Fem intressanta album att återupptäcka, eller upptäcka från scratch, med Kent, Gil-Scott-Heron, 100% Dynamite, Soul Donkey och Ultravox.
Five interesting albums to rediscover, or to discover from scratch with Kent, Gil Scott-Heron, 100% Dynamite, Soul Donkey and Ultravox.
Kent: Tigerdrottningen.
Ett Kent-album som lite oförtjänt ofta hamnar på sidan om när man diskuterar Kents storhet. Men Tigerdrottningen är inget dåligt album, utan en lite bortglömd pärla. Det är höstmörker och tunga synthar i ljudbilden och texterna stöder den helhetsbilden. Det är ingen sommarnattskänsla utan iskall och mörk novemberblåst. Men det fungerar och det låter bra, förstås. Väldigt bra. Förstås. Det är ju Kent.
Mirage är en utmärkt ingång och sätter tonen för den höstdrypande känslan på sida A. Finstämt och melankoliskt, även om materialet avmattas mot slutet. B-sidans La Belle Epoque är av best of-kvalitet och fokuspunkten på det här albumet. Svart Snö för oss tillbaka till en finstämd och melankolisk senhöstskänsla. Vem vill vara ensam?, som Jocke Berg avslutar sången med. Dysterheten och melankolin fördjupas i den långsamt drivande Allt Har Sin Plats, innan en pumpande elektro-puls stegvis höjer tempen och tempot. Och det tar en tid av tveksamhet innan låten finner sin röst och medryckande refräng, innan tempot igen skruvas ner och låten slutar med några elektroniska hjätslag. Visst, det är en vandring, upp och ner, och ett intressant koncept, men slutresultatet känns ändå lite oklart och, ja, ofärdigt.
Också sida C startar, precis som A och B, mycket bra. Innan Himlen Faller Ner är ännu en Kent-pärla, stämningsfullt och storvulet framförd, och den följs av vackert nostalgiska Din Enda Vän. Efter en oerhört stark inledning tappar den tyvärr lite riktning på slutet och precis som sidorna innan tappar sidan lite fart efter en superb inledning. Godhet med Beatrice Eli är tyvärr inte den starka mindblowing duett man skulle hoppas på. Inte dålig, men inte särskilt berörande heller.
Simmaren och På Andra Sidan, sida D, glider långsamt framåt på en sympatisk, nostalgisk och melankolisk ljudbild, men utan att överraska. En till alla delar helt ok platta, vore säkert bra för de flesta band, men det känns lite jämntjock för Kent. När På Andra Sidan fades down och avslutar albumet så är det kanske symptomatiskt. Lyssnaren lämnas väntande, på det crescendo som aldrig kommer. Tigerdrottningen tangerar som helhet, och med det slutet, nivån lagom bra för albumet och höjer sig bara till utmärkt med beröm godkänt på 3-4 spår. De andra är inte dåliga, inte ett enda är det, men de är just, ja… lagom bra.
Lagom har aldrig varit gott nog för Kent.
Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson: From South Africa To South Carolina.
Global and Black American issues of racism and activism are in focus on this inspirational album. Johannesburg immediately sets the tone, commenting resistance to apartheid and also knits it to black struggles for freedom and rights in America. A strong start, and the album offers many songs of resistance and for fighting, in-violently, for your rights. ”Well I hate it when blood starts flowin’/but I’m glad to see resistance growin’, Scott-Heron sings in Johannesburg. The Summer of ’42 includes a long and highly welcomed bass solo before a mellow Beginnings end side A, firmly stating ”We want to be free”.
South Carolina starts proceedings on side B, commenting environmental concerns and questioning the absence of resistance: ”Whatever happened to the protests and the rage/Whatever happened to the voices of the sane/Whatever happened to the people who gave a damn”. You might ask exactly the same questions when following current world politics, meaning there are some unfortunate connections to contemporary times and politics. And that actually figures. This album was released in 1975. The latest published democracy index report, for 2025 (V-Dem Institute), puts the current situation for democracy on par with late 1970’s and note that the positive global democratic trend since Portugal’s democratization in 1974 is now all but wiped out. Tragic and certainly worrying. And the more reason why Gil Scott-Heron’s questions need answers, here, in our time.
A cool and jazz-funky bassline is prominent in Essex and compared to solo efforts by Gil S-H, this is a more jazzy affair, meaning jazz-funky, rather than distinctly funky with proto-hiphop raps. Fell Together is brought to end by repeating the wishful ”Set you free” line while fading away. After all cuts about resistance, the album closes on a positive note, with mellow and tranquil A Lovely Day. And that’s an important learning too, we need to notice, react and act when we see problems (here: mainly racism) but we also need to leave room for the positive sides and moments of life: ”All I really want to say/is that problems come and go/but the sunshine seems to stay”.
An important album. A classic. Where are the Gil Scott-Herons’ of 2026?
100% Dynamite (Various Artists) (2 LP).
Legendary first installment from 1998 in a celebrated series of reggae compilations (the following parts were called 200%, 300% and so on, but none of them surpassed the greatness of this, the first compilation in the series). It states on the cover that it contains Ska, Soul, Rocksteady & Funk in Jamaica, and it includes 14 tracks ”of music that show the influence American Jazz, Funk and Soul has had on Jamaican Reggae”.
And the start is impressive, Willie Williams’ Armageddon Time, which in turn inspired British punk icons The Clash, who also covered it brilliantly. Williams’ delivery is, of course, marvelous. So is Rock Steady by The Marvels, before the superb funk-heavy Popcorn by The Upsetters sets in with a sweaty bassline. By now there can’t be many asses left sitting down, the grooves are infectiously bum-shaking.
The relentless and rhythm-based heavy grooves continues mercilessly on side B. There is no pause from heavy, sweatin’ dance-beating tracks, and it’s no need at all for any DJ to interrupt the running order, three super-bassheavy cuts (Green Mango-Greedy G-Real Hot), followed by a slightly poppier vibe in Johnny Osbourne’s We Need Love.
Side C continues in the same fine style, but with more anonymity, the first two songs doesn’t stick out, but that is clearly corrected by the mind-blowing Granny Scratch Scratch by Sound Dimension. Yes, there’s some serious guitar-scratchin’ and funky vibes going on here. A definitive highlight.
Side D starts with some valuable social commentary in funky Woman Of The Ghetto, showing all is not groovy, shakin’ party tunes in Jamaican music. Far from it, actually. Wonderfully stompin’ Cuss Cuss and another fine funk-heavy cut by Sound Dimension, Drum Song, ends this inspirational and great compilation bass-heavy Jamaican reggae music. I’ve had this album for years on CD, but instantly bought it on vinyl last year when I saw it in a wonderful Plattenladen in Hamburg. Yes, it’s that good.
The Sugarman Three: Soul Donkey.
Astonishing new (1999) funk music by The Sugarman Three (led by Neil Sugarman). First heard of them on a superb Desco sampler compilation, Spike’s Choice - The Desco Funk 45’ Collection Part 2 (Part 1 is equally good). One of the best songs on this album, Turtle Walk, is included there, but unfortunately not the superb single side Cherry Pickin’.
The album proper is much more of that same relentless heavy groovin’ funk, not least on superb Chicken Half. Oh yeah, party on!
Soul Donkey is a great album, with some heavily danceable tunes, especially before-mentioned Turtle Walk and Chicken Halk, that brings out sweat of excitement even if you are sitting still. Baby I Love You puts in a lower gear of funk-pumping rhythms, but is by no means mellow. Turtle Walk increases the tempo again before Daisy Rides Again sets in a lower gear of funk-pumping rhythms again, bringing a high-octane funk side to a stop. Stunning side, simply mind-blowing.
It’s with high expectations that the album B-side is played and Double Back immediately sets the tone, cruisin’ mercilessly on a deep funk sweaty dance beat. Smashing.
Soul Donkey was the second album for this cool funk revival band. They started out with a more boogaloo feel on their debut album, but Soul Donkey from 1999 is a mega-dose of sweet and pure funk. And man, does it groove! B-side is every bit as good as the A-side, with Saddle For Two and Double Back as great highlights and So Long Donkey as a heavier workout number, ending the record with some applause.
Yes, by all means, applause are certainly in order here. This is an album you don’t wanna sit still to, you simply can’t sit still. Every cut is a stunner, and this album is nothing but a modern classic. Amazing.
Ultravox: Quartet (2LP).
Quartet could easily be described as one of the most polished and sharpest produced albums in the Ultravox catalogue. It is not necessarily only a good thing. In fact, it is a little too polished, if anything, and while for example Vienna included some timeless classics like Vienna and New Europeans, this is a much more, dare I say, mature and cohesive sounding album. That doesn’t make it a better album than Vienna, though, but it is a good album.
The focal points are of course Reap The Wild Wind and Hymn, but in all their grandiosity and splendor lies also a risk for hybris. Good as their are, and they are, the best song is found elsewhere. Mine For Life is spectacular live (check the version on Monument) and also great in studio, but the real pearl here is the soundscape on ballad Visions In Blue. So beautifully desolate, until it gains speed and momentum.
There’s quite a lot to enjoy on Quartet, an album that has been more easily written off as pompous than classic album Vienna or the more remix-accessible follow-up Lament. But give it a chance to impress, and it will.
This version of Quartet includes a half-speed master and new stereo mix of the album and an instrumental version. The sound is updated, crisper and clearer than beforehand while the new mix is not that prominent, but then it doesn’t state remix but mix, and that’s preferable. Quartet didn’t need remixing. This limited RSD edition is also good looking, with 180 gm clear vinyls. While it is also interesting to hear the instrumental versions, it’s perhaps not really that useful, compared to an extra disc of live versions.
A remastered version of Quartet was well-motivated. You can hear it on tracks like Serenade, When The Scream Subsides, and perhaps most clearly on We Came To Dance and Cut And Run, that the sound really has improved. An then, lastly, right at the end of album ending The Song (We Go), suddenly, after some fine signature Warren Cann drum fills, a smooth a capella moment comes to life, some tender seconds right at the end that are barely heard or noticed in the original mix.
I liked Quartet the first time, in the 1980’s. That hasn’t changed, and it sounds even better now. It is of course better to get instrumental versions as bonuses than no bonus record, but the box set version includes some interesting live material, so it’s a tad unfortunate that you don’t find anything of it here. What we get is a fine album and an updated remastered sound. Sound purists will probably prefer the instrumentals to any live stuff. And the instrumentals are indeed not bad, nor pointless, as Ultravox’ music is sometimes referred to as symphonic pop or symphonic synthpop. That also means that the instrumental versions work better than for most bands on the pop/rock side of the aisle. And with the improved stereo mix and half-speed mastering the instrumentals also come to fine life here. All are not that essential, though, so a perfect bonus record could have included one side with the best instrumental versions, and one side with the best live cuts. I will not often listen to a full record of Quartet instrumental versions. But that’s a minor concern.
All in all, five highly interesting albums, two that have been neglected compared to more well-known or hyped albums by respective band, one that is already a classic, one a should-be modern classic that kinda unfairly is still left underground, and one stunning compilation that also deserves to be reviewed.
Totalt fem högintressanta album, två har blivit förbisedda jämfört med mera välkända och hypade album med respektive band, ett är redan en klassiker, ett borde vara en modern klassiker men har orättvist förblivit lite underground och en utmärkt samling som också förtjänar att recenseras.
There you have it.
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