I’ve written about Finnish band Underground Witch Rock already today, and another band who occasionally offer a slight Cardiacs vibe are Swedish band Phogg. and they released an EP entitled ‘There’s nothing I like to say more than I hold’ on Christmas Eve.
I wrote about them back in 2019 when they released an album entitled ‘Mofeto: Mashine Adamkosh’ but somewhat criminally missed their follow up ‘The Sharkness’, which they released last year. I’ll hopefully cover it belatedly at some point
Apparently the 3 tracks that comprise the new EP were written and recorded back in 2018 when they were writing ‘Mofeto’, which just shows how many musical ideas they have at their disposal. Opening track ‘Home Again’ is 5 minutes long is the highlight, fusing together meandering hypnotic psych with more traditional rock influences, yet always carried along with attractive melodies. ‘Friends rock n roll’ is beautifully written almost anthemic prog pop, way shorter at 3 minutes than it possibly could have been, whilst they end with ‘My name is Klint’, with enjoyably long languid instrumental sections, a harmonised chorus and a heftier progressive influence.
There‘s clearly a lot of psych / prog influenced bands releasing music in those genres, but Phogg are amongst the most interesting and prolific.
I‘ve missed Phogg, although clearly their absence from my life has been entirely my own doing. Three really enjoyable tracks (particularly the 1st two), which seem to flow on pretty smoothly from each other, and I look forward to getting stuck into ’The Sharkness’, which they suggest is a ‘more cohesive record’ than their 2019 release.