Les Big Byrd – Hökvind
Stockholm four-piece Les Big Byrd have been at this since 2011, and “Hökvind” — the lead single from their fifth album “Ruin Everything” — is a reminder of what they do when they’re not holding back. It’s full-throttle space rock: the kind of track that tips its hat directly to krautrock and heavy psych without sounding like a museum piece. Fronted by songwriter and producer Jocke Åhlund, the band have always sat in an interesting position — massive at home in Sweden, cult act everywhere else — and this is the side of them that earned the cult.
“Ruin Everything” drops June 5 via Chimp Limbs, and it follows 2024’s “Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain”, which leaned hard into instrumental and experimental territory. This one pulls back toward songs — the press compares it to 2018’s “Iran Iraq IKEA” — and “Hökvind” makes the case for that direction immediately. Where the last record sprawled, this one locks in. There’s a focus here that suits them. What caught my ear is how committed it stays to the momentum — no breakdown, no ambient detour, just the thing accelerating until it’s done.
Not a lot of source material to go on beyond the single and album announcement, but “Hökvind” is enough. It’s here because it’s exactly what it wants to be.
