Review: Gin Lady ‘Camping With Bodhi’

So, coming outta the Nordic badlands and armed with a glut of musical talent, a gunny sack chock fulla riffs and a few weeks to kill, Gin Lady settled into Hassan’s Rumpus Room, made it their own, and started to jam. And barely a decade into their existence, Gin Lady have released three albums prior to Camping With Bodhi, their most mature of the four with the well-defined songwriting on display in all the bands’ releases, they have honed the songs on Camping With Bodhi to a razor-sharp point. Although they’re walking a familiar path and make no attempt to disguise their (musical) roots, Gin Lady are most certainly not imitators. Lotsa stylistic input from each member gives colour to each song and firmly stamps the sound as their own.

Gin Lady ‘Camping With Bodhi’

Let’s get back to basics. Over the years, Sweden’s music scene has produced a plethora of killer bands, from flat out rock to more understated psych rock. Truly, something for any music fan (I don’t buy into the argument often thrown around by the more jaded ‘music aficionado’ that there’s no good music being made anymore. There is shitloads of it if you wanna find it! But ya gotta wanna ya stooge….) and the country has by now almost compensated the planet for Abba. Almost….

Which brings us back to Gin Lady, who, whilst not any kinda ground-breaking, experimental outfit, have hit us with a cracking album of heavily late 60s to early 70s influenced rock tunes. With all band members contributing to the songwriting, and Magnus Kärnebro’s clear and melodic pipes leading the charge, there’s plenty to wrap your ears around on this one.

Funky organ solos, a dynamic rhythm section with an excellent handle on ebb and flow, and some smoking guitar playing thrown in…

From Underground which opens the account with some trippy backwards guitar through to the closer, We Are Free Now! and its blues drive providing the bookends for tunes like the ripping Haven’t Seen You Lately, with a churlish, foot to the floor feel and funky vocals to I Love You Babe with a guitar riff I could hear Keef slashing away at while locking in with the business end of Watts’ snare. Freedom Rider has a blend of MOR and country flowing through its veins, and some cheesy synth blips and bleeps. Celebration Blues brought to mind some kinda 70s hit as it takes a new look at some familiar places.

Camping With Bodhi overall is a solid and cool release. Funky organ solos, a dynamic rhythm section with an excellent handle on ebb and flow, and some smoking guitar playing thrown in just in case you missed it! From some electrified folk-rock sounds to some ball-tearing rock songs, you get an audio smorgasbord to dig into. Although I‘ve gotta say, Camping With Bodhi is more Kombi van than muscle-car, but well worth a listen or three. Production-wise, it’s obvious they took a lot of care as well. The tunes and tones are well blended, and the light and dark allowed to permeate as needed. There is a complexity to it, but it’s rock ‘n’ roll in its heart and soul. Give it a shot!

‘So the Desert Highway has led to this place. Into the arms of The Sleeping Shaman. And I am once again at one with the Universe.’ El Jefe

Label: Kozmik Artifactz
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram

Scribed by: El Jefe