REX

1. "Live" (1:17) why the band chose to include this excerpt from a live concert performance I can only guess--to display the tight, skillful rhythmic play of the duo.

2. "I Love, You Love" (13:52) While the loud sections of this recording are a difficult listen due to trouble in the source tapes at handling the decibel levels on the recording tapes, I am quite fond of the slower, more spacious downtempo (and volume) sections. Drummer Janne Karlsson definitely delivers from his end--which is no small accomplishment given that he's one of only two instrumentalists up on that stage--and considering that he's up against the monster potential of an organ. At 8:45 Bo starts into a new motif, chugging forward with the insistence of a freight train while Janne gallops alongside, the peak of which begins at the end of the eleventh minute. By the middle of the twelfth minute Bo has slowed everything back down to a stop, creating a peaceful patch in which he barely fills with some extremely low-volume note play. Subtle drum play returns and some gentle organ pulses and swells, but the song is really just suffering a slow death. Stellar performances from two masters of their instruments. (27/30)

3. "Carolus Rex" (1:46) a smash-up and distortion-pack of double-tracked performances by the duo performing a kind of public band piece in the shell on the city green. Weird but interesting! (4.3333/5)

4. "Chateau Plaisance" (21:55) opening with a fade into a blues-tinged swing that sees Janne holding down the rhythm with Bo's foot pedals while the organ fills the rest of the sonic field with some very expansive chords and play. Janne has plenty of room in which to fill and embellish--a lot of it quite impressive--while Bo keeps testing the number of notes he can hold on the organ all at the same time with his raunchy Hammond sound. At 5:40 there is a weird fade out while, at the same time, there is a fade in of a whole new motif with totally different sounds and engineering effects--and again at 6:18. I really love the new motif that is established: something in the nearly-funky groove really succeeds at drawing me in--but then its lost when the organ backs out at the nine-minute mark and we're left with a drum solo. The dude's good, I just don't really like drum solos. Another fade out/fade in at the eleven minute mark serves up more drum-dominated music--until Bo finally gets his act back together in the 12th. From there out it's a Hammond fest with lots of requisite screeching, swirling and wailing. One good five minute section is not, however, enough to make this a winner. (39/45)

Total Time 38:50

I'm a little irked to think that song edits like these--of obvious live performances--keep getting passed on to the public as "studio recordings." I, for one, am so thankful for the invention and advent of multi-track recording! While I am not a fan of either this type of music or the organ (especially the Hammond), I have decided to include this album in my celebration of 1968's contributions to the Birth of Progressive Rock music due to the creative engineering and editing as well as the obvious skills and creative talents of the two instrumentalists involved. Plus, I can see how this tandem might quite possibly be where modern day psychedelic jazz-rock prog artist Ståle Storløkken got his inspiration for his small trios, duos and quartets.

B-/four stars; a fine representative of the organ and drum genre of 1960s blues-rock displaying two very fine musicians.