RIO poll

Favorite RIO (Rock in Opposition) band?...

 Mine is Samla Mammas Manna...

BaldFriede wrote: The Art Bears. Are Samla Mammas Manna really RIO? First thing I hear.

From the Squidco page on RIO

The Swedish Samla Mammas Manna were perhaps the most popular within their own country of all the RIO bands. Formed in 1970 and led by Lars Hollmer the band began life as a progressive rock band through and through, using guitar, synthesizer and accordion to play exuberant and technical music. Suprisingly most of the band was self-taught! Their music incorporated elements of Swedish folk music and was written with an interesting and endearing sense of humour. Ÿ

Releasing their music on the Silence label, by the time Samlas released their fourth record, _For Aldre Nybegynnare/Schlagerns Mystick_ they gone through several key personnel changes, and had begun incorporating improvisational elements into their music. This record in particular was a double release, one album of which was new studio material, the second of which were live improvisations (the record has a dotted line drawn down the middle so that the listener could cut one or the other away if they preferred!). The latter was not as well received by their country as their more structured pieces, but it was the improvisation that caught the ear of Chris Cutler and prompted him to write a letter to the band praising their work. This led to further dialog between the bands, and inevitably to dialog regarding touring with Henry Cow in England and Switzerland.

Sammla Mammas Manna were one of the founding bands of the RIO movement and played at the inaugural festival in London, though if you want to be pedantic about it they'd renamed themselves Zammla Mammas Manna by the time they were involved in RIO.

For me it has to be Henry Cow - through them (and through the Recommended Records catalogue, largely written by Chris Cutler) I discovered a whole world of bizarre and beautiful music which captivates me to this day.

though call between Samla and French Tv...

ill go with French Tv

goose wrote: Syzygy wrote: BaldFriede wrote: The Art Bears. Are Samla Mammas Manna really RIO? First thing I hear. From the Squidco page on RIO Samla Mammas Manna The Swedish Samla Mammas Manna were perhaps the most popular within their own country of all the RIO bands. Formed in 1970 and led by Lars Hollmer the band began life as a progressive rock band through and through, using guitar, synthesizer and accordion to play exuberant and technical music. Suprisingly most of the band was self-taught! Their music incorporated elements of Swedish folk music and was written with an interesting and endearing sense of humour. Ÿ Releasing their music on the Silence label, by the time Samlas released their fourth record, _For Aldre Nybegynnare/Schlagerns Mystick_ they gone through several key personnel changes, and had begun incorporating improvisational elements into their music. This record in particular was a double release, one album of which was new studio material, the second of which were live improvisations (the record has a dotted line drawn down the middle so that the listener could cut one or the other away if they preferred!). The latter was not as well received by their country as their more structured pieces, but it was the improvisation that caught the ear of Chris Cutler and prompted him to write a letter to the band praising their work. This led to further dialog between the bands, and inevitably to dialog regarding touring with Henry Cow in England and Switzerland.   Sammla Mammas Manna were one of the founding bands of the RIO movement and played at the inaugural festival in London, though if you want to be pedantic about it they'd renamed themselves Zammla Mammas Manna by the time they were involved in RIO. For me it has to be Henry Cow - through them (and through the Recommended Records catalogue, largely written by Chris Cutler) I discovered a whole world of bizarre and beautiful music which captivates me to this day. Fine, you win! I guess it's always important to remember that RIO is more a movement of similar political ideas than of similar musical ones!

Very political indeed, Like Samla themselves... Their album title "Klossa Knapitatet" is really a childish misspelling of "Krossa Kapitalet" ("Crush Capitalism")