Posts tagged Agitation Free

(Review from progarchives.com)

The reunion album of Agitation Free is quite fine and worthy of them. Most of the core members are in in fine form and many guest provide the world-music instruments. All of the tracks are of very good standard, maybe not of the impossibly high adventurous type of the early 70s, but manage to resemble what a fan might hope for such an album: honest , worthy and artisticly sound.

Most tracks will remind you of the good old days but without any nostalgic feelings that might alter your judgment. The adding of a sax player (he obviously is very influenced by Supertramp’s Helliwell) gives Lutjens and Ullbrich some space to breathe.

Line-up:
- Lutz “Luul” Ulbrich / guitar, keyboards
- Gustl Lutjens / guitar, keyboards
- Burghard Rausch / drums
- Johannes “Alto” Pappert / saxophone
- Michael “Fame” Gunther / bass, keybopards
Guest musicians:
- Chris Dehler / overtonevoice, Didgeridoo
- Koma / Bagpipe
- Minas Saluyan / percussion
- Bernard “Potsch” Potschka / guitar, Mandoline, Udu

Track List:
01. River Of Return – 8:24
02. 2 part 2 – 5:45
03. Fame’s Mood – 4:09
04. Susie Sells Seashells At The Seashore – 10:01
05. The Obscure Carousel – 5:16
06. Nomads – 7:06
07. Das Kleine Uhr Werk – 5:04
08. 177 Spectacular Sunrises – 13:08
09. Keep On – 3:56

Link in comments.

(Review from progarchives.com)

Recorded live in 1974, here the band plays in a psyche jam style with excellent guitar, as usual. The music can be described as a cross of Pink Floyd and Grateful Dead for the acid guitar sound. But there’s also a more jazzy direction in “Fragments”, thanks to keyboards. “Fragments” has been also compared to Santana, mainly because of percussions.

The summit is reached with the piece “We Are Men” which begins with excellent drum and aerial keyboard layers, contributing to this floating, almost jazz rock feel, but the psychedelic guitar parts and the space rock developments reminds that it’s top psyche prog jam style.

Line-up:
- GustI Lutjens / guitar
- Lutz Ulbrich / guitar
- Michael Gunther / bass
- Michael Hoenig / keyboards
- Burghard Rausch / drums

Track List:
01. Someone’s Secret – 17:11
02. Mickey’s Laugh – 9:56
03. We Are Men – 10:17
04. Mediterranean Flight – 3:58

Link in comments.

(Review from progarchives.com)

In some ways, “Second” is the logical successor to Malesch with its twin guitar “attack”; these two are so mellow that it seems a shame to call them an attack. But the name “attack” is now apt for the drumming since the group enlisted a second drummer, thus giving an exacting edge that only the Allman Brothers Band had before. Losing the second drummer just prior to recording their aptly-titled Second, AF retained all of the inertia and the album has a fantastic ABB fluidness wherever necessary. Graced with a drought, than rain season artwork, this second album lost all ethnic touches of Malesch, one passage excepted, proof that their debut’s rep was indeed overdone.

Starting on the First Communications, you can hear the Floydian cosmic/psych influences of Malesh will also be relatively absent as well. Dialogue & Random is an electronic free jazz improve leading into the two-part Leila, which is strongly reminiscent of the ABB’s Elizabeth Reed and fades into Silence Of The Morning sunrise with electronic birds chirping along to tranquil electric guitars gliding along the organ mist layers. Superb music. The birds lead you to a slow Quiet Walk into a cosmic dark hole (Tangerine Dream’s Zeit is not far away here) if it wasn’t for an electric Indian-laced guitar (the only real ethnic moment of this album), before stretching itself out maybe a tad too long. The closing Haunted Island is the only sung track of the album, filtered, almost recitative over a superb mellotron, and once over, the two guitars take over and soar in the sky for a grandiose finale.

Although AF’s second album holds some fairly different influences, trading in the Arabian and cosmic /psych Floyd ambiance, for a more pastoral west coast sound, both albums can be regarded as AF’s crowning achievements, although neither reaches perfection.

Line-up:
- Stefan Diez / guitar
- Micheal Gunter / bass
- Micheal Hoenjo / synth, keyboards
- Burghard Rausch / drums, assorted percussions, voice, Mellotron
- Lutz Ulbrich / guitar, 12 string guitar, Bouzouki

Track List:
01. First Communication – 8:10
02. Dialogue & Random – 1:51
03. Laila, Part 1 – 1:41
04. Laila, Part 2 – 6:47
05. In The Silence Of The Morning Sunrise – 6:33
06. A Quiet Walk: a) Listening b) Two – Not Of The Same Kind – 9:15
07. Haunted Island – 7:11

Link in comments.