Album Review: Hjärndimma by Centralstödet

Centralstödet is yet another band that is new to me, and yet another band from Sweden that has just blown me away as soon as I heard it. Hailing from Gothenburg it is a four-piece, comprising Ulrik Lindblom and Daniel Johansson (guitar), Joni Huttunen (bass), and Jonas Fredlund, (drums). I think its fair to say that, as much as any bands I’ve heard recently Centralstödet are clearly influenced by 1970s progg bands such as Träd, Gräs och Stenar, Parson Sound and Flasket Brinner. The band started as a group of friends jamming out in the garage and certainly seem to have continued in this vein if the track on this EP are anything to go by.

‘Hjärndimma’ was recorded live November 2015 at the Skjul Fyra Sex warehouse in Gothenburg while sharing a bill with Arizona drone-rock ensemble The Myrrors, and consists of both new and older material expanded and improved into something wild and cosmic (that must have been one hell of a gig). The record is being released by Sky Lantern Records, which is run by The Myrrors’ Nik Rayne; and of which I think we’ll be hearing a lot more through an eagerly anticipated tie up with Yorkshire’s Cardinal Fuzz Records, including a new album from Centralstödet.

This is one heavy mother of an EP with fantastic live jams stretched over nearly half an hour absolute pure bloody psych guitar mayhem, the sort that just takes you all over the place. Think Earthless, Black Bombaim and Electric Moon and you get the idea…and yes it is that good. ‘Hösthypomani’ begins innocuously enough but soon builds and builds into a total monster of a track before falling back into a spaced out jam, before setting off agin into the ether. ‘Gräva Grav/Två Nyktra Vector Senare’ gets straight out of the blocks with some real deep cosmic guitar work and, like all the tracks on here, feels raw and live, you can even hear the talking in the background during the quieter moments; surprisingly much less annoying that if you’re actually there. In fact it’s a great stretched out jam that just makes you wish you had been there.

Final track, ‘Signalfel’ has a different, more jazzy, feel to it with the addition of Felix Eliasson on electric piano. This gives the track a more etherial and other worldly dimension and, like the rest of the EP, rewards a close listen with an astral mind-trip that will take you anywhere you want to go.

I’m excited by this find because it bodes well for new material from both Centralstödet and Sky Lantern Records and makes me wonder whether there is any limit to the number of great new label and bands that seem to be springing up all over the place.

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