Flowers Must Die - Där Blommor Dör: Review & Track by Track Rundown by Rickard Daun

For a while now I have considered Flowers Must Die as 'the thinking man's psych group' - they are the very antithesis of the 'big on pedals, short on ideas' brigade. From their first foray some eight years ago right up to last year's 'Kompost' they have been restless...never content to stick to formulas or expectations (a disco psych album!) and very much fitting into the Swedish lineage of superb psychedelic bands. The new album, 'Där Blommor Dör', is different again, acting almost as an evolutionary document. Rather than me tell you all about it, I asked Rickard from the group if he would explain the processes and creation of the tracks on the album:

GÖR DET INTE

"Well as mentioned in the press release we recorded this track back in 2007, and it´s not our first recorded songs but one of the first properly recorded (not only one mic in the room) which meant that we thought about using it for a release. And the same recording was used for our first Tape release in 2009, then called 'You Do That', I thought it was great but maybe a bit too noisey for a vinyl release. When digging out tunes for this release I came across this and felt it needed a new chance. As far as I remember it, we jammed on this recording and then took out the bass riff and used for a couple more recordings, the first one 'Möt Väggen' ended up on 'II' in 2011. And a later version 'Mot Andra Väggen' on 'III' released 2013. I felt it was a perfect start to the album, as this would be the last release on my label rev/vega rec. and the song was on our first release on the same label. And it really tells a story about how FMD´s minds are set, very unlogical and complicated, we are not known for making it easy for ourselves."



GÖMMA

"A very folky song, it is a recording from the very first session with Lisa in our rehearsal place in Linköping. I remember the first session as very inspiring and everyone had so many ideas, we ended up recording about 10-12 tracks over two days. And we thought we scared Lisa away with trying to do all kinda different genres, just to show how we might sound. I named the jams like, Doom, Folk, Folk2, Drone, Jazz, Funk and so on. We all noticed the folkier tracks work very well cause we have always wanted to add the violin to our music.

Other tracks we recorded this weekend was 'Oro' and 'Dööm' and also 'Sista Valsen' and 'Why?' from the Rocket Recording releases. Very simple recording and as always with our own recordings no chance to take out instruments really as everything is in one take. And you can probably here in Lisa´s vocals that she make up the lyrics while singing, which I think adopt perfectly to the FMD way of creating music. The drones from the synth is added afterwards."



OROA DIG INTE / ORO

"From our recording weekend at Element Studios, I always liked this jam, but it was something missing, and it needed some more work. I shortened it quiet much as it has a longer start and a bit more in the end, I even think I cut something in the middle and pasted it together again or if that is the next track 'Oro'?

Anyway we asked Karl who have played flute with us before to overdub some flutes and I think that really gave the track that extra. I always liked parts of 'Oro' but again it was too long and also it had a build up that got me to think about Post Rock which I didn´t like. Letting the tracks blend in together with Karl´s flute worked really well and the track has that haunted, worried feeling of something building up. Ripley from Moon Duo/Wooden Shjips played it in his program at NTS the other week and I was surprised how well it worked with artists like Ashra, Tangerine Dream and Agitation Free played. I have added some extra synths as well after hand to give it a bit more cosmic feeling."



TRÄD, GRÄS & HÖ

"Well it doesn´t have to be any mastermind to guess we are influenced by the great Träd, Gräs & Stenar...but even if this has a Swedish touch to it, it is a traditional English song called 'Sally Free and Easy', which I heard by another great band Trees from their album 'On the Shore'. We recorded this in an old summer house called Lyckebo (Happyhome). We stayed there for a week and did a lot of recordings in 2014, tracks like 'Hey, Shut up', 'After Gong', 'Kruta', 'Taskig Stämning Annars' and 'Ejefjallajökull' was also recorded then. And both sides of the BERG/BERGA tape on Zeon Light.

Lisa have added violin later as she was not in the band then, which I think gave it a much more Swedish touch."



DÄR BLOMMOR DÖR

"People got a glimpse of this on last years 'Kompost' when it was the link between 'Hey, shut up' and 'Svens Song' here "almost" in its full lenght as in 18 minutes from the original 30 minute recording. This was a late night drunken jam (yes I´ve heard it a few times, FMD most be the most psychedelic band which is not on psychedelics) Anyway I think it was only me, Martin and Lars left when we recorded the first tracks, then Jonas and I added some electronics after, so its no guitars on this one. Lisas violin is not recorded for the track, I nicked one from another session and slowed it down to half speed, sounding a bit Fripp. Its the title track which I think work in the line of FMD philosophy too, the longest and least potential to attract any interest is chosen as the title track!"



DÖÖM "Titled Doom when recorded, make it easy add two ÖÖ as Lars has an idea to use as many ÅÄÖ as possible in our titles. Remember finding this and started a hard mixing process as it was way to loud to be able to change so much on the different instruments. Played it for some in a hotel room in Stockholm between soundcheck and stagetime and Lars just started mentioning this track everytime we spoke. I think the rough mix didn´t really fit on the other releases but I managed to take strip it back a bit and then with Unni´s trumpet playing it just got so much better. Love the groove in it and should be fun to try to play live."



EJEFJALLAJÖKULL

"I think this was the only track I knew was going to be on the record when I started to look for material. We have played this track since 2010 when the eruption appeared in Iceland. We have an early recording of it on the 'På Månen' tape and then one of our best versions of it on our 'Greatest Hits (Live)' tape from our first gig in Gothenburg.

We recorded this in 2014 and we kept it minimal to be able to add things, Jonas added a guitar and synth as he only play the xylophone on the original recording.

Martin added the extra guitar which comes in after the break and Sven adds drums then and flutes, so fun that most people don´t play their regular instruments as I play saxophone and Lars only Djembe. Lisa added some great violins and theremin and I added some percussion in the mixing stage. And i now feel the track is what we would have liked it to be in the beginning. But then again we played it on the last tour and especially in London at the Rocket 20 festival we played it differently so maybe we will record it again and release it in 4 years time!"

For my part, I gotta say it's a bit (a lot!) of a triumph! From the feedback filled noise fest that is 'Gör Det Inte' - a hi-octane, fuzzed out blitz on the senses - to the ethereal, middle eastern krautrock vibe of 'Ejefjallajökull' the album is full of erudition and experimentation without being 'up itself'. The constant shifting of parameters means that each and every track differs from the last..stylistically, emotionally and intellectually. A bucolic, drone filled gem like 'Gömma' sits cheek by jowl with the atmospheric krautrock tinged joy that is 'Oroa Dig Inte'. Of course, it is nigh on impossible to talk about Swedish psych without the name Träd, Gräs & Stenar appearing somewhere (especially with the boxset of International Harvester, their predecessors, on the horizon) and so it feels right and just that FMD provide their own nod to them in the form of 'Träd, Gräs & Hö', an absolutely beautiful, lilting air which was originally, as Rickard points out, based on an old English song. But it is the title track 'Där Blommor Dör' that is the standout for me...a rich but melancholic drone fest that stirs up all kinds of emotions during it's eighteen minute length. Full of dread and foreboding but underscored with little shards of sunshine that make it absolutely irresistable. My overriding thought on this album is that, like the recent Anthroprophh LP, it smashes any psychedelic paradigm...it not so much moves the goalposts as decides to do away with them altogether...and that is exactly what needs to happen. It makes me happy to see the artistic fluidity of bands such as FMD, it re-ignites my love of the genre. In short 'Där Blommor Dör' makes me feel the same way as when I first heard 'Sun and Violence' by Heroin in Tahiti, and anyone who knows me will realise just what a major statement that is!

'Där Blommor Dör' is available from the band's Bandcamp page here and comes as a double album and a limited run of 300. There are 20 different versions of the album artwork and 20 of those come with the original artwork (these have gone I'm afraid).