Stockholm's Mangel: The Legend of Mob 47's Bowling Alley Studio
Stockholm, Sweden's Mob 47 were darlings of the international hardcore scene throughout the 1980s. Appearing on a slew of international compilations, including the quintessential "International P.E.A.C.E." (R Radical, 1984) and "Cleanse The Bacteria" (Pusmort, 1985), they were obligatory staples on every tape trader's list. Like most Swedish hardcore bands of the era, Mob 47 were influenced by Discharge and UK punk, but their decision to incorporate the blazing fast thrash sound played by US bands such as Gang Green, DRI, and Poison Idea pushed them to a higher level.
But aside from being known for their own songs, the members were involved in a slew of side projects including Censur, Discard, Protes Bengt, and Röjers. Additionally, they were instrumental behind the scenes with their Bowlingstudion ("bowling alley studio") in which they recorded other Swedish bashers, including the legendary Crudity demo. This studio setup has gone on to achieve a niche yet cult status for being the place responsible for producing so much unrelenting Swedish hardcore. Various bands have listed their recordings as having been produced at "bowling alley studio" as a cheeky reference to the Mob 47's private production facility.
It is this boutique and obscure studio that is the focus of this feature. In an interview conducted by Mark Wanky (ENT, Sarcasm, The Wankys, etc.) with Åke Henriksson of Mob 47, Protes Bengt, Discard, and more, they discuss the setup of the studio, the techniques used to get such a raw yet distinguishable sound, and much more.
Mob 47 live in Norberg in February 1985 (photo: Ia Ingvarsdotter)
When did you first become aware of a cassette 4-track Portastudio and that this could be a viable way for your punk bands to record?
I saw in our music music store an advertisement that said "Rent Tascam 244 Portastudio for a weekend." As I before just recorded with a tape deck with 8-10 really cheap microphones with no mixing capability, it sounded very interesting.
Did anyone give you any tips or lessons on how to use the Portastudio, either before buying one or during the time when you were regularly recording on one? Did anyone in the band study sound engineering?
No, I just rented it for a weekend, read the manual, and we recorded some tracks that initially where supposed to be on the "Really Fast Vol 2" compilation.
The result wasn't that good in my opinion and a couple of months later we rented the Portastudio again and recorded the "Karnvapen Attack" session and used the tracks from this recording instead.
Speedy Snails was your first band, with Chrille playing bass in that band. To be honest, I don't think I have ever heard them. Did you make any recordings with them and if so how were they recorded?
Speedy Snails was me (guitar), Chrille (bass), Jögge (vocals) and two other guys (guitar and drums). The other guys were more into hard rock, so we played a mix of punk and hard rock, I think. We made a live recording with the "tape deck/microphones" setup.
Can you please tell us a bit more about this "tape deck/microphones" setup?
The setup was 15-20 very cheap microphones which I assembled together with "screw terminal blocks" to one left and one right output channel, which I connected to the tape deck. The deployment of the microphones varied if I wanted to record the source to left, right or both channels. There were no mixing ability so the placement of the microphone was crucial and very time consuming. I think we only did like 2-3 recording this way before I bought the Portastudio.
Wow, that is amazing! Basically you turned a humble cassette deck into a multi-track recording device. This must have given you a great grounding for recording on the 4-track.
You next band was Cencur with Chrille switching to drums, which had two songs on the "Grievous Musical Harm" cassette compilation (Xcentric Noise) and you also recorded two demos (which I have never heard). Do you recall how about those recordings were made?
We only did one recording with Censur as I remember and it was also recorded with the "tape deck/microphones" setup.
The first Mob 47 demo release, the "Hardcore Attack" tape, like the Cencur recording sounds like it was recorded live in the rehearsal room. Was this recording made on a regular cassette player or some other method? What do you remember about the recording?
Yes, it's recorded live in the rehearsal room with this "tape deck/microphones" setup. The only special thing on that recording is that I used two amps for the guitar. You can hear it specially in the intro of "Fred & Rättvisa."
Mob 47 self-titled EP original on Röj Records, 1984 (from the collection of Matt Smith)
The "Karnvapen Attack" session is quite a mammoth session for a hardcore band, 22 songs. It's quite a straightforward recording, one guitar, bass, drums and vocals. I believe it was made on a rented 4-track. What do you remember about the rented Portastudio and the recording sessions?
It was as looong procedure… We prepared everything on Friday night and we started recording on Saturday at 17:00 when the bowling alley closed. I remember that it was Chrille's birthday so his mum delivered a birthday cake which we ate after the drums were recorded. It's actually two guitars and the recording of everything wasn't finished until the early morning hours. I did the mix-down on Sunday evening.
Mob 47 live at Birkagården in March 1985 (photo: Ia Ingvarsdotter)
Sometime after that session you purchased your own 4-track Portastudio. I'm taking a guess that they must have been very expensive back in the day, though probably less than the cost of a couple of days in a pro-studio. What was the model you had/have?
I couldn't afford a Tascam 244, so I bought the Tascam Porta One, which was a lot cheaper. Think it cost about 400 Euros which was a lot of money back then.
Åke, once in the back of a van you chatted to me about splitting the channels on the drums? Can you explain a little about that process? I wondered did you employ "bouncing" at all with your recordings (mixing three channels down to one)? Are there any other "tricks" you employed that you can recall?
This is not special but recording process was like this:
Step 1: The drums were setup with four mics (kick, snare, toms + cymbal and floor tom + cymbal) and all was recorded to track 1 while I played guitar as guidance. You got to get the levels between kick, snare, tooms right from the beginning as you couldn't change the levels later. In some recordings I succeed better than in others.
Step 2: One guitar were recorded to track 2.
Step 3: The bass guitar was recorded to track 3.
As I really wanted to have two guitars, one to the left and one to the right to get a more ample sound image so I had to put drums/bass, bass/vocals or drums/vocals to one channel.
I tried several setups on lots of recordings.
Step 4: I played track 1 and 3 and tried to set the right levels and "bounced" them to track 4 which now is a mix of drums and bass. This was the setup for "Karnvapen Attack" session and the result was that the bass unfortunately is too low on that recording.
Step 5: Recorded a second guitar over track 1 as the drums is now on track 4.
Step 6: Recorded the vocals over track 3 as the bass is now also on track 4.
The mix:
Track 1: Guitar (Pan Left)
Track 2: Guitar (Pan Right)
Track 3: Vocals (Pan Middle)
Track 4: Drums/Bass (Pan Middle)
Photo of the actual Tascam PortaStudio used by Mob 47
In my experience when "bouncing" you lose some low-end frequencies, once you've bounced there is no going back.
Yes, there were no going back after the bouncing was done and the result of the bouncing varied from recording to recording. As I remember you used the EQ-settings when bouncing and I didn't think you lose to much in the sound quality that way.
It's wonderful that there is such an archive of Mob 47, Discard, and Protes Bengt material, even better to hear you were making more Hi-Fi sounding recordings, with layered guitars, stereo guitars, less muffled vocals and separated drum tracks, yet retaining a warmth that can only be achieved on a cassette Portastudio. Of course it crucial to point out that without the Portastudio those recording would have never been made. It must have been a fabulous learning curve and a lot of fun doing the recordings and later mixing them down?
I don't do that much recordings nowadays. Since the '80s, I have only done five new recordings myself. It's the Mob 47 "Dom Ljuger Igen" EP, three 12" with one my other bands Korsfäst and Protes Bengt "Pick Your Bengt" EP. All of them are done digitally in Cubase.
I don't have but multichannel audio interface, I use Zoom R-16 for recording 8-tracks for the drums which I then import to Cubase. It's much easier and you got more mixing opportunities nowadays, but sound wise I really prefer the old analog sound.
About the mix-down, were you using headphones? I have this vision in my head of you connecting the Portastudio to you parents Hi-Fi and them screaming at you to turn it down. Was all of the band involved in mix-down?
I used to bring my home stereo equipment to the rehearsal room when we were recording. I think I mostly made the mix-down on my own except when recorded Crudity and Ur Funktion (later Svart Snö).
The Bowlingstudion, tell us more? You must have really supportive parents? Heading off on a tangent, I heard some story about a Japanese fan turning up at the Bowling Alley.
Bowlingstudion was just our rehearsal room. That Japanese maniac was much later when I had moved to Malmö.
So the Bowlingstudio was a room in the bowling alley building? Please tell us more about the Japanese maniac?
Bowlingstudio was a office/storage room in my parents bowling alley in Täby (Stockholm). We used it for both practising and recording.
He was no maniac, but I can't understand how he could use his valuable time to visit me in Malmo. 😊
Can you talk a little about the other bands that were recorded at Bowlingstudion? I know you recorded the fabulous Crudity demo. Were members of Mob 47 in that band? Discard, that stuff is fabulous. Going off on a tangent again, how did you feel when you heard bands like Doom and ENT with their "borrowed" Discard riffs?
No one of us in Mob 47 were in Crudity but drummer/vocalist later joined Mob 47 when they broke up. Discard was just a Discharge rip-off project with me and Per (Agoni). We borrowed Chrille for the drumming and Rickard (Öronstörning) for the lead guitar. Don't we all "borrow" riffs Discharge?
Discard "Death From Above" EP on Rødel Records, 2001 (from the collection of Negative Insight Staff)
Bootleg 7" EP of Crudity demo (from the collection of Matt Smith)
In the last couple of years you released a Protes Bengt 12", with the drums and guitar recorded back in the day on the Portastudio and recorded bass and vocals with "modern" techniques. How was that process? Do you have more goodies in your archive?
Protes Bengt was a project with Åke/Chrille of Mob 47 and Per/Ola of Filthy Christians. Per got a hold on a tape with a band that had released a tape with lots of songs and our goal was initially to beat that number.
Chrille and I started to record a lot songs/riffs and after recorded about 74 songs and listened to it we decided to do a 7" instead. We tried to maximize it as much as possible and we fit 32 songs on it. Per and Ola meet up on a weekend and we recorded bass and vocals on the selected songs.
In around 2016 I found the old recording which I send to the other guys and we decided to try to finish all the other tracks.
I imported the old Portastudio drums and guitar tracks to Cubase and then Ola and Per added bass and vocals. It was really fun to complete the old recording 32 years later.
Do you have a favourite recording that was made at Bowlingstudion?
Maybe the "Stockholm's Mangel" recording because Crudity was an awesome band. Glad I got the opportunity to record them.
I agree. The Mob 47 songs from that tape are also my favourite. About the Agony recording from the "Stockholms Mangel" comp, was that also recorded by you?
Agoni recorded their stuff themselves. As I remember they also used a Tascam 244.
I know you have said that if you make any further Mob 47 recordings that they won't be made on the Portastudio, what can I do to change your mind?
It’s never gonna happen, my Portastudio isn't in that good condition nowadays.
Well, maybe next time when you are in Leicester???
Yes, Mr. Wanky. Let's fucking do it!
Mob 47 vinyl collection (from Negative Insight Staff)
Interview by Mark Sarcasm of the great band The Wankys. Mark is quite humble and doesn't like to mention his exploits but he previously played in Extreme Noise Terror (recording on "A Holocaust In Your Head") and Sarcasm, as well as heading up the Noise Punk Records label.
Live photos by one of the best, Swedish rager Ia Ingvarsdotter, who has contributed photos to us several times.
Vinyl photos from the collection of former editor of the great Agony Bag zine, Matt Smith.
Additional vinyl photos from the collection of Negative Insight Staff.
Thanks to Per Thunnell of Protes Bengt, Filthy Christians and more for his help on this piece.