Behind Græns are Axel Fredlund, Axel Jonsson, Axel Sjöberg and Anna Fagerberg. Drummer Axel Sjöberg is a former drummer with Graveyard, and when Graveyard reunited in 2017, Sjöberg chose to stay out of the fold to focus on his new venture. So it’s not just anyone sitting behind the drum kit here – but Græns is definitely not a Graveyard side project. The direction is completely different.

*Antitunes* is a strange album, but in a way that makes it interesting rather than inaccessible. Græns venture quite a long way beyond what we usually associate with heavy psych and fuzz rock, but that is precisely where some of the excitement lies. The band strives to find the space between ‘either/or’, letting the music flow wherever it feels right in the moment. It sounds more like a philosophy of life than a marketing message, and it shows.

The single «Seed Your Mind» opens with autotune effects and unusual vocal techniques that might leave the listener scratching their head – but this is a deliberate choice, not a coincidence. Sjöberg himself has cited the autotune vocals on Mdou Moctar’s album *Anar* as one of his sources of inspiration, and the logic is clear: the use of vocal distortion techniques is an aesthetic choice, not a pop shortcut. Here, it works. The voice is bent, stretched and treated as an instrument on a par with the rest of the soundscape – as part of the psychedelic unease rather than an obstacle to it.

The album isn’t heavy in the traditional sense, nor is it easy to pigeonhole. What the band themselves describe as «dance-friendly but a bit spaced out and experimental» is a fair description, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s a free-spirited, experimental 70s vibe to it that means it nevertheless catches the attention of those seeking something off the beaten track. The production is handled by the band themselves – a DIY operation – and this imbues the sound with an organic immediacy that is very much in keeping with their ambitions.

A previous release from the band veered towards danceable rhythms with echoes and delays in the true spirit of Upsetter, and on *Antitunes* too, it is the groove and rhythm that keep the whole thing moving. *Antitunes* isn’t an album for every occasion, but for those who can handle rock that’s off-kilter, groovy and a little strange, this is a fascinating side project from the Swedish underground – and a debut album that sticks to its own terms from start to finish.