Cuneiform
's 2013 two-disc compilation
Radio Da Da/The Teenage Tapes
is the label's deepest dig yet into the back history of Swedish avant-prog/fusion duo
Mats/Morgan
, aka keyboardist
Mats Oeberg
and drummer
Morgan Agren
.
Radio Da Da
and
The Teenage Tapes
were first released separately in 1998 in Sweden by
Agren
's
Ultimate Audio Entertainment
imprint, but the latter album actually compiled tracks dating as far back as 1981. With the addition of previously unreleased bonus tracks, the expanded/remastered
set now spans from that year all the way to 2008, with 54 tracks ranging from 21 seconds to nine-and-a-half minutes in length, adding up to a generous two-and-a-half-hour package overall. Comprising the first disc here,
was recorded in 1992, the year after
Frank Zappa
fans
Oeberg
had been part of the
Zappa's Universe
live ensemble, and
Frank
's influence looms over the proceedings, notably in how the tracks jump from one stylistic influence and experimental approach to the next while hanging together like a fractured collage or suite. Aside from a few scattered guest appearances,
multi-tracked nearly everything themselves, and a few
vocals have a rather
Zappa-esque
sensibility (and a bit of
Stevie Wonder
too), although rather than sardonic observational humor, listeners get the escapes from civilization "Forest Man" and "Djungle Man," and
's amusingly unhinged performance of "Moon Dog" ("My dog is a moon dog/She can act real strange!"), while in a spoken tidbit (on a bonus track, no less),
Zappa
bassist
Scott Thunes
offers up the witticism "Eat my poo-poo."
"Darling Darling..." ("...please come home!") begins with enough bizarre effects to perch its "vocal" refrain midway between human and nonhuman, while the ripping solo (from guest bassist
Johan Granstroem
?) that overtakes the concluding tribal section of "Taeljes Logan" seems part musical instrument and part bodily function. But
is mainly a first-rate set of synth-heavy instrumental avant-prog and fusion, with
's clean and powerful drumming and both men's creative keyboard explorations staking out unique scored and improvised territory while also recalling -- in addition to
-- the music of
Bruford
("Haer Kommer Bodd"),
National Health
("Fialka's House," including a midsection of alien chamber music), and even
Joe Zawinul
/
Weather Report
(the aforementioned "Darling Darling..." and "Beside the Swamp"). With its 36 generally shorter tracks recorded to Portastudio, ADAT, two-track digital, 16-track analog, etc.,
on disc two is more scattershot and sometimes less sophisticated and multi-layered, but there is still plenty of inventiveness, and the brevity and (non-chronological) sequencing of the tracks works to the music's advantage. The kids playing
the Beatles
' "Help!" live in 1981, complete with shouty vocals from a ten-year-old
and a high-energy drum break from a 14-year-old
, is a jarring outlier, but it's merely the first page in a book -- still being written over 30 years later -- whose early chapters displayed here are worthy of repeated visits. ~ Dave Lynch