THE MOVEMENTS

Something different and not very prog like, this is a psych journey throw back to the 70s sound of The Sonics or 13th Floor Elevators. Each song is a short burst of psychedelia, trippy and loud with blasts of organ and spacey guitars. Look for no solos or virtuoso playing, these guys just crash out one tune after another. They get in, deliver and get out, without fanfare or admirable guitar playing. The sound is under produced, pitchy and rather like a garage band. The songs are raucous and feature lashings of ultra violent organ and jangly aggressive guitars.

Drag Me Up is about teenage rage with distasteful angry vocals and sonic amp effects. The drums bash constantly and there is hardly any bass, it is mixed down. The guitars are boisterous and unfriendly.

It's Time To Go is another short sharp shock of maxed up psych. The party surf music continues on I Feel Groovy. Cool guitars are mixed with ground down organ and a vocal stating "my head is jumping and my heart is pumping fast".

The shrilly sound continues on Give You Head with obscene lyrics "I'm Gonna Make you scream!" and you can guess the rest. They won't win any awards for lyrics. It is raw and aggressive on CCTV and the riff is like 'GLORIA' or The Kinks or Them for that matter.

So that's the EP. Raw and short and not very sweet. 2 stars for the sheer fun!

After having trained since 1992 for his voyage he was part of a Space Shuttle Discovery crew in the end starting off at 10th December 2006. This awakened some interest in space travel in his native country of course and inspired the band to record a tribute album. As for the genuine chronological order it all begins with A Birth Under The Northern Sky accentuated by a crying baby - a folk tinged theme played by organ, deep percussion, clarinette, violin - all the instruments are serving a magical solemn mood.

Mother, Some Day I´m Going To Be An Astronaut - this song shows a young boy expressing his wishes with confidence at first. And the band interprets it with heavy psych rock - even getting close to punk. Soaring wah wah guitars and lush spacey synthesizer elements all over - later gliding into a hallucinogenic section initiated by weird vocal contributions. Growing up our young astronaut then continues In The Footsteps Of Gagarin - the famous russian cosmonaut who was the first person in space. An excellent dramatic organ work is striking here - the song has much of fellow countryman Bo Hansson as for my opinion - well done!

I assume the psychedelia/folk coloured Trapped On Earth is expressing the long waiting period for an astronaut until it's ready at last - where the dark mooded slowtempo Go Now My Friend (Out Into Space) perfectly reflects the last exciting (certainly frightening) moments before the lift-off initiates. Fuglesang had two space walks over the course of the mission - That Is The Wrong Bolt Christer, Standby is provided with a looping gliding behaviour here and some radiotelephony dialogues - probably even original recordings from the flight.

Worked out with obvious krautrock leanings and considering the flute Ministers Of Space reminds me of Kraftwerk's hit 'Ruck-Zuck' a little bit. Nice one anyhow. 'I've seen the earth, I've seen the stars, but I haven't found my home' - at the end we are left in suspense. Infinite space meets nordic melancholy. The last one The Grasp Of The Kings' Hand Is Not Enough is a psych folk song where at least the musical aspect is expressing a rather happy optimistic mood.

Surprise - surprise - THE MOVEMENTS are almost unrecognizable on this album - not only because they invited several friends with a quite unusual instrumentation. As for that a lot of details are to discover - in most cases not until after several rehearsals. A diversified effort with a well thought-out and implemented concept - excellent musicianship on top of it. Really enjoyable.

P.S. important sidenote: Fuglesang is crew member of Space Shuttle flight STS-128 - the lift-off is announced for the 29th August 2009! The band had asked him to participate in the recordings but he couldn't find the time for that. So at least he promised to take this tunes with him - covered on his i-pod.

The title song offers a nice melodic refrain - some little psych flowers are growing here and there. Immediately a feeling comes up like being placed back to my youth. The wild Time to Go gets near to punk rather - Henriksson screams his head off.

The band offers straightforward heavy rock (n' roll) songs spiked with vintage organ contributions. Later THE MOVEMENTS crew will expand the stylistical bandwith - as for this one it's not more than a collectors/fans item though.