RJF and Holy Grails

 

RJF - Greater Success in Apprehension & Convictions

Harbinger Sound. LP w/ sleevenotes + poster.

Once the resurgence in vinyl took the nations CD buying public by storm, records termed ‘Holy Grail’ used to appear with unnerving regularity. David Keenan’s still much missed record shop Volcanic Tongue used to find new ones weekly. On the back of more than one glowing Julian Cope review I bought a few myself and yes I could see the importance but rarely did I feel that my world had shifted. I dare say that there were some good ones in and amongst all those Holy Grails but surely the time must come when there are no more Holy Grails to discover? Then again maybe this is some sort of ongoing process with more recent releases becoming Holy Grails as time passes, their importance arriving at the same time as the information that only 25 copies of the thing were ever made. 

An original copy of Greater Success in Apprehension & Convictions might set you back a grand these days. Only 300 copies were pressed and unless you were one of the very few who picked them up at the time or were lucky enough to score a cheap copy at one of Sweden’s second hand markets [stories do exist] it looks like you’re going to have to make do with this Harbinger LP or the previous Segerhuva CD that Tommy Carlsson put out back in 2008.

The story behind Greater Success in Apprehension & Convictions involves its remaining incalcitrant member, drunken phone calls, all round general obfuscation, transgressive imagery, right wing leanings and an attitude that begins and ends with a huge fuck you. Its a story that Carlsson has already expanded upon with much clarity within the pages of As Loud As Possible and has expanded on even further here with some illuminating inner sleeve notes. Its an interesting story and one worth seeking out seeing as how it centers around RJF’s remaining member Leif Thuresson, a genuine misanthrope who wasn’t going to trust just anybody with his magnum opus, thus beginning a journey for Carlsson that would involve getting to get to know Thuresson personally before being passed fit for the job. Thats Thuresson’s picture on the inner sleeve; an umbrella nonchalantly laid over his shoulder and a look in his eye that tells you he’s more than familiar with the inner workings of A Clockwork Orange. I may not be the best judge of character in the world but I’m not getting much in the way of touchy feely love here.

It’ll come as no surprise then that Greater Success in Apprehension & Convictions is a horrible record with a horrible sleeve filled with horrible sounds. What might be more surprising is that after almost forty years it can still stand on its own two feet. 

Horrible doesn’t have to mean unlistenable though and by unlistenable I don’t mean bad noise. Using analogue synths [i’m guessing just the one] a tape violin of Thuresson’s own making and ‘a stolen rhythm machine’ RJF put together seven tracks of thee most primitive and brutal Power Electronics. A primitiveness that is its greatest strength and the reason it still sounds good today. Any kind of polishing or hint of professionalism at the time would have ruined it. Sometimes less is certainly more. 

An attack of basic repetitive beats and distant tortured vocals is still enough to get the vinegar rising and if you leave out the vocals all together, as they do on ‘Jugend Dance’ you can fill that space with random synth blurts and let the rhythm that evolves go on a deranged rampage of dysfunctional syncopation. I’d wager ready money that people have danced to this in Swedish Industrial nightclubs and if they haven’t then they should have. Those synth spasms are a constant and crop up on ‘Christmas Laughing’ [?] where the vocals are supplied on stretched tape and the rhythm is accompanied by a intermittent melody ripped from a broken stylophone. ‘Maximum Pain’, ‘Minimal Brain Function’, ‘Convulsive Repulsive’, hacked off heads, black and white imagery, the whiff of scandal and political distaste, all the major tropes of the era but still carrying a punch. Holy Grail stuff I reckon. 

Those sleeve notes mention a second album, more likely lost now or disintegrating within a cassette shell on a forgotten shelf or a box under a bed. That leaves us these seven tracks alone. Not much but enough to build a legacy on. 

@HarbinerSound