MP3: Gösta Berlings Saga - Sorterargatan 3
I haven't been posting much new music lately, but it's not as if doesn't keep piling up. I keep waiting for the market correction that will stop all the hundreds and thousands of wannabees from sending me their tunes, but at this point I've lost faith that it's really gonna happen. Not that I have much reason to complain though; it's just that so much of what I get is so uninteresting, if not flat-out boring. At least if it was awful I'd feel compelled to write about it, but it's hard to feel motivated when there's no inspiration. Yes, I do plan on running down all the crap in my inbox eventually (or most of it anyway), but I'm trying to be posi this week, so I'm gonna try to stick with stuff I actually like.
Gösta Berlings Saga are a straight-up/no fooling around instrumental progressive rock act. They've got loads of intricate, mathy riffs, but they're also clearly influenced by classic Swedish Progg in terms of mood and texture. For me, "Sorterargatan 3" is the highlight of their new record "Detta har hänt" -- it starts off slow and builds, builds builds into quite a stomper. I especially enjoy the digressions into Snakefinger-esque atonality that function as breaks between the main chunky rhythm of the song. It's a fairly simple part at its core, monotonal and steady, but they play around with it quite a bit by adding and subtracting layers and changing up the underlying accents. They're not afraid to show off their chops either, but no one ever takes enough of a lead to showboat. When a prog band sounds like this, like a single unit, I'm all about it. Even better that they're able to employ various subtle melodies and themes as they go along. Needless to say, very well done.
Gösta Berlings Saga - Sorterargatan 3