Swedish experimental psych/prog band existing 1967-72 under four different names - "Pärson Sound", "International Harvester", "Harvester" and "Träd, Gräs & Stenar" - with changing settings. Initially formed by former members of the first Mecki Mark Men outfit, then went on to work with inspiration from Terry Riley and Velvet Underground, using tape loops and repetition. Non of their recordings were released back then, but showed up on the 2001 Swedish 2xCD "Pärson Sound"(Subliminal Sounds TILCD 02) and 2010 as a 3xLP box (Subliminal Sounds SUB-073-LP-BOX) with info and pics, limited to 1000 copies. At the end of 1968 they changed name to International Harvester and issued this album (eng. Sleep Tight Rose-Marie), which stands as the band's actual debute. No domestic label wanted them due to their at the time odd agenda, but the newly founded Finnish label Love Records took the bait. As the story goes that was initially financed by Soviet money and ready to issue anything from anyone as long as it didn't critizise Moscow. It's an LP almost impossible to describe. I've seen it tagged as psych, prog, rock, folky or kraut-like. All of those may fit, but then in a blend that makes it unique for its time and place. Side A carries a mix of intrusive and soft. Starting with the Latin title "Dies Irae" (eng. "Day Of Wrath"), part of the Roman Missal up to the late sixties when it was removed. Also included in Mozart and Verdi works, but I'm not sure if the one here coincides with any of those...two plus minutes of murky brass ending with low volume chanting. The slowly grinding "The Runcorn Report On Western Progress" deals with pollution over a Liverpool suburb in the fifties. "There Is No Other Place" untidy rock'n'roll. "Ho Chi Minh" has the group chanting to rythm instruments. "Klockan Är Mycket Nu" (eng. It's Getting Late") very simple garage folk. The two tracks on B-side are both long messy live jams, where "I Mourn You" founded around a rock structure while "Now To Survive" starts with chanting and a dog barking to a slow repetitive mellotronish sound and then with added rhythm instruments ending in an up-tempo raga. The audio on this 1st press goes from almost ok to bad. Muddy and unbalanced at times, making it hard to distinguish the lyrics. As I understand some are critical against aspects of the Western culture and as a whole the LP was meant to be some kind of eye-opener. With all that said you might get the impression I don't like the album. On the contrary - I love it! Weird hard-core garage with a message, recorded live in the studio or in the open seemingly without a thought about sales or earnings. I couldn't ask for more. 1968 releases in Finland and Sweden, separated by the record no.s - Finland "LRLP 5" and Sweden "LRLP 1005" . This is the Swedish, but as it has the original Finnish label with "TEOSTO" showing on a Finnish press, the sticker on back having the "LRLP 5" number and the matrix no.s (LRLP 4 ST A/LRLP 4 ST B) coincide, I guess the only difference is...the record number on label. 1984 vinyl reissue on Silence (SRS 4690). 2001 CD (Silence SRSCD 3614) came with one earlier unissued bonus track. First Swedish had label as shown here on heavy vinyl in a thin glossy cover. (NÅY*) (ÖGÄ*) (SCÄ*) (CCÖ*)
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