17 Haz 2008, 12:01
yazan Euchrid
Bands and artists mentioned:
- AFX
- ABC
- Adicts, The
- Autechre
- Ashra / Ash Ra Tempel
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Afrika Bambaataa
- Astor Piazzolla
- Animal Collective
- Anita Lane
- Agent Orange
- Adolescents
- Antony and the Johnsons
- Aphex Twin
- Asian Dub Foundation
- Amon Duul / Amon Duul II
- Architecture in Helsinki
- Angelo Badalamenti
- Autopsia
- Air
- Ausgang
- Annie Hogan
- Antonius Rex / Jacula
- Agitation (Free)
- Alien Sex Fiend
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Alan Vega / Suicide
- Asylum Choir, The
- Anti-Flag
- Absolute Body Control
- Au Pairs
- Andrew Lloyd-Webber
- Akira Yamaoka
Sources:
- Wikipedia
- Last.fm
- Various websites with reviews (Pitchfork, Amazon, Reviewcentre, Rockreviews, etc.)
01.05.2008.
It's high time to organize this pile of music I've been collecting for a while. To my surprise plenty of albums I keep haven't been tagged (this is the part I hate doing). Having no life is so much fun.
Thursday the 1st of May. This day is brought to you by the letter A.
I woke up and (after few rounds of Asleep by The Smiths that sadly didn't put me back to slumber) put
AFX's
Chosen Lords from 2006 on. Good start of a day it was.
I postponed listening to Aphex Twin because there's nothing better in this world than a musical variety. Therefore, my next pick went to
Lexicon Of Love from 1982 that I haven't listened to for a while. Martin Fry sang about his unrequited romance in the sophisticated suit-wearing style for about an hour. All of My Heart remains my favourite
ABC tune over The Look of Love, and Poison Arrow. But enough flashy silver suits... sorry Fry but after '4 Ever 2 Gether' I have New Romantic coming out of every living pore.
Another choice wasn't really hard to predict - what's the opposite of an elegant gentleman? A Droog. I wonder what the guys are doing now, I have heard they still perform gigs after 30 years, which is ultra-cool, especially for a Punk Rock band.
The Adicts is my local band from Ipswich, Suffolk, formed in 1975 (first as Afterbirth & The Pinz) . I started with
Ultimate Addiction from 1987 which contains Easy Way Out - probably their best tune with jumpy music and catchy lyrics. Then I put
Sound of Music on, continued with
Complete Adicts Singles Collection, through
Songs of Praise, finishing with
This is your life after which my Romance with Punk came to an end. Their tune Falling in Love Again is worth mentioning because it differs in style to the rest of their songs. I have no idea what they were trying to accomplish by adding to their style an odd synth tune, but they certainly won my attention.
It's time to move to some Electronic music again for a while. I looked into my newly made 'A' folder and saw
Autechre, a British IDM band that I have been neglecting for almost a decade. Shame on you Euchy... I start from
Incunabula from 1993, the first Autechre album i had a pleasure to listen to as a teenager. At this point I'm angry at myself I wasn't learning the
titles of the songs much, so as a result I'm pretty much still unfamiliar with them. The storm outside perfectly matches the atmosphere. The band has "utilized a wide array of analog synths in their production as well as analog and digital drum machines and samplers. They have also made extensive use of a variety of computer based sequencers, softsynths, and other applications as a means of controlling and processing the synthesized sounds". After Incunabula I play
Basscadet EP (1994) and the sun comes up. It's been a very warm day today which makes me wonder if I shouldn't go out, lay on the grass and listen to my mp3 player. Maybe some other time. I agree that
Amber (1994) is slightly overrated. I mean it's a good album but I wouldn't consider it their best record. Though Silverside is truly beautiful, I like the addition of classical music samples.
Thank goodness i didn't go out, the sky got black, another huge storm is being drawn on the horizon. It's 5pm already and i still have 3 tracks of Amber to go before I put
Anti EP (1995) on. It's been an ambient afternoon, I really don't recall listening to so much Autechre before. I have a lifespan to embrace it all, so I'm not worried much. Anti EP makes me contemplate of how long my lifespan is going to be. Hah, maybe I SHOULD start getting worried.
Quick restart of Macbeth, 6th mug of coffee, salami sandwich, and I continue feeding myself with Elemental Experiments. Thinking of salami brings an image of a donkey, which makes me think i've certainly had enough ambient for today... aaaand enough coffee, for the record.
Anvil Vapre EP finished smoothly which gives a perfect opportunity to put my favourite Autechre album on -
Tri Repetae (1996). I think it's their best record because of tunes like: Dael , Leterel, and Clipper. Plus Eutow would probably turn anyone into a mass murderer if played non-stop for few hours. Wait a second Euch, that's worth trying one day...
This coffee tastes of horse piss but my brain would explode if it was stronger.
EP7 album's on, 7PM just passed, and I still have two more Autechre albums queued, soooo at this point I'm certain that Aphex won't go out of my speakers till morrow, not after such a density of electronic sounds. Which also means that Friday will be brought to me by the letter A as well. This reasoning brings another conclusion - I won't finish this project till Winter.
To all the fans of 1999 record - EP7, I'm not very fond of it - most of the tracks listed don't appeal to me, they lack consistence and are overly distorted. Maphive 6.1 is very sweet though, it has some oriental touch inserted into a plain performance of an electrocuted mind taking advantage of sounds empty glass bottles make. Euchy likes. Another good record from 1998 -
LP5 - contains a very brief, yet quite psychedelic tune called Melve, finger lickable indeed. Sadly, the last record I've been on for a while disappoints me sorely.
Draft 7.30 from 2003 started quite promising, but V-PROC gave me a headache, even though I'm already stoned. 11pm, I put Autechre back on a sluggy n' sticky shelf of the microcosmos of bytes and look towards some instrumental krautrock...
I see
Ashra! Whooray, I thought my whole Ash Ra Tempel collection went missing. The album
Blackouts is a good representative of an atmospheric kraut. It's starts with a smooth and gentle 77 Slightly Delayed and takes me back home - this little green and red cell of youth. I think
Ash Ra Tempel changed it's name to Ashra because the band members decided to go instrumental on few albums. Pity I don't have any Ash Ra Tempel with me, I enjoy their spacey psychedelia. Ohh, the guitar on Midnight on Mars gives me an eargasm. I'll give Blackouts another go - it has got a calming effect, and I'm also a lazy cheek.
02.05.2008.
Friday the 2nd of May. This day is brought to you by the letter A. I dedicate this day to The Vowel Family tune by They Might Be Giants, because vowels are important letters.
After second helping of Blackouts by Ashra I travelled to 18th century in search of Italian baroque that I found on
Antonio Vivaldi 's
The Four Seasons performed by
Itzhak Perlman and two philharmonic orchestras from Israel and London. No matter how many times I listen to Winter Allegro Non Molto , it always gives me this gut feeling of 'Memento Mori you silly unimportant being' so I cry and smile, and listen once more. I said goodnight to the world and the strings took me away to some better world.
The rubbing-window-pane-with-a-wet-spongie sample can be found on Jazzy Sensation (Bronx Version) track by one of the most talented masters of the beat from the heart of Bronx -
Afrika Bambaataa on
Looking for the Perfect Beat 1980-1985 album. Is it the only tune I know with the spongie? ...Hmmm, it seems that three other mc used it to cause some rump shaking as well. So get on a mike party people, yeah - Planet Rock, what an awesome tune... yeah I can hear Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express, if somebody can't... well - your loss! Are you ready?? C'mon, everybody! Let's do some Rockin' to the funky beats. Woooo yeah, I should start days to good old-school hip-hop more often. Right, funky people, I'm going to move my non-stop shakin' bottom to the kitchen and make another coffee in a quasi Robot Dance style, hoping no neighbour will see me, call an appropriate departament and wrap me in a straight jacket. Why? Because I already listened to The Adicts's Straight Jacket yesterday and Devil Doll's Dies Irae with 'The still look Curled up in the straight jacket' is way ahead. Ok... Coffee.
Midday almost there, and I just finished the third phase of the caffeine treatment to
Astor Piazzolla 's Leonora's Song - a beautiful Argentinian tango with quite distinctive
Carlos Gardel 's influence. Sadly, it's the only Astor's track I have, although I'm certain that his
Five Tango Sensations with Kronos Quartet must sound incredible.
Morning started so well that I decided to give a go to one damn freaky group of people calling themselves
Animal Collective. Before I move to my favourite Sung Tongs from 2004, I tune in to
Here Comes The Indian (2003) and squeeze my brain into a little hole of WEIRD. The song Panic is quite displeasing - 'I'm happy, she's happy, so why the fuck are you not happy?' - is probably one of the worst set of lyrics I can think of. Fact: 192kbps/44kHz is NOT enough when listening to Slippi.
Sung Tongs start with a notable Leaf House track that makes me feel warm inside more than any candy twee... can I hear meowing kitties? Another very decent track on the album - Who Could Win A Rabbit makes me turn the volume up a bit. I am grinning and the grin is geeky. But the best is still to come. I patiently wait for the adorable We Tigers and bite my lip. The wild drums (right after a minute short song that expresses the lack of need for formal education) fills my room, and - as a matter of fact - I'm going to play it few times before turning to Mouth Wooed Her. Confession: my high-pitch 'Whoop' sounds (I'm articulating now) shouldn't be heard by absolutely anyone. I'm glad Sung Tongs gained high critical acclaim so more people are exposed to this side of Indie music that starts with G through double O and ends with D. After the remarkably unremarkable album
Feels from 2005 I move back in time to year 2004 and the collaboration of
Animal Collective & Vashti Bunyan called
Prospect Hummer - a very gentle collection of four acoustic melodies wrapped in a hollow-like voice of this legendary female version of Bob Dylan. The 2007 record
Strawberry Jam I was recommended few months ago sounds more tolerable and less disappointing than
Feels thanks to songs like Chores and For Reverend Green, nevertheless it doesn't win my heart as it goes away from the look-at-the-bonker-me-dancing-naked climate towards common indie sounds. I'm much more fond of their early recordings. My editor just said that he hates Strawberry Jam so the feeling of guilt after criticizing Cuckoo Cuckoo as one of the most hideous songs the collective has ever made fades away.
Half past three brings an end to Animal Collective and hunts
Anita Lane down into my head. One sexy woman she is, therefore, her
Dirty Pearl (1993) sounds really sexy as well. I look at the CD produced by Mick Harvey (from The Bad Seeds) and other notable bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut, and The Birthday Party. I'm home... I'm so much home right now. I really enjoy her covers of Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing and Sister Sledge's Lost in Music (although I prefer The Fall's version of this song). Fact: the moment miss Lane articulates: 'I won't give up my music', should make many men hard. So I play again... Blume is in my speakers at the moment; I heard this soft tune about flowers for the first time on Einstürzende Neubauten's Tabula Rasa many years ago and as far as I remember Anita stands on a pedestal that slowly spins and talks through a massive ... megaphone on the video. Two other tracks I really like on this record are A Prison In The Desert (from Ghosts... Of The Civil Dead) and I'm A Believer, however I'd recommend all of the songs on Dirty Pearl to every demanding and gentle ear.
I need around 12 hours for Richard D. James which means I must postpone him again because it's 5pm already. It slowly becomes a cherry on the top, a very scary cherry haha. Bad rhyme. So I move back to punk, and more precisely to one quite influential band -
Agent Orange. The album from 1981 -
Living In Darkness contains hits like Bloodstains, Everything Turns Grey, and Too Young to Die. Although the band was formed in 1978 and plays till this day its lineup has been changing for all these years. One of these changes was marked by the departure of the bass player Steve Soto in 1979.
Why am I indicating this one and not the others? Steve Soto formed the band
Adolescents in 1980 (Letter A) that is going to be played straight after Living in Darkness, that's why. The album
Adolescents from 1981 is a mixture of short, fast and very energetic tunes which oscillate around hardcore convention more than the music produced by surf'n skatin' Agent Orange. I like O.C. Life in particular: 'The limit of your mind is what they're counting on all ends ' is a fine line.
I reckon it's high time to get depressed a little now. Therefore, I take my self-titled
Antony and the Johnsons record (1998) and press play. Antony Hegarty is a British singer who started his career in American cabaret as a drag queen. The first LP sounds much more theatrical in style than
I Am a Bird Now that followed the debut album and gained an incredibly high acclaim from the critics (Technics Mercury Music Prize 2005). I find his music magical - very intense and sinking in melancholy. The density of humble feelings such as sorrow, longing and misery loads the lyrics with drama and passion. This passion is then articulated by one of the most incredible voices of the new millenium - Mr.Hegarty. Songs like the dramatical Hitler in My Heart ('don't punish me for wanting your love inside of me') and violent Cripple and The Starfish cause an honest heartache inside my chest. Antony and Lou Reed collaborated on several occasions. It was Lou Reed who first used Antony's voice while recording The Raven before the commercial success of the band. Lou Reed appears on Fistful of Love with guest vocals and guitar on
The Lake EP. Antony also released a split single with Current 93 in 1999.
I Fell in Love With a Dead Boy EP from 2001 contains two sublime songs - I Fell in Love with A Dead Boy and Julee Cruise's Mysteries of Love from the albums: Floating into The Night and Blue Velvet soundtrack, as well as the beautiful cover of Current 93's Soft Black Stars. I truly adore the CD cover of I am A Bird Now which refers to the video of the first track on the album - Hope There's Someone. I highly recommend this set of musical solitary suffering of a beautiful mind to absolutely everyone, even those daft disco bitches... someone needs to educate people that 'Keep Bleeding in Love' is a small mediocre pimple-bug on the arse of music and needs to be squeezed out and stomped upon. I am A Bird Now that I hold dearly is less dramatic, yet incredibly lyrical. Few other artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Davendra Banhart, and Boy George appear on the record with guest vocals. But right now I'm tuning to Be My Husband (have you heard Jeff Buckley's verion??) from
Live at the Knitting Factory bootleg, a powerful cover of the jazz queen - Nina Simone.
03.05.2008
It's a brand new morning, so without further ado I let Richard David James penetrate every corner of this space I call my room. What is the best electronic album? Many debates can be arranged to solve this dilemma. My personal pick goes to
Aphex Twin 's
Selected Ambient Works 85-92 released in 1992. This evil elf from another dimension is probably the most creative, imaginative, inventive, innovative, constantly improving, influential figure in electronic music. Young Richard started making music at the age of 12... very nice indeed. Fucking whoah after you listen to his first Selected Ambient Works where some of the tunes contained remember his 14th birthday. But enough flattery Euch, geniuses shall not be praised, but worshipped. Hence I devote this day to Aphex Twin. I'm just repeating Xtal and I and look towards faster, slightly manic, and less atmospheric
Xylem Tube EP (1993). With the last beat of Dodeccaheedron I switch to
Melodies From Mars that start like the worst nightmare of a child who suffers from
Darkseed syndrome . It's worth adding that David Firth used Untitled tune in his Pandabear animation which Tab can be found
here. It is also worth mentioning that Locust Toybox is David's IDM and ambient project that he includes in most of his recent works. All animations by David Firth are available
on this website . Mr.Firth's twisted imagination creates very bizarre stories sinking in ambient of other notable music makers like Boards of Canada, or Jim Ether. I've been thinking of one obscure satitist Chris Morris and his Jam series (the CD Blue Jam is very hard to get and its price on e-bay reaches over 20 pounds, I've participated in two auctions after which I simply gave up. My birthday is on the 17th of december, if anyone wants to make Euchy happy...) that used to be available on Tv-links website. Morris used Aphex music to soundtrack his Jam, while James considers Morris "the best comedian of all time". "Morris and James have both done work that veers between radical and repulsive" and I just can't imagine Jam without Rhubarb from
Selected Ambient Works, Volume II (disc 1) and other sounds created by Aphex.
It's impossible to pick an all time favourite from this album, because the journey from Cliffs floats slowly to White Blur 1 (which causes an incresing anxiety in my ferret - Sid Vicious) in order to continue the escapade to the outer eldritch space of Blue Calx (trivia: it's also one of Aphex's pseudonyms) and finally rest next to Match Sticks. Intimidating Grey Stripe should be played in cinemas before any horror to cause a massive collective apprehension, while tunes like Rhubarb, Mold, or Curtains is music I want to be served during the funeral where cold and proud like never before I hide in the coffin. While listening to
...I Care Because You Do (1995) I find an interesting information about a tank and a 'cheap' submarine, and wonder what else can be purchased these days. Ventolin will kill me one day, for sure. Reading about Richard's entangled thought process is very absorbing. In one of interviews he says: "The other day, I was lying in bed, stoned. I was thinking, 'What's the scariest thing you could think of?' And I ended up imagining people coming into my house and doing hideous things to me, tying me up, stripping me naked, and squirting this foam into my mouth and down my throat, shoving it up my nose, into my ears, jamming it into my tear ducts, until it all went solid. I was getting the Fear. I had to go, 'Think about something nice, you twat!'". That's for Richard's confessions and my trip to the realm of the too improbable to believe twin. I Care Because You Do finished, and the time of
Ventolin EP (The Remixes) (1995) has come. Driiiill, drilll, drilll, and one more drill within my cerebral cortex. After several Ventolins my conscious experience shatters the perception of reality, savagely rips every vein of primal emotion, mutilates the thought, and disembowels the soul. I surrender.
I enjoy the way in which Richard describes himself as "irritating, lying, ginger kid from Cornwall who should have been locked up in some youth detention centre. (Who) Just managed to escape and blag it into music."
Richard D. James Album is a masterpiece that opens with a decent 4 (LP Version) - a track with an oriental spice and fast percussion which resembles an unconventional therapy performed by some Asian witch. A rhythmic mechanical force of drums played against my ear induces harmonic vibration of body organs and I am cured just to acknowledge Cornish Acid (LP Version) and crawl under my bed in search of the other side of the rainbow. A multitude of various commercials and shows used Aphex music to evoke certain emotions from the viewer. It's not surprising that I hear Aphex in the background while watching programs about deviated children, rape victims, or women who like to insert sharp objects into their
uterus . However, the adaptation that I regard with a special favour goes to... yup - David Firth's
Milkman of gore.
Apparently the grandma from Come To Daddy enjoyed the horror before her eyes; I certainly did. If I try to think of the all time favourite videos I have seen, I'd have to place Come To Daddy somewhere at the top. Aphex claims that 'Come to Daddy' came about while he was just hanging around his house, getting pissed and doing this crappy death metal jingle. Then it got marketed, and a video was made, and this little idea that he had, which was a joke, turned into something huge (
quote ). The video was made by Chris Cunningham and filmed on the same council estate where Stanley Kubrick shot many scenes to 'A Clockwork Orange'. Double myum. Yet amidst death metal samples and anal sex offers, the coolest tune on this record is bouncy, is beat-beaty, and round - Bucephalus Bouncing Ball (LP Version) wins! After
51/13 Aphex Singles Collection from 1998 I tuned to overly cherished
Windowlicker (1999). I remember a wave of sudden interest around Aphex after the video of Windowlicker was aired, which marks his ultimate commercial success. Although I dare to expect that many folks out there perceive Aphex as 'the guy who did Windowlicker', the same as they perceive Nick Cave as 'the guy who did Where the wild Roses Grow with K.Minoblergh. Oh well. The voyeuristic windowlicking voyage ends quickly, grunting the subsequent need for
Drukqs (2001) that delight my senses and excite the intellectual admiration. The music on these two CDs "ranges from refined blue mood piano meditations worthy of Claude Debussy or Erik Satie to furious digital exercises that sound like pneumatic drills gone haywire." Tracks like Strotha Tynhe, Gwarek2, and Kesson Daslef deserve an extra caution, nevertheless - Avril 14th prevails and once more proves superior.
Right now I wish
Steven could tell me: 'Well done little girl, you managed all day without me.'
'No sweetheart, I didn't. As a matter of fact I was singing Hand in Glove during coffee breaks. And I'd be delighted if you could spend the rest of the evening with me.' I'd reply...
I say goodbye to Richard David James and this uncomfortable stool I have been sitting on all day.
04.05.2008.
Morning 9am sets my tired body in motion. Slightly unwillingly, but persistently my weak, willow-wobbly-weepy arms take the first step in carrying out today's schedule.
I browse through the folder and pick
Asian Dub Foundation - a dub band from Great-Britain-not-that-Great. And after few tunes I realise that I have never been a big fan of ragga and breakbeat. The jungle rhythms incorporated in
Frontline 1994-1997 album from 2001 do not attract my demanding ear. Maybe I'm just not into indo-dub basslines much. Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu.
Splendid news - I got hold of two
Ash Ra Tempel albums -
Starring Rosi (1973) and
New Age of Earth (1976). I have good reason to be grateful for the opportunities which were made available to me, so - consequently, German krautrock occupies the gates of today's morning. Refined quality of space rock on Day Dream and Cosmic Tango on pop-oriented 1973 album Starring Rosi (named after the lead vocalist - Rosi Mueller) teleports my cosmic consciousness to a place crowded with stoned German youth of the '70s. 'Where do they give free acid?' I ask and hear no reply, just this atmospheric fog of sounds. It Must suffice for now.
Once upon a time in Germany there was a student movement which influence changed the views on experimental progressive rock all over the world. A radical political art commune from Munich calling themselves
Amon Düül after the Egyptian God of Sun -
Amon Ra and the Turkish mythical figure - Düül (meaning 'moon') opened up a magical passage of undiscovered musical genre that we now call krautrock. Their musical improvisations sound far beyond the understanding of an average John Smith. Hence, it shouldn't be astonishing that these pioneers of kraut rightfully attained a cult status in the late 60's. A certain factor that occured in 1969 caused a schism within the collective. The flexibility of the membership was giving an opportunity to
every enthusiastic person to attend and freely express himself during the happenings and demonstrations. The reason of the inevitable split into two components was marked by a fraction of several more ambitious and less politically inclined members of the group who in 1969 detached and formed
Amon Düül II - the
greatest krautrock band this silly world has ever had a pleasure to host. My trip with the less talented part of the collective started with
Disaster from 1969, rhythmically moving ahead to
Psychedelic Underground (1969) with an interesting Bitterlings Verwandlung and Im Garten Sandosa, then travelled onward to
Collapsing/Singvögel Rückwärts & Co. (1970) with Natur (Auf dem Lande) that served as a nice background to 17 minutes long Love is Peace, the opening track on
Para Dieswarts Duul from 1970.
Now it's time for a little twist, a bit of slagging, and a short story that may explain one's slight confusion when tuning to the record from 1989 -
Die Losung. Why confusing? Well, if anyone listened to any of their material from 60's and 70's, he may ask himself 'What the fuck is wrong with their records from late 80's and 90's?'. The answer is simple - Die Losung hasn't got much in common with the original collective - Amon Duul. Now, that's confusing... I'd really like to be double checked on this one, but from what I've read, there was a time when
Amon Duul II decided to split up. However, Two members of Amon Duul II (persistent people they were) didn't give up their career and with a help of few
English folks (like the drummer from
Van der Graaf Generator and a vocalist Robert Calvert) formed...
Funfairs! Drums! Suspension! ...
Amon Düül <--- (no shit!)
So fucking original... The guys released Die Losung - plainly dreadful record with monotoneous to the core guitar riffs, infantile drums, and frog prince vocals. On Drawn to The Flame (part 1) I get an impression that Calvert is about to be sick, especially during his: 'retreating, retreating, retreating, and back again!'... No, please not again. Their other CD from 1990 called
Fool Moon sounds like a decent, progressive rock-oriented record, with interesting blues riffs on Tik Tok, and nice Indian psychedelic atmosphere on Hymn for The Hardcore.
05.05.2008
Amon Duul II - "a commune including eleven adults and two children who did everything together, including among other things, music" - may be perceived as having two distinct eras in their glorious career - the improvisational and the compositional period. "The improvisational period consisted of albums such as
Phallus Dei (1969),
Yeti (1970), and, to a lesser extent,
Tanz Der Lemminge (1971). These albums all feature long, improvisational tracks. Their compositional period starts with
Carnival In Babylon (1972) and is highlighted by
Wolf City (1972). In this period, the band moved to more structured composed pieces". My
2006 edition of Phallus Dei apart from treasuring fantastic Kanaan (
VIDEO ) also contains two bonus tracks - TouchMaPhal and I Want The Sun To Shine. The controversy behind their first album born out of sheer improvisation may have actually helped the band to break through. The Catholic Church together with the Christian Bavarian government wanted to ban the album because of its blasphemous title. Nevertheless, the true genius of this unconventional collective lays in their second album - Yeti that I'm drooling to now. Absolutely
every track on
this record is
Superb. Full Stop. End of the story. Additionally - the CD cover just
rules, for a lack of a better word. From Soap Shop Rock to the improvised Sandoz In The Rain, Renate Knaup, Chris Karrer, and the extremely skilled rest, prove that music is able to replace
every lack in my life... and I lack a fucking lot. The opening four-part suite Soap Shop Rock has the same disorienting effect as riding a quickly-spinning amusement park ride for a couple of hours, while the vocals of Eye-Shaking King erupt with an electric, demonic hiss. There is a moody acoustic number named Cerberus and the commanding, doom-laden vocals of Renate Knaup on Archangels Thunderbird, one of the album's finest tracks. It's the only krautrock album I have heard with such a dense virtuosity, therefore Tanz der Lemminge from 1971 may sound rather disappointing. Improvisational phase ends smoothly while i consider going out and having a little break from krautrock.
One round of The Cure's Disintegration in my headphones, green grass, some sun, and I'm back to the compositional era of Amon Duul II that starts with Carnival in Babylon from 1972. One track there wins my attention - a 10 minute long Hawknose Harlequin, after which I turn Wolf City on, a very good, though more conventional recording from the same year, with shorter tracks and more straightforward song structures. This change may be explained by the increasing popularity of the band, both in Germany and UK, however on tracks like: Jail-House Frog, and powerful Deutsch Nepal the group's love for experimentation continues to shine. Another record I play is the
BBC in Concert Plus - a decent live performance with songs from both periods, although not a single tune from Yeti. Later on, I play 1973 record
Utopia with a sweet love song - Alice, The Wolfman Jack Show on which I hear some proper use of sax, and jazzy Jazz Kiste song.
Vive La Trance from the same year sounds even more commercial than the rest. Most of the tracks are 3 minute short easy-to-listen tunes from which i pick Manana and Trap (both can also be found on BBC live album).
Hijack from 1974 doesn't really differ from the other records from the second period and offers no surprises apart from melodic Da Guadeloop with nice oriental strings in the background. The last breath of Amon is exhaled thanks to one strange and quite unnecessary record from 1975 called
Angelo Badalamenti
Farewell, Angelina.
