Review: Kebnekajse

Kebnekajse
“Resa mot okänt mål”
(Silence Records)

This is a reissue of Kebnekajse’s psychedelic boogie rock album that originally came out in 1971. This was the first album from the group and the title translates as A Journey to Destination Unknown. Indeed, the group did not yet know their eventual destination that had more to do with Swedish folk melodies than the post-hippie hard rock that inspired them here. Here the group shows the inspiration of Cream and Mountain. In this, though, they rely less on a power blues approach for a more trebly sound that perhaps does hint and the traditional sounds that would soon form a center of their music. Rather than the brash, forward guitar sound of English and American rock groups of the time, Kebnekajse approaches their arrangements more holistically so that the guitar is just another piece of the sonic mosaic, rather than the lead instrument supported by the rest. Rather than perform the blues-based experimental rock of the time as if they were an English or American group, the approach with the idea, what is psychedelic hard rock were born anew Swedish?