Hoven Droven
More Happy Moments With...
NorthSide-US / Home-Sweden

Hoven Droven return with their trademark groove-riffage, making their trad Swedish tunes swing and stomp. Hoven Droven demonstrate all the key elements we've come to love and associate with their take-no-prisoners approach to folk music: dizzying fiddle work from Kjell-Erik Eriksson, rock-solid funky rhythms, and giddy horn sections all arrayed alongside the crushing guitar of Bo Lindberg.

The band knows that it's time to widen the palette before familiarity breeds contempt, and so they have opened themselves up to the Hammond organ of Jan Stromstedt. Not only does Stromstedt serve to further anchor the band (the organ is so well-integrated into Hoven Droven's sound that he's practically invisible on the lovely waltz "Dorten"), but the organ makes Hoven Droven sound like one of the hardest-rocking psychedelic bands around.

"Ottje Pelle"

Rosenberg 7 singers Sofia Sanden and Ulrika Boden guest on More Happy Moments..., wholeheartedly rocking with the heaviness of Hoven Droven's sound, offering intense, building chorales on tunes like "Happy is he who remains unmarried." Boden and Sanden also can sweeten the proceedings, and they serve as a useful reminder of the subtlety of Hoven Droven. Despite their penchant for churning power chords, Hoven Droven also realize that power has to be controlled; on the children's ballad "Ottje Pelle," the vocals and electric crunch give way to a lovely trumpet interlude. Hoven Droven know how to arrange their tunes so that moments of quietness and of noise both surprise and reward.

This CD contains a movie and 5 extra tracks in MP3 format. Damn it, listeners to the CD should be able to hear all the music and not have to hunt for it! At less than 45 minutes, surely the extra tunes could have been left as part of the traditional CD format. - Lee Blackstone

Hoven Droven on the Web