MEN, MOUNTAIN, NEON ROSE and NOVEMBER. The sound was somewhat typical British but the sparse lyrics were in Swedish. Perhaps it's quite unfair to say so, but I have always considered the guitarist Kenny Håkansson to be the most important member in the band. It was he who gave KEBNEKAJSE their unique sound with his original guitar sound and playing.

This album contains for instance the wonderful instrumentals "Frestelser i stan", "Orientens Express" and "Resa mot okänt mål" together with four other magnificent songs. The beautiful cover artwork by Kenny Håkansson, Rickard Trädgårdh, Rolf Scherrer and Pelle Lindström is worth a special mentioning too.

If you're a fan of early 70's Swedish hard rock in the likes of NEON ROSE, NOVEMBER, SOLID GROUND and TRETTIOARIGA KRIGET you will definitely love this album too. Highly recommended!

I have not heard other albums by this fine Swedish band but after listening to their debut I will surely try to find them. The album sounds very fresh and enthusiastic, the style can be described as progressive hard-rock with Swedish flavor. Songs are mostly based on guitar riffs but each has some development that makes it sound interesting. It's hard to write about any stand-out tracks since all of them are very good.

I’ve actually heard some of these guys’ more instrumental and folkish works, so when I finally got around to listening to this very old debut the difference in sound was shocking. It’s as pronounced as discovering Fleetwood Mac with ‘Rumors’ and then going back and playing ‘Kiln House’ or one of those other Jeremy Spencer-era albums. Not necessarily bad, but certainly not what you expected.

This thing isn’t anything like some of the band’s later albums. Imagine my surprise when I first played this and heard the opening riffs to “Tänk På Livet”, which sound an awful lot like the American redneck band .38 Special’s “Rockin’ into the Night”. A Swedish Lynyrd Skynyrd!

And while the album manages to range out a bit as it goes along, this is largely a heavy rock, blues-driven piece of work. There are also more vocals than most of the rest of their albums have, and the tracks are by and large a bit shorter than many of their better works.

That said, the guitars are very solid, albeit also very bluesy. I personally would not consider this a progressive rock album, with the possible exception of the ambituous but too-brief instrumental “Frestelser I Stan”, or the moderately jazz-leaning “Jag Älskar Sommaren” (also mostly an instrumental except for the occasional ‘doo-wop’).

On the other side of the coin “Kommunisera!” gets lost in sappy vocals and poorly-mixed guitar, and “Förberedelser Till Fest” sounds like a Camper van Beethoven punk polka with a little better guitar work than CvB usually managed.

If you’re looking for another Änglagård you’re not going to find it in this band. I don’t think you’ll find anything resembling prog folk either, at least not on this album. Maybe the two albums that followed, but not this one.

I can’t say this is all that recommended, and really I suppose it’s only of interest to fans and collectors of the obscure. Fortunately Silence Recordings reissued this last year on CD, so if you fall into either of those categories this is an easy and inexpensive find. For me it becomes mostly another curiosity in the collection that I may find an appreciation for some day in the future. Two stars.

peace

Kebnekajse would later be famous for turning traditional Swedish folk tunes into Rock music but here, on their first release, they are a Hard Rock act inspired by Cream and Mountain. This is not blues based music however.

Four of the seven tracks have lyrics, of which the albums first track, Tänk på livet", is the best, except for the real highlight, the title track with vocals on helium voices. There's no bad track though, some are quite short while other are more stretched out. Because of that it may be a bit repetitive at the end since all the tunes are, sonically, similar.

It all comes packaged in a nice psychedelic sleeve.

Hard hitting Swedish prog folk

The debut album from prog folk outfit Kebnekaise is a lot different than people would later know them for. Their works like Kebnekaise II and III stand as highlights of the prog folk genre, with amazing melodies, lush soundscapes and, at times, beautiful vocals. This album, on the other hand, is completely different. While shades of the later band certainly do shine through this one is a lot more rough, and a lot less relaxed. It seems that the band decided to start off their life as a hard hitting classic rock band with some folk influences. Many of the songs have vocals (compared to later, primarily instrumental work) and the melodies are not quite as refined. There's also a lot more quirk in this album than later in the band's career, meaning that if you have II and are looking for something similar, don't go here.

Still, the album is very good thanks to its own unique charms. The heavy, distorted guitar comes across as sort of a breath of fresh air to anyone who thinks that the band doesn't know how to rock, and the male vocals actually work well with the style. The opening Tänk På Livet features a fairly simple song structure and makes for a fairly catchy rock tune. The lyrics are all still in Swedish, meaning that single-lingual people (such as myself) will simply have to imagine what is being said instead of actually knowing. Still, the song opens the album with a bang and leads well into the second track. Fresteler I Stan is likely the biggest standout of the album. This is also, luckily, where the band would later decide to take their music. A wonderfully melodic instrumental with a great chorus makes for an excellent song, combining this album's hard rock sound with the band's later, more folk based work. Förberedelser Till Fest is the other instrumental on the album, and these days it almost sounds like crazy video game music. Still, its very quick playing is incredibly impressive, and the melody is once again a strong point.

The rest of the album is quite quirky and a bit more rock in flavor. Orientens Express is a short and fun instrumental that, compared to the others on the album, is really nothing special. Resa Mot Okänt Mål is completely bizarre - fast playing backed with odd vocals (a Swedish Alvin and The chipmunks, apparently) makes for a somewhat annoying tune that does eventually catch on, but will always stick out on the album like a sore thumb. The longest composition on the album is the 10-minute Jag Älskar Sommaren, and this is a pretty good one, relatively simple with some relatively needless vocals that fortunately don't get in the way of the quite good instrumental parts. Then it all finishes off with the uptempo Kommunisera, another good track in the style of the opening tune that makes for a satisfying end to the album.

All around a very good album. Not quite up to par with the music that the band would later play, and certainly in a much different style. Recommended for people who want to hear some Swedish hard rock with a heavy folk lean - but I would say hold your breath until you find their second and third albums. While this one certainly is satisfying, those ones are simply incredible. 3 stars out of 5! A good debut with much better on the horizon.

Out of the ashes of Mecki Mark Men was borne this hard rock band that would soon change totally of musical direction after the release of their debut album. Actually the hard rock comes from the third or fourth line-up of MMM around the time of their third album, a direction fairly different from the psych/prog of their debut album. Returning to Kebnekajse, they were a mainly instrumental double guitar attack quartet, releasing in 71 their debut album Resa MOt Okan Mal (journey to anywhere) with a greatly naïve artwork.

Contrary to MMM, Kebnekasje's hard rock is a sophisticated one that sometimes oogles in Zappa's direction, and not only because of the often funny vocals that were probably belting humorous lyrics, but the music was indeed complex as well, as the sublime 7-mins+ title track suggest.. Think of a proggier early Wishbone Ash and you'll have an idea of how good these guys could get. But things had started out with the almost Skynyrd-esque Tänk På Livet, a track filled with brutal riffs. Right on its tracks, Frestelser I Shan has no less heavy duty double guitar riffs that should help Sweden gat a Florida winter if the album is played often enough. The Oriento Express is starting out as a spoof, but it veers in a full musical delire complete with zappa vocals and outstanding interplay and a finish that almost sends Freebird back on the drawing table.

Nothing really shocking but only the lengthy (around 10 minutes) Sommaren track sticks out a bit, more acoustic, but this is hardly a problem since it rocks out just as fine Sounding like a worked up and progged-out surf music Forberedelser Till Fest is an impressive and amusing stab at musical satyr, a bit like a Zappa pastiche. It's too bad the album closes on the weakest track Kommunisera.

While a completely beast than further albums, this is by all means an excellent Swedish hard rock album with the typical Swedish and Zappa-esque humour that one finds in almost all of the early 70's Swede group, be they prog or prog. Completely different and not an ounce prog folk, but no less interesting.

KEBNEKAJSE from Sweden are known as a Folk band and are listed that way here, but their debut is another story, it's quite a hard rocking affair. Released in 1971 this is very much a guitar driven album with some excellent bass and drum work.

"Tank Pa Livet" has this bombastic intro as vocals join in. This is catchy. The guitar is prominant before 3 minutes as the vocals take a breather. "Frestelser I Stan" is an instrumental that opens with drums crashing the scene,guitar follows. "Orientens Express" is another instrumental that has a bit of a Country flavour to it. Not a fan of this one. "Resa Mot Okant Mal" is a rocker with vocals, although the vocals are few. "Jag Alskar Sommaren" might be my favourite. I like the bass and the song is fairly aggressive. Some vocals but not a lot. This sounds really good. "Forberedelser Till Fest" is another good one, lots of energy. "Kommunisera!" has vocals and harmonies.The guitar grinds away after a minute.

Good album, but not worth 4 stars in my books.

After Mecki Bodemark left Mecki Mark Men to pursue other opportunities Kenny Håkansson took over and reorganized the lineup to match it with the much more Folk Rock inspired music at the time. The band also changed their name to Kebnekaise/Kebnekajse, according to Håkansson he prefers the latter, although traditionally the mountain in northern Lapland is spelled with an "i".

The music on the debut album Resa Mot Okänt Mål (Trip To An Unknown Destination) is a very joyous trip through the outskirts of the Swedish music scene of the time. There might not be any direct stabs at the Swedish Progg movement of the late '60s but the spirit is definitely there on tracks like Tänk På Livet and Kommunisera! that both try to engage the audience in a discussion of some very difficult topics. This trend isn't incorporated throughout the entire album since Jag Älskar Sommaren and the album title-track try to be generally joyous compositions where the former mainly consists of a long jam with the lyrics about singing and dancing repeated all throughout its almost 11 minute running time.

I guess that I'm not really the target audience for this type of material but, even thought, there are a few instances where the band manages to create some really nice prog rock moments. The instrumental tracks like Frestelser I Stan and Förberedelser Till Fest show that Kebnekajse could write some excellent music. Unfortunately these moments are few and far in between which is why I can't award this debut release anything more than a very shaky good, but non-essential album rating.

***** star songs: Frestelser I Stan (4:48)

**** star songs: Orientens Express (2:07) Resa Mot Okänt Mål (7:15) Förberedelser Till Fest (3:37)

*** star songs: Tänk På Livet (5:00) Jag Älskar Sommaren (10:50) Kommunisera! (5:15)

Kebnekaise is a still active Swedish band found by guitarist Kenny Hakansson in Stockholm in 1971.Hakansson was a famous studio guitarist already from the 60's,having played next to Bo Hansson,Leonard Cohen and Michael Ramel.He was also a member of the Blues/Psych Rock band Mecki Mark Men,led by organist Mecki Bodemark.After his departure from Mecki Mark Men,Kenny recruited bassist Bella Fehrlin,drummer Pelle Ekman and guitarist Rolf Scherrer to complete the original Kebnekaise line-up and release the debut ''Resa mot okant mal'' in 1971 on the Silence label.

Despite being known mostly as an folk/prog rock act,this album contains standard guitar- based hard rock,influenced by the likes of MOUNTAIN and THE CREAM and sounding similar to very early RUSH at times.Powerful playing with often dual guitars,bluesy influences,catchy solos and a humurous edge around is what the listener will face here with a very dynamic rhythm section backing up.The performance is really decent,but what actually spoils the album is the lack of any kind of surprises and the abscence of some personal approach.A few Scandinavian traces can be found here and there,but they are only traces,far from what this band actually had to offer.Additionally the vocals are rather dull and definitely not for my taste.

The feeling this album leaves the listener is the same with the top of the Kebnekaise mountain,after which the band was named: Cold.Recommended only for fans of early-70's guitar-driven hard rock but with no appeal to prog fans at all.