MONOLITH COCKTAIL 007

MONOLITH COCKTAIL 007

Not sure if I’ve tapped into a general trend in music but my features on Amon Duul II seemed to be very much in vogue, especially the latest part on Carnival In Babylon, a folk heavy idealized snapshot of the early Seventies when some were still clinging to the era of Woodstock whilst violence reigned all around. Both spiritually and musically we are dipping back into the often-criticised naïve period of hippiedom with all its idealized politics and sense of community, it soon all turned to shit by 1970 but it has to said – they had a go!
So don’t be surprised to hear bands such as Fairpoint Convention, Incredible String Band, Country Joe And The Fish, Canned Heat, The Trees and Jefferson Airplane being name checked in the next 6 months, as well as German bands like the featured Amon Duul II and future feature stars Popal Vuh.
A renaissance of sorts has recently ignited round AD II, speaking with front man John Weinzerl recently he informed me that he was re-recording some of their best known back catalogue which will appear on his new LP, also there’s talk of performing ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’ to a select audience as well as a BBC feature to be aired sometime this Winter. Any recognition will be welcoming for these pioneering innovators.





Angry Badger Records – New UK south coast label.

Southampton based unsigned bands champion Xan Phillips and his mysteriously only Christian named music partner Jules have set up a new label Angry Badger to help promote local groups in the area.
Now the only badgers I know of usually come with the words TB and baiting or there is the famous doyen of Wind In The Willow’s whose sole aim is beat weasels about and put Toad on the straight and narrow, all I know is that in itself its a rather odd name for a label but we can cast that a side for now.
With there hearts in the right place the label aims to release a multitude of different musical style groups and artists to a wider audience, also they will be staging various gigs and will offer a guiding step up from the local scene to the top, well that’s the general idea.
The first release is a 16-track compilation entitled ‘Showcase Sett’ which attempts to break cover some of those unknown acts that haven’t quite broke out of the back room pubs or bedroom circuit.
To be honest not much on offer appealed to me except for two bands that really leapt out at me.
Compilation opening act Jazica come on all Ladytron but with a twist of Massive Attack and Britpop era StudioLab. Lead singer Frankie has an interesting voice, which just about saves them from being too sound alike as they straddle both Little Boots style electro and angular style indie.
Their track ‘Illusions’ really shows off their true talent and flair for a commercial sound and dare I say it a hit, which should really propel them beyond their backyard of Southampton. I hope Xan and Jules can dig up more gems like this.

The unusual mix of influences on Sine Star Project’s track ‘Temptress’ make for a rather strange experience as they mix Muse, Bowie’s rockier leanings, Soundgarden (eek!) and even King Crimson to produce a sound that I imagine Kerrang and Q magazine would love. So I found it strange that it actually grew on me dear reader, and though usually when anyone mentions Queen as an influence it sends me instantly off in the opposite direction I actually quite liked it! They even appealed to me after I checked out their Myspace and found a thinly veiled nod to Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’, which seemed to have been cut to pieces and assembled to make their own version but at least they picked a great tune to pay homage to. It seems that Sine Star Project have had some success with supporting mainline acts and been given some pretty rave reviews they have also been signed to One Little Indian record label but obviously haven’t managed to break through which is a coup for Angry Badger as it adds quite a lot of weight and kudos to their enterprise which is great as Xan is a genuine local music scene hero who goes out of his way to promote new music with his digital radio show and regular feature in the Southampton Echo.

Keep an eye out for the label and CD, below are some links so you can find out more with constant updates and gig listings.

http://www.angry-badger-records.com

http://www.xan.co.uk






The German Music Odyssey

Part Four

Amon Duul II – ‘Carnival In Babylon’

When you feel compelled to write the statement “Thanks to all the paranoid people who meanwhile moved out” on the record label you can kind of guess that there were some possible tensions around the Amon Duul II camp. After the drawn out seminal but distracting disjointed ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’, the band shook off some of their wider circle of friends and instead, like any good commune, invited a load of new recruits to the course.
Gone were the free spirited everyone gets the credit approach of old and in its place came the band leader John Weinzerl’s more structured and controlled system, which as it turned out mightily improved things.
In interviews Weinzerl has stated that they were pushed towards the market at that time due to their small success with the first two albums and that their producer Olaf Kubler, called a thief and despised by Weinzerl, tried to make them a more commercial sounding band. In all honesty the leaning towards a more folk friendly inspired sound did help build them a bigger fan base, for one thing John Peel played many tracks off ‘Carnival In Babylon’ and they managed to tour the UK for the first time that same year, the live LP ‘Live In London’ was recorded on this trip though not released till later.
This was a pivotal and creative period for the band as they released both this LP and ‘Wolf City’, the latter being critically acclaimed as possibly their best album.

‘Carnival In Babylon’ personal changes included drummer Peter Leopold having to share duties with Danny Fichelsher, formally of fellow German band Popol Vuh – more of these guys another day, he wasn’t the only new boy as Karl – Heinz Hausemann joined to take on all the effects heavy keyboards and organs.
Also a few guests pitched in such as the wonderfully named Joy Alaska who helped out Renate on backing vocals whilst F U Rogner stepped back in to tinker with some organ trickery.
Producer Olaf Kubler who obviously wasn’t just happy enough to be credited on production also played a bit of sax and dry wittingly added the credit of playing the door! Though to be honest he should have concentrated more on the mixing, as it sounds pretty empty in places and rough in others, maybe one of the reasons Weinzerl felt compelled to vent his frustrations in interviews.

The sound and direction of this LP is extremely folk heavy and at times leans towards groups such as The Incredible String Band and Fairpoint Convention, while were at it we can also mention groups such as Jefferson Airplane and even Pentangle at times influencing the musicianship on display.
The band flexes its hippie credentials to the full as they take a completely different approach to the worryingly violent political upheaval happening in Germany at the time as the government and various left wing fractions were rubbing each other up the wrong way and acts of extreme violence were meted out on both sides. Amon Duul II decided to continue the Woodstock era doctrine of free loving and thinking, very much out of step with there contemporaries though this didn’t stop them being raided or being watched by the government as John Weinzerl himself told me recently when I put a few queries and questions to him, he also stated that they were appalled by the actions and politics at the time and wished to stay away from it.
If anyone is really interested in this period then they should check out both the book and movie The Baader Meinhof Complex, it has a lot of poignancy today with everything that’s been happening of late.

‘Carnival In Babylon’ takes both elements of the free rock out grooves of ‘Yeti’ and the cut down jams of ‘Dance of The Lemmings’ and places it on a more traditional path, which takes in a lot of the folk sounds played by bands in the UK around the late Sixties and early Seventies.


‘Carnival In Babylon’

United Artists (UK/USA)
Liberty (Germany)

1972 Gatefold Sleeve.



Track List:-

A Side
1. C.I.D In Uruk (5:36)
2. All The Years Round (7:24)
3. Shimmering Sand (6:36)

B Side
1. Kronwinkl 12 (3:55)
2. Tables Are Turned (3:37)
3. Hawknose Harlequin (9:50)




Line Up:-

John Weinzerl: e-guitar, Acoustic 12 String, Vocal
Chris Karrer: e-guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Violin, Soprano Sax, Vocal
Lothar Meid: Bass, Vocal
Renate Knaup- Krutenschwanz: Vocal
Danny Fichelscher: Drums, Congas
Peter Leopold: Drums, Percussion
Karl Heinz- Hausmann: Keyboards, Electronics, Organ
Joy Alaska: Backing Vocal
F U Rogner: Organ
Olaf Kubler: Producer, Soprano Sax, Door!





The opening bars refrain tips its hat to Fairport Convention as a socially charged folk song beckons in the new change of direction, the German tongued ‘C.I.D In Uruk’ is a fitting good start to this more structured framework now erected.
Though we can’t possibly translate the lyrics, the intention is plain to see as Renate with her new backing vocal partner Joy, bring a cosmically floating vocal which sounds so delicate and light that it needs pinning down, the backing manages it in the style of obscure English folkies The Trees.
This is where Alison Goldfrapp should be right now! Taking a notebook and jotting down the tones and inclinations of this starry hippie journey, which could be complete nonsense, or a premonition from the Old Testament brought to life in a cosmic ideology.
The Uruk of the song title is after all one of the oldest human settlements ever found and is said to be the mythical capital of Gilgamesh so the reference is there for all to see and hear.
Renate’s voice sounds like she could easily fit into a period 6000 years ago as she waits on the outskirts of this old city waiting for her warrior husband to return from conquering another civilization, sent by Nimrod himself to impress a more primitive peoples with his superior knowledge like the monolith that falls on Earth as the apes dance around.
The track bounces along on a well placed drum break and with sterling work from Lothar Meid on the bass who emphasis every line of the song with his ever changing style of twists and turns that always manage to sound familiar but create a steady and at times reverent rock signature.
‘All The Years Round’ is a Woodstock period costume ready to be fitted onto a slice of cosmic soup delivered by Amon Duul II, a hymn to the fallen free spirit that managed to get along on just hope and a pray.
Renate again sings of the man, the man who puts us all down, the man who allows US bombers stationed in her homeland to be sent to drop napalm on Vietnam, the man who welcomes the corrupt and dictatorial Shah of Iran to Germany and then lets his goons attack demonstrators, the same man who allows a student to be killed in cold blood just because he’s in the wrong place at the right time.
Yes this is the backdrop of the red fraction army, students demonstrating and the harsh realities that nothing has changed, Renate can only deliver a tale of woe and exasperation as the violence just spreads and engulfs all it touches with scepticism yet courses a change.
Closing the A side is the Jefferson Airplane influenced ‘Shimmering Sand’ which bobbles along on a see-saw bass line whilst those guitar solos threaten to take hold and plunge us into a darker and more beguiling direction.
From a cut down jam to a raving r’n’b rock out we are plunged into a sax battle, which brings us into the realms of free form jazz as they squeal with delight at being allowed onto the record.
In three acts like something off a Yes album, a space age restoration version of an harpsichord adds to the proceedings a touch of the mournful as Weinzerl reads his lyrics like a reading from the book of the dead. In all a proto gothic prog rock last act in which three individual parts are stitched together by sheer audacity, naïve but charming in all its glory.


As we flip over to the second side a dash of a more funkier folk groove revs up and we are treated to a real change in sequence as we chill to a jazzy rhythm that throws up similar themes found on the other side of the record but which has a real cool laidback manner. Renate and Weinzerl sing of Hey no worries take your time, we’re cool but hey hang on a minute what’s happened to the outside world?
The commune door has been truly left of his hinges so this tune only acts as a comfort for a short while until ‘Tables Are Turned’ soon brings us our gothic heroine Renate back from the idealised frontier of blissful ignorance to singing of analogies as a barefoot rendition of Pentangle is played out by the band. Bathrooms hide snakes and other parable sounding affiliations are made as we are transported to the boundary of Altamont, thankfully we don’t tip over quite yet.and
This folk obsessed sounding ditty traverses across the rich tapestry of The Incredible String Band, which lends a certain pastoral colourful fable to the mix.
The finale is an epic cut up and paste jam entitled ‘Hawknose Harlequin’ which wouldn’t sound out of place on ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’. A slow building doom set piece that comes on all spooky and brooding as a tale which could be read from a set of tarot cards lays down an inspired trek through a Seventh Seal like landscape, along the way we meet two ravens who sit on the Harlequins shoulder, a slightly creepy Harlequin who delivers verses in an esoteric and snide manner. We are slowly faded out before the middle section of the song starts a slow built up free form jam; guitar solos compete with some dark heavy bass playing over a three-minute session that ends in a final act. Cream era guitar work soars ever upwards as a whirling organ joins a Sun Ra intrepid descent to the higher plains, our transmition sounds like an earnest and unpretentious Floyd before they decided that space wasn’t cool any longer now there aviator Barret was chemically dead.
Closing through another Yes inspired segue way our heroes on the north face fade out until as they are lifted towards some kind of satisfactory spiritual conclusion.

We are forced to leave our galactic seeking folkies, as we are near the end of this short but endearing set of songs that make up this Carnival In Babylon. But we are indeed fortunate enough to be soon receiving another slice of psychedelic genius with ‘Wolf City’, join us for another journey into the far reaches of underground music from Germany.


Part Five: ‘Wolf City’ the second LP from Amon Duul II most prolific year is a critically acclaimed work and said to be there finest. We shall take an in depth look at both the making of and the songs found on this seminal LP, the record that may have pushed the group towards the fateful signing by Atlantic.

Also live review on the Fiery Furnaces and Esben & The Witch.

Monolith Cocktail 006 - The Fiery Furnaces & The Krautrock Odyssey Part 3

The Fiery Furnaces – ‘I’m Going Away’

Thrill Jockey Records
2009
LP Version






Track list: -

I’m Going Away
Drive To Dallas
The End Is Near
Charmaine Champagne
Cut The Cake
Even In The Rain
Starring At The Steeple
Ray Bouvier
Keep Me In The Dark
Lost At Sea
Cups And Punches
Take Me Round Again

The Friedbergers, our very own awkward indie version of the Carpenters, return with their latest LP
‘I’m Going Away’ a rather pleasant and subdued listening experience, which echoes some of the more commercial sensibilities found on ‘Widow City’ yet lacks a certain punch.
This easy listening inspired album tips its hat towards the melodies and arrangements found on Carole King and Burt Bacharach songs but manages to give them that off kilter approach and abstract quality that is found on Pavement’s records. In fact the influence almost borders on Bond themes in parts, I’m thinking ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ and ‘Octopussy’.
On title tune ‘I’m Going Away’ we are treated to a bluesy/rockabilly ditty that rushes straight through at a breakneck speed.
‘Even In The Rain’ reminded me of George Harrison era ‘All Things Must Pass’ whilst ‘Keep Me In The Dark’ goes all American collage rock on us as a poodle permed guitar lick plays out over an angulated pop tune.
As usual the lyrics are observational and manage to shoehorn in some elaborate references, which feature a cast of characters that share a suburban light middle America, think Jack Nicholson in ‘Five Easy Pieces’. You only need to look at the art work to see that this group mean to create a environment rich with the kind of soap opera like lives that throw up those often trivial but important little nuances that speak volumes. This set of songs use allegorical statements such as found in ‘Lost At Sea’ and ‘The End Is Near’ while we find ourselves in the centre of some love quarrel on ‘Drive To Dallas’. A unique picture is painted and every track fits into a bigger picture.

This time around the Furnaces have gone for a more accessible sound, which is still way out there compared to most of their contemporaries but lacks the excitement and originality of ‘Widow City’. Don’t get me wrong this has plenty of those juttering time signatures and features many surprises still. In fact it has a touch of maturity to it, which leads me to believe that they have found their natural stride, though I won’t say comfort zone, as the connotations don’t sit happily with me.
Warm and homely this record will easily slip into the top albums of the year just give it a chance.

Dominic Valvona



The German Cosmic Odyssey Continues.

Part 3



Amon Duul II – ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’

Tensions and the usual personal differences that are inevitable in most bands began to surface on this Amon Duul’s third LP ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’ in 1971. Bass player Dave Anderson jumped ship and joined Hawkwind whilst the enigmatically named Falk – Ulrich Rogner left but continued to lend his artistic talent to the LPs and some keyboard duties.
Renate Knaup-Krotenschwanz left but kind of never left if that makes sense, she does appear on this LP briefly and made it back to sing lead on the next.
Well I know nothing of the inner group tensions but you can defiantly hear a very different incarnation on this LP, sometimes for the better sometimes for the worst. Directionless but ambitious, there are plenty of highs and lows to be found, if nothing else bass replacement Lothar Meid shines.
‘Dance Of The Lemmings’ has a strange concept running through it, almost akin to a stage play in many acts which along with its St.Pauls Epistles to the Corinthians like long winded titles and sub sections can be read as quite pretentious. These track titles range from the amazingly elaborate ‘A Short Stop At The Transylvanian Brain Surgery’ to the cringing ‘Stumbling Over Melted Moonlight’, which could be found on the first King Crimson album.
A maelstrom of ideas and hints to undercurrents which range from far left politics to the commune free spirit, remember this was the Baader Meinhof years where left wing sensibilities turned from waving Che Guevara flags to acts of terrorism within only a couple of years. A dark and scary period certainly for German history, in fact the Baader Meinhof Complex book and movie are really important works which I recommend to anyone whose interested in learning more of the cultural background to what was happening both socially and politically around this period.

The album artwork itself has plenty of suggestive pointers to where the band is coming from, a collage of historical figures mingle with what looks like some time travelling spaceship which is making its way through some kind of worm hole; in fact very much rubbing shoulders with and tipping a hat to Hawkwind’s ‘In Search Of Space’ concept artwork, which evidently came out the same year.
The dashboard of the time machine has pictured on its panels the various band members and an illustration of The Tower Of Babel, which points to the biblical finger waving warnings of lost morality and greed. The back cover features some shamanic looking character whose wearing the skull of some poor unfortunate creature that happened to get too close to the bubbling cauldron in some ancient druid ritual.
A mythology has been created that takes in Arthurian legend as written by Tolstoy, the mysterious Germanic myths from the past and the old testament whilst the music itself sits between the cosmic and gothic of ‘Yeti’ and the ambient tones of fellow German band Popol Vuh.
So this their third LP has some real difficulties which critics either love or hate, even Julian Cope left it out of his top 50 krautrcock LPs though he is being way too harsh. In fact I still think for all its failures it’s a really good listen, one that has to be done in the privacy of your own home with headphones on, also you need a good hour or so of uninterrupted time to really absorb yourself.

One last thing, which Cope mentioned as well, is that the album title sometimes goes under ‘Tanz Der Lemminge’, this is the German translation, which is a bit of anomaly and appears from time to time on the market. It’s safe to say the original UK/US versions are ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’.


‘Dance Of The Lemmings’
United Artists (UK/USA)
Liberty (German)

1971 Double LP Gatefold.

Track List: -
Side A.
Syntelman’s March Of The Roaring Seventies (15:51)
a. In The GlassGarden
b. Pull Down Your Mask
c. Prayer To The Silence
d. Telephone Complex

Side B.
Restless Skylight- Transistor- Child (19:33)
1. Landing In A Ditch
2. Dehypnotized Toothpaste
3. A Short Stop At The Transylvanian Brain Surgery
4. Race From Here To Your Ears
a. Little Tornadoes
b. Overheated Tiara
c. The Flyweighted Five
5. Riding On A Cloud
6. Paralized Paradise
7. H.G Well’s Take Off

Side C.
1. Chamsin Soundtrack – The Marilyn Monroe Memorial Church (18:05)

Side D.
1. Chewinggum Telegram (2:41)
2. Stumbling Over Melted Moonlight (4:33)
3. Toxicological Whispering (7:45)

Line Up:-
Chris Karrer – Guitar, Violin, Vocals
Renate Knaup – Krontenschwanz – Vocals
Peter Leopold – Drums, Percussion
Lothar Meid – Bass, Vocals
Falk- Ulrich Rogner – Keyboards. Organs
Christian Thierfeld – Vocals, Percussion
John Weinzerl – Guitar, Vocals, Piano

Guests –
Jimy Jackson – Organ, Choir Organ, Piano
Al Gromer – Sitar
Henriette Kroetenschwanz – Vocals
Rolf Zachner – Vocals


The grand opener ‘Syntelman’s March Of The Roaring Seventies’ comes in four sections, the first being ‘GlassGarden’ which oscillates a haunting intro of psychedelic settings before some soaring build up delivered via a military tattoo band; we have arrived at our first cosmos inspired destination.
More of the choral like haunted tones backed with the guitar work of ‘Yeti’ announce Karrer’s opening gambit vocals, an invocative lyrical start point with which to kick off proceedings.
‘Pull down your mask, wolf in the sheepskin’ is sung with a wry and knowing accent, if we were in any doubt of the theme then they have made it quite apparent.
Part two of act one continues with its wise pronouncements ‘A dollar a day keeps the fuss away’ and a heroic chorus of more Germanic gothic choirs bring us to a crescendo before we reach a slight breather as the record changes direction with the bongo heavy introduction of ‘Prayer To The Silence’.
The ever-present psychedelic tripped up guitar licks set the tone whilst Leopold’s drums hold the whole piece together, a instrumental pause that acts as a segue way before we get a heavy dose of acoustic folk and new boy Lothar Meid’s bass rumbles into the centre for the first time. Like the Moody Blues hiding in the dark fairytale forests of Bavaria whilst attempting to compose an ode to Hansel and Gretel.
So far we have followed the blueprint of ‘Yeti’ and ‘Phallus Dei’ as well as dipping into the odd Yes musicianship, especially their acoustic guitar work.
‘Telephone Complex’ the last act as it were on side A, starts with a bass solo frenzy before both the piano and lead guitar decide to grab a piece of the action wrestling control from each other at every turn.
It all ends in what sounds like the band falling down a steel flight of stairs as someone decides its best to call it quits.

Flipping over we are given a most presumptuous second act title ‘Restless Skylight- Transistor – Child’, like some reading of the themes found in Kubrick’s 2001 by an MA student or some sub heading nightmare found in the sort of lectures that I imagine Wittgenstein the philosopher delivered.
Musically we have a rock guitar playing alongside Meid’s menacing bass line before abruptly changing into an all out progressive jam. Again everyone takes part, the true commune spirit in effect, as we fly past ‘Landing In A Ditch’ and ‘Dehypnotised Toothpaste’ before our sensibilities are given room to take in the bubbling broth of folksy and Far East influences.
Lines about Mona Lisa and and time traveling are bounded around as the sitar and theatrical operatic choirs play like some Hammer Horror film set in the Capuchin mountains that leaves a slight unsettling feeling.
Show stopper, and a tune I always try and add to any mix I do, is the enigmatically titled ‘A Short Stop At The Transylvanian Brain Surgery’, a whirling and thunderous dose of both Sabbath and Led Zeppelin fighting it out in the beer hall of Beau wolf. Multiple effects and a harrowing hysterical vocal sung in vibrato fashion sounds like three different tracks playing at the same time. ‘The bank of Babylon is closed’ and other such intriguing lines are lost in quagmire of utter deeply disturbing backing where Leopold’s drums constantly disappear then mysteriously reappear out of nowhere.
The chaos finally ends as ‘Race From Here To Your Ears’ story arc gets going and ends up in another far out space jam, solos chug in and out yet again as members drop by. The vocals come on like some kind of voodoo rites as we play catch up; the familiar themes of the LP so far are reintroduced as Renate delivers her brief backing vocals into the pyre, much appreciated but almost so small a part as to hardly bare a mention.
‘Riding On A Cloud’ features the narration style vocals of John Weinzierl, who acts as some kind of Edger Poe like storyteller as lashings of phaser heavy effects give it a cosmic feel, our ship has ploughed into the abyss.
It sounds like Klaus Kinski riffing through passages of Parsifal whilst taken a sip from the electric kool aid, a veritable three minutes of epoch acid rock.
Side two is brought to a conclusively psyched out end.

Our third side is the experimental soundtrack epic that over two sides features whole tracts of almost nothingness whilst the odd jam like intentions make fleeting appearances.
Tangerine Dream and Can along with fellow mates Popol Vuh make guest appearances in both influence and camaraderie. A soundtrack to a movie that was never made is the best way to describe this.
Our journey begins on the lunar surface of the Forbidden Planet as our astronauts attempt to play in zero gravity, Moebius as purely music.
We find ourselves suspended in some kind of animation as the good ship Amon Duul is swallowed into the belly of some higher universal being, like that bit in Star Trek the motion picture when the Enterprise is drawn deeper towards Voyagers giant mother ship and Spock tries to mind meld with the machine.
Back to Earth and our ship lands in a dark lagoon where we languish in a humid and windless seas before our intrepid hosts break us out of our slumber and hit us with some deconstructed piano and what can only be described as lasers start to rock our ship.
In the vast emptiness Leopold’s drums gallop along and act like Queegueg’s coffin, our only hope to cling to in the ocean of space left by the band.

The final side continues along the same route, though it begins with a prompt jam session before it quickly fades out of sight. It becomes pretty evident that it’s all pasted together, which is where the turmoil within the group shows.
The heavy drums sure show off Leopold’s skills as he adds his break beat style to the abstract ambience, this all pours into a quasi- funky jam session via Salem rather then Detroit.
Returning to more of those segue ways before we come to the interrupted session of ‘Toxicological Whispering’, which sounds like we’ve come in half way through and missed the beginning.
Slow and calm grooving played along the lines of Woodstock era Jefferson Airplane, the LP starts to sound very much like the best of ‘Phallus Dei’ Every riff is pulled out of the bag as Ginger Baker plays on in the background uninterrupted, almost blues rather then the progressive, its as if the band are really together on this and play a real tight and harmonic jam. This the final track plays out as possibly the most joyous transcending moment of the whole album, its as if their problems have been set aside for a brief five minutes.

We find a difficult third LP that most critics believe is a blip, though it seems harsh. ‘Dance Of The Lemmings’ is a really good album and is a snapshot of the band member’s mindset during the 1971. Problems aside it documents a free spirit and progressive direction for which the band never really returned to, ‘Carnival In Babylon’ would see a more song based pathway for the band as well as a coherent structure.
The soundtrack elements may sometimes grate but its well worth picking this LP up for the steering and Herzog inspired movie themes that Popol Vuh would later become renowned for.
By all means it is not the most important work in their cannon but no collector or general interested music fan should be without it.


PART 4: A detailed look at the return to form LP ‘Carnival In Babylon’, the folk heavy seminal album that sounds like a cross between Goldfrapps ‘A&E’ and Fairport Convention.

Dominic Valvona