Magnolia - "Steg för Steg"
(Transubstans 058)
Magnolia - "Steg för Steg"
(Transubstans 058)
From Aural Innovations #41 (October 2010)
Swedish 70's blues rockers Magnolia are back with their third record on Transubstans. As always, all the songs are sung in Swedish and the riffs and ideas rooted in 70's blues and hard rock. The CD features 10 tracks recorded totally analog at the Drop Out Studio in Åmål, Sweden. The obvious comparison for Magnolia is always November. The CD starts off with a short jam and into the song Alla Undrar, which sets the tone with a great riff and groove. Tid att Fara starts with some wah guitar and this one is a bit more bluesy and has a cool psychedelic section with the guitar being layered. Next up is En ny Dag. This track has a bit heavier track and slows things down a bit and has some backwards guitar as well. Nufår det vara nog is the longest track on the CD at just over 9 minutes and a slower heavy bluesy track as well and the band has a great jam in this one. Arbetar I Solsken changes this as Ronny picks up the acoustic guitar and rocks out in this instrumental track. Ingen kommer undan is also a bluesy rock track and the song fades out with a solo. En Tanke is a short track with a more aggressive attack but then changes with some dreaming keyboard and falsetto vocals in the middle part. Strange. Mantra has one of the catchiest grooves on the record and again brings back the wah guitar and has some keyboards as well in this instrumental track. It has a great guitar solo and quite fuzzed out, grungy guitar as well. Jag Vandrar slows things down as the band go for a slow spacey blues track. The CD ends with Vad skall jeg göra? This is a pretty damn cool record and the band is in a looser, jamming mood and more psychedelic than on their previous albums where they stick a bit more to a format. It is nice to see band still willing to let loose and jam it up a bit more. Great record. I just wish that all these great 70s style records that Transubstans releases would also come out on vinyl. Someday..
For more information you can visit the Magnolia web site at: http://www.myspace.com/magnolia
Visit the Transubstans Records web site at: http://www.transubstans.com
Reviewed by Scott Heller