You lucky, lucky people! We have a bursting at the seams posting for you this time round that features a new writer as well as my first part of feature on the golden period of Krautrock.
Not forgetting dear young Richie's review of the latest LP by Lets Wrestle.
We really are giving you people too much.
It's epic it's smart so what are you waiting for?
004:-
Let's welcome new contributor Marc Lawrence to the blog, below you will find his well informed and brilliant review of Regina Spektor's latest (I'm jealous).
Regina Spektor ‘Far’ (Sire)
Tiny, bosomy and mad as a brush, Russian-born émigré Regina Spektor’s sixth album, ‘Far’, released on Sire, is easily her most approachable to date. Every track works by itself, and melds together to create an easily listenable whole. Spektor’s trademarks – her left-field, abstract song writing, classically-trained background and epiglottal vocal gymnastics married to expertly structured piano arpeggios – are here in spades, but this album springs to life from the first listen, unlike a lot of her earlier offerings, which at times feel like a degree in music or some sort of endless supply of barbiturates is needed to actually enjoy them. From the jolly oomph-band rhythm of opener ‘The Calculation’, through the theological considerations of ‘Laughing With’ and former ELO-man Jeff Lynne produced album highlight ‘Human of the Year’, to the closing trembling notes of waltz-esque ‘Man of a Thousand Faces’, there’s not really a duff track here. A couple you feel could have been left off without too much damage done (‘Dance Anthem of the 80’s’ is the weakest track, and feels like the token “quirky” effort), but none of these songs are bad. With ‘Far’, you get the impression (if you’ve heard Regina’s previous offerings, particularly the moody ‘Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers’ and earlier, even lower-fi ‘Soviet Kitsch’ and ‘11:11’) benefits enormously from the higher budget production evident here. Regina Spektor’s loyal, hardcore fans, the ones who’ve been onboard since Mary Ann… and before (like the girl stood next to me in the marquee in Hyde Park who screamed in my ear at the top of her voice, as Regina banged out the first notes of ‘Us’: “this song is about my life!!”) will love ‘Far’. Regina branches out into user-friendly pastures new, but she doesn’t make the mistake that so many others who have made the move to mainstream have, forgetting what she’s all about. Instead, she sticks to what she’s good at, but adds a little something new, all of which means ‘Far’ will appeal to fans and new recruits alike.
Marc Lawrence
'In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's' - Let's Wrestle - Stolen Recordings
I first heard 'I won't Lie To You' about 16 months ago on the radio. Soon after that, the band released their first E.P ' In Loving Memory Of...’ And now they have bestowed upon us their debut album, 'In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's' (hereby referred to as 'ITCOTWL' to save my fingers). 'ITCOTWL' continues on from the blueprint laid down by 'In Loving Memory Of...' It is musically simplistic but a joyous listen. Slices of Pavement, Blur and Punk merge with Wesley Patrick Gonzales' (aka WPG) naive lyrics about being young and having fun. The instrumentation is a glorious mix of wandering bass lines, droning guitars and punky drumming. But Let's Wrestle have stayed entirely true to their tried and tested method. They have expanded and elaborated their sound from the previous efforts. The Songs 'Tanks', 'Insects' (a rerecorded version from 'In Loving Memory Of...') and 'In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's' all feature keyboards. This new development in the sound shows a band that is willing to learn and experiment. 'Tanks' is one of the many strong tracks on 'ITCOTWL'’, t has WPG's trademark shouty howl as well as the staple wandering bass line that has become a mainstay in their sound. 'Tanks' plods along at a medium tempo whilst you fall more and more in love with the band's naivety. Other standout tracks on 'ITCOTWL' (pretty much 3/4 of the album) include: the Pavement-esque 'My Arms Don't Bend That Way, Damn It', the last single 'I'm In Fighting Mode' with its lovely bass and melodies, the last track 'In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's', a 60s psyche influenced jam and 'We Are The Men You'll Grow To Love Soon', the strongest track on the album. 'We Are The Men You'll Grow To Love Soon' is a song about finding a job and having fun with the money, "We're going down the job centre/ And soon, we'll come out with a job" and "We've got enough money to buy some G&T's for the girls" are examples of the tracks subject. It has a fast tempo and brilliantly shabby instruments. But it's not all blue skies and butterflies with 'ITCOTWL'. 'Diana's Hair' clogs up the middle of the album. A dead weight of a song that features many interludes, there are four of them, are startlingly unoriginal. They borrow heavily from Pavement and defeat the object a little. Also, the constant shabby and ramshackle sound of the band may tire a little. In all this album delivers. A lively effort with a wrestling pedigree about it. It is brash and punky and loud. But Let's Wrestle also have a knack of writing a catchy tune or six. It may be a little formulaic, but it’s a contender for one of the top ten albums of 2009.
One Man’s Thoughts And Observations On Krautrock's Golden Age. By Dominic Valvona
PART 1
Introduction
Krautrock, what a term, I mean when have we ever used this suffix to denote anything other then in spite or ridicule. Lets just say its hardly a term of endearment.
No Krautrock was coined in the sneering adolescence hotbed of British music journalism back long ago when they needed to group all these interesting German chaps who were changing the very landscape of music, a pigeon holing was needed and one particular journo did just that.
Hell the Germans didn’t mind too much, they even included it in some of their song titles though I’m pretty sure it was meant in the same context that German artists would use it later in the Eighties, such as Martin Kippenberger’s legendary piss taking show titles and puns which openly ridiculed the country’s own dark past.
The trouble is any term is difficult as its impossible to lump all the many different bands and musicians who are filed under this moniker, as well as the fact that their was a big chasm in style differential, ideologies, hell even in their ages. I mean Can consisted of teachers in the mid thirties and one of their younger students, almost a generation difference in fact.
A common thread was found in the explosion of collective minds which spawned forth the first seeds of a German sounding musical phenomenon that pushed the boundaries of rock, pop, electronics, folk and World music. An unbounded energy, which was born of its time, music made for the first time inherently by Germans without having to cover or rely on the UK or US.
By 1970 these groups had ploughed their very own furrow and it was everyone else who copied and took notice.
Make no mistake these Teutonic sonic druids and cosmic composers changed the very fabric of music, they took your West coast Californians like Jefferson, Grateful Dead and your Cream, Hendrix, Mothers, Beefheart and they ran with it, ran with it till they’d had enough and so they began to sprinkle some Pink Floydd and Hawkwind into the mix. They added electronics to the equation and made themselves at home in the great classical composers of German folklore whilst taking tea with Stockhausen, in fact so many of these musicians were taught or brought up with old Stocky that he could be said to have been the chief instigator.
I mean Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay, both of Can, studied with him as well as its believed Kraftwerk (who evidently are not really a Krautrock group).
We can not understand enough the vast differences amongst these groups, Amon Duul II were socialist based and came from the communes of Munich whilst Can were respected music composers and teachers already in their mid thirties before they made a record in 1968.
Neu! Kept their heads down whilst Faust openly made an anarchic stand.
From manifestos to just a group of guys making some serene sublime soundtracks, I refer to Popal Vuh here, there were many reason why they shouldn’t even get on, some didn’t.
OK so what we are looking at is the golden period between 1968 to 1975, anytime after and we’re at the dog-eared end of the scene where God knows what some of them were thinking.
I also want to concentrate on seven of these groups in particular who are:-
AMON DUUL II
CAN
FAUST
GURU GURU
LA DUSSELDORF
NEU
POPAL VUH
The great Julian Cope has extensively covered most of these in part and has written the ultimate tome on the genre, The Krautrock Sampler, which had a limited couple of runs and is not to ever be reprinted again due to Cope’s own wishes. So you may have to search high and low, otherwise there are a multitude of great little sites dedicated to particular groups worth finding.
Before we go any further just a few points.
1. This is not meant to be the most comprehensive guide to either the genre or the bands themselves. In fact its more of a guide to the most accessible and enjoyable LP’s of this period and it is also a personal series of my thoughts and reviews on these very LP's which I hope you can in turn share with others. If you’re new to this then it acts as a beginners guide of sorts if not you may find it a useful reference.
2. There are bound to be people and stories missing, as I said it’s a personal set of reviews and writings on my favorite music of this genre. Cope does a sterling job of mentioning some obscure acts so if you need to delve deeper he’s your man. Though deeper and obscure is not always good, in fact when you get into people like Edgar Fosse or Cluster you start to tire. Even dedicated club nights such as Kosmiche hardly touch anything other than the main groups such as Neu! Or Can.
3. Hopefully you will be able to find these LP’s yourselves, most never sold heavily when they came out but I have been able to come across these records in second hand shops quite regularly, the only problems are usually Amon Duul II ‘Yeti’ and ‘Phallus Dei’ which really are like finding hens teeth. Spalax and Spoon do great reissues of many seminal Krautrock groups on vinyl.
On CD you should now be able to find most LP's no matter how obscure.
No matter how many people like your Kasbians or Horrors mention it they don’t actually truly reflect this music or have anything in common with it. More people are aware of Krautrock then would have been when it came out to be honest and its still not really exactly well known. So no matter how many times the likes of even Oasis or Blur talk about it take it from me its meaningless.
Basically this will be a series that is to found here on Monolith Cocktail blog.
Each issue I will feature one LP, with a piece on its content, musicians who played on it , label, track list everything in fact that is worth mentioning.
The first 6 parts will be dedicated to Amon Duul II (my particular favorites).
AMON DUUL II
Background:- Amon Duul II is said to have derived their name from the Egyptian sun god ‘Amon’ and the Turkish word for Moon ‘Duul’ though some members of the band have come up with a list of meanings and stories behind the moniker. Amon Duul II arose from the Munich communes of the Sixties and started off as one giant hippie spiritual pseudo collective before splitting into the two groups mk I and II. Apparently so the story goes some of the more with it and series musicians noticed that they had something and wanted to branch out. In fact the commune democracy spread to music allowing anyone to play in the band even the kids, which varied in degrees of success from pointless to shit. Founder member Chris Karrer and drummer supreme Peter Lepold decided to form a more structured band and had guitarist John Weinzierl join him as well as former teacher Renate Knaup, who did vocal duties. A little later artist turned organ/bass player Falk-Urich Rogner and former Kippington Lodge roadie Dave Anderson from the UK joined. Dave was later to appear in Hawkwind. In 1969 LP ‘Phallus Dei’ (see review below) was the first LP proper though most of it was made up of loose jams and edited together. With the odd extra guest such as bongo and violinist player Shrat, who is famously pictured on ‘Yeti’ cover waving a huge scythe later to become their logo, they made quite a dramatic impact on the German scene. For one thing the LP title translates as Gods Cock, so you kind of announce yourselves with some controversy straight away. The music found on this LP was progressive and even dare I say almost heavy metal, in fact a reviewer said of their live LP they shared a common sound with Led Zeppelin. They signed onto Liberty overshoot United Artists which was run by some very forward thinking young chaps who also signed Hawkwind, who very quickly made friends with their German counterparts. Big in Germany but relatively untouched in the UK, the group didn’t wait around long before going back into the studio. After this shocking debut came the most well known LP ‘Yeti’ in 1970 which followed on from some social upheaval amongst the commune with members dropping out not long after finishing recording. John Peel instantly loved it and gave it heavy radio play; it was certainly an improvement on the last with more structure and direction. Unfortunately the golden line up disintegrated with Shrat sodding off to form a bongo frenzy band called Sameti while Dave Anderson left for Hawkwind. Even dear Falk-Ulrich dropped out though strangely kept on doing the bands artwork. Something must have been going on as Renate also buggered off for a while, bad vibes indeed. The next LP ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’ (though its often referred to as Tanz Der Lemmings) was seen as a disappointment, this atmospheric double album included huge sways of ambient sound-scapes with the odd ferocious bout of drums and vocals. Derided but actually a great piece of experimental music for 1971, anyway it made few new converts and the band went back to the drawing board. 1972 brought back Renate and a more song structured set of tracks, which made up the brilliant ‘Carnival In Babylon’, unfortunately tensions remained and members left. This LP was popular in the UK and made way for a tour, which led to the legendary Greyhound in Croydon gig, much dismissed by Cope the fool. A resulting LP ‘Live In London’, with the menacing winged insect wearing a German helmet devouring London, appeared and is a very decent record capturing the guys going back to their roots and performing tracks off the first three LP's. The same year brought out the critically acclaimed ‘Wolf City’ one of their finest, again the structured songs played prominence and the band were now becoming a slick production outfit. A side project was confusingly set up and resulted in an off shoot called Utopia which is in all but name a Amon Duul II LP though I’m omitting it from my very own reviews. Next up came the so-called glam period which resulted in the sketchy but still good LP ‘Viva La Trance’, a often toe dipping Euro nonsense experience which is where they really lost their way. The next two LP’s saw them move to ATCO and an assault on the Americans. ‘Hijack’ was another inspired piece of Euro tat though I’m quite fond of it, with its illusions to Mott The Hopple and even stealing lines from Bowie this record really did it for most fans. Following on from this came the seminal though often ridiculed ‘Made In Germany’ a Teutonic rock concept opera that took in the history, folklore and myth of their homeland and spawned a double LP’s worth of what can only be described as genius. Every genre is touched on this there truly last big furrow. Unfortunately they cut it in half and repackaged it as it was thought to be too much for especially the US market. So there are two versions out there, on CD you can only get the shortened version. The original has the band line up wearing all manner of Bavarian and Kaiser inspired regalia, tongue firmly in check. Sadly this experience culminated in a fall out but we won’t go there. Amon Duul II in short were pioneers and made from the start their own brand of fantasy, folk, myth, politics and spiritualism that resulted in some of the best playing ever put on record and the most conceptual LP's. Everything to an extent was a concept to them, they didn’t care what anyone else was doing and just got on with it , sometimes they led sometimes they were out of step but always they made something worth listening to. Read on below the first in the series as we look at the debut LP ‘Phallus Dei’.
‘Phallus Dei’
Year: 1969
Label: Liberty/United Artists – Sunset (uk)
Line Up: Dave Anderson - Bass
Chris Karrer - Guitar
Renate Knaup - Vocals
Peter Leopold - Drums
Falk Rogner - Keyboards
Dieter Serfas - Drums
Christian Thierfeld - Vocals, Percussion, Violin
John Weinzierl - Guitar, Vocals, Violin
Track List: 1. Kanaan (4:01)
2. Dem Gutem, Schonen Wahren (6:11)
3. Luzifer's Ghilom (8:33)
4. Henriette Krotenschwanz (2:02)
5. Phallus Dei (20:43)
Grabbing your attention with some inspired bongo and tabla enchantment, ‘Kanaan’ is halfway between the Stones ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ and George Harrison’s spiritualism left unchecked, all being demonically sowed beneath the bedrock, which will eventually form heavy metal.
The first vocals announce some almost black rites initiation ceremony before the most beautiful ascending guitar hook and accompanying bass riff seep into the following track ‘Dem Gutem, Schonen Wahren’ or for those who don’t speak the German tongue that’s ‘To The Good, Beautiful And Genuine’. This is a melodic touch of class, which stands as the first proper hint of ADII unravelling musical manifesto. Renate’s first vocal echoes can just be made out as Weinzarl’s almost hysterical and goofball outpourings burst forth like some escaped loon whose been let loose at the medicine cabinet, a cabinet that includes just as much uppers as downers.
I have no idea what they’re singing, it could be some jolly ditty on the benefits of eating yogurt or some Third Reich era workers swan song, whatever it is I’m convinced its interesting and slightly exotic (I say exotic but its actually possibly because its delivered in thick German accents almost bordering Prussian).
As soon as you get used to this vocal barrage someone steals a megaphone and this is where the rites of passage campfire ritual really kicks off as the swirling sounds of the mellotron announce an otherworldly presence with a layer of oscillating effects that are notched up to a factor of ten, a fitting end to the second track indeed.
Next up is ‘Luzifer’s Ghilom’ an amazing title if nothing else, but as you may find yourself chuckling a break beat drum intro invades your eardrums before a Turkish themed epic tome on the bongos rolls up to invade your personal space.
The backing is a full on groove that sounds almost like the first glimmers of heavy rock, this is broken by the narrated vocals, which err towards the ludicrous though this is soon brought to a halt as a second jamboree of drums descend us into the prehistoric worlds of Conan Doyle and the primordial soup at the beginning of time, too much? You check it for yourselves but I’m sticking by it.
Side one is brought to an end with the curio ‘Henriette Krotenschwanz’, a short two-minute piece for the vocals of Renate who swoons delicately over the military opening. Kind of a forgotten tune but it has some interesting aspects, which reflect the main undercurrents of the LP so far, yet it feels almost like its been shoehorned in, like an extra hidden track rather than a flowing continuation of the tracks so far.
Side two is made up entirely of the album title track ‘Gods Cock’, sorry I mean its Latin name ‘Phallus Dei’, though that’s the actual translation I’m assured.
The first murmurings and moaning bars bring us a twenty minute abstract and soundtrack like opus, which features doors creaking and band members accidentally standing, by the sounds of it! , on a cacophony of musical instruments, all before the very first beating drums of a tune appear slowly from the background. Like Beefheart jamming on Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention if they’d stole aboard a boat to Hamburg, we find ourselves hurtling towards the Californian freak-out of The Grateful Dead or even The Fugs.
I swear that there’s the merest hint of banjo that brings to mind the Monks, who spent their US air force years based in Germany. All of this takes up the first half of the epic free form jam, along the journey so far we’ve heard progressive, heavy metal, ambient and psychedelic threads and there’s more to come!
The next section has a respite with some exquisitely enchanting violins, which are fed through some reverb and echo, a harmonious delicate little 2 minutes before we are interrupted by that ever familiar drums, though this time its tribal drumming ala Adam Ant or Bow Wow Wow, though it brings to mind those corny old movies that show some white hunter type tied to posts in some far flung savages village in darkest Africa, all waiting for their fate as a boiling cauldron menacingly bubbles away in front of them. The savage’s are Amon Duul II who’ve worked themselves into a fever and have gone completely native.
Again we find the old Beefheart influence coming back in as a riff not too unfamiliar to his ‘Safe As Milk’ period rumbles along while fiddles pre-empt a brave attempt at a conventional song.
Weinzierl warbles to great effect, a precursor to his work on ‘Dance Of The Lemming’, an unsettled melodrama nonsense that could be pushing it a little too far now.
The last few minutes goes from the intricate bedrock of guitars, chimes and beats to a unsettling chord change that summons up the unholy army of the night before we are slowly left with nothing, the music is faded out and we come to the end.
Amon Duul II debut delivers a real classic of the genre and has been used as the stick to measure other LPs by. To be honest I think its both been heaped with too much praise and importance, the later records are an improvement as ‘Phallus Dei’ is really a cut and paste job that shows some positive seeds for future tunes but also luckily losses some of the more random noddlings that go no where.
Critics point to the vocals as a sore point, but at this point in their career its still all commune obsessed outpourings which probably felt right at the time but once recorded for posterity it sounds a little goofball and you never know if the old tongue is firmly in check.
A great LP to start your collection off with, I recommend you purchase it though be aware theirs many LP’s to come in this series so if you’re on a budget hold back a while.
Next time Part 2 brings you Amon Duul II follow up ‘Yeti’.
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