Blast Furnace -

Blast Furnace was a Danish psychedelic art-rock band from København that released a 1971 album on Polydor.

Members: Tom McEwan (drums, vocals), Thor Backhausen (organ, piano, flute), Arne Würgler (bass, cello, vocals), Niels Vangkilde (guitar)

Background

Blast Furnace assembled in Copenhagen during 1971 around bassist-vocalist Arne Würgler (b. October 30, 1943), a veteran jazz-rooted local with recent album stints in Burnin Red Ivanhoe and Pan. English drummer-singer Tom McEwan (b. August 9, 1940; Corby) relocated to Denmark in 1968 and gave the group an older stage center. Keyboardist-flutist Thor Backhausen (b. 1947) came from the local studio circuit and played on the 1970 jazz-rock album C. M. Musictrain by tenor saxist Carsten Meinert. Eighteen-year-old guitarist Niels Vangkilde completed the lineup.

Blast Furnace

Blast Furnace released their singular self-titled album in December 1971 on Polydor.

The album runs on playful rhythm, quick song forms, and a constant exchange between weight and release. Vangkilde and Backhausen trade short replies around two lead voices, while Würgler and McEwan anchor a flexible but firm center. The shorter tracks keep a firm vocal center while flute, organ, and guitar break off into brief solo passages over a steady backbeat. Blast Furnace group-wrote all eleven tracks.

“Toytown” opens the album’s broadest span with light piano lines, then shifts through stronger organ pressure, faint cello strokes, and a faster instrumental burst that tightens the pace. “Long Distance” pulls the mood into darker territory, while the closing Bobo sequence changes the scale: “Goodbye Mr. Bobo” rests on piano alone, “Dr. Night” foregrounds piano as the full band re-enters with intensified force, and “Bye Bye Bobo” reaffirms that mood for a subdued final coda.

A1. “First and Last” (4:06) — Würgler, McEwan
A2. “Ginger Cake” (5:30) — Vangkilde, McEwan
A3. “Jaywalker” (4:17) — Würgler, McEwan
A4. “B-Major Blast” (0:20) — Würgler
A5. “This Time of Year” (4:15) — Würgler, Ken Tindall, Ole Kjær

B1. “Toytown” (7:10) — Backhausen, McEwan
B2. “Man Bites Dog” (2:07) — McEwan
B3. “Long Distance” (4:00) — Vangkilde, McEwan
B4. “Goodbye Mr. Bobo” (2:40) — Backhausen, McEwan
B5. “Dr. Night” (4:55) — Backhausen, John McEwan
B6. “Bye Bye Bobo” (1:27) — Backhausen, McEwan

Sessions occurred at Rosenberg Studios in October 1971 with Pan producer/engineer Freddy Hansson, a soundman on 1970/71 albums by Blue Sun, Coronarias Dans, Rainbow Band, Trouble, and the third Ivanhoe release, W.W.W.

Blast Furnace designed the sleeve layout with photography by Jan Persson, Palle Emdahl, and Michael Botfeldt.

“Long Distance” appeared behind “Lister Du Omkring Hjørnet” (Are You Around the Corner?), a standalone Würgler-penned single.

Postlude

Blast Furnace ended soon after its Polydor album but the members remained active on the Copenhagen circuit. Würgler soon entered Agitpop with Benny Holst, Jesper Jensen, and Per Schultz through the theater-linked 1971 album Skolesange, which opened a long run of left-wing song records. That circle expanded on Europasange in 1972, where Würgler, Vangkilde, Backhausen, and McEwan all appeared inside the same ensemble. Agitpop later continued through Hvorlænge Endnu and Den Sidste Olie, which kept McEwan, Backhausen, Vangkilde, or Würgler inside overlapping credits.

Würgler carried that political and organizational work furthest: he maintained the Benny Holst partnership, co-founded DJBFA, chaired KODA across three separate periods, and later returned with the 2009 album En hjertesag. Backhausen remained active as a keyboardist and later ran Zebra Studio in Melsted.

Vangkilde and McEwan both played on Going for a Song, the 1972 third album by Culpeper’s Orchard. McEwan reappeared on their 1977 reunion album All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go. Vangkilde earned later credits with Greenland rockers Sume and the Gasolin’ spinoff Starfuckers.

Discography: