Freedom to Music
Posts tagged Dave Anderson
Amon Duul II – Phallus Dei (1969) (@256)
25 Jul 2007
(Review from vintageprog.com)
Amon Duul II evolved logically enough from Amon Duul, an experimental German 60′s jam-oriented band with political lyrics. Several members decided to drop the political side of the group in favour of more focus on the music, so they broke out of the band and formed Amon Düül II that quickly would become one of the leading and most important kraut rock bands. Their debut “Phallus Dei” is very representative for the earliest phase of their career, with the exception for the German lyrics that would be dropped after this album. They played a very psychedelic kind of progressive rock that varied between long improvisations and jams and then to more structured and song-oriented tracks. The violin of Chris Karrer was an important trademark in the band’s sound, and his vocals sound often like a crazy and more energetic Frank Bornemann. Renate Knaup contributed with some weird female vocals that often came to the fore on the most experimental parts. The opener “Kanaan” reveals some of their occasionally eastern influences, but “Den Güten, Schönen, Wahren” is more representative for their overall sound. “Luzifers Ghilom” is an overlooked goodie that demonstrates their talent for combining complex and sophisticated musical structures with a rough and unpolished attitude. The short “Henriette Krotenschwanz” features some operatic vocals from Knaup, but it’s of course the 20-minute title-track that stands as the classic from the album. It starts as an intense and energetic jam session, but evolves gradually into more structured riffs and themes before finally climaxing with a very powerful violin riff and vocals from Karrer.
Line-up:
- Peter Leopold / drums, percussion, piano
- Shrat / bongos, violin, vocals
- Renate / vocals, tambourine
- John Weinzierl / bass, guitar
- Chris Karrer / violin, guitar, sax, vocals
- Falk Rogner / organ, synth
- Dave Anderson / bass
- Dieter Serfas / drums, electric cymbals
Track List:
01. Kanaan
02. Den Guten, Schönen, Wahren
03. Luzifers Ghilom
04. Henriette Krotenschwanz
05. Phallus Dei
06. Freak Out Requiem I (Bonus)
07. Freak Out Requiem II (Bonus)
08. Freak Out Requiem III (Bonus)
09. Freak Out Requiem IV (Bonus)
10. Cymbals in the End (Bonus)
Links in comments.
Hawkwind – In Search of Space (1971) (@256)
16 Mar 2007
(Review from vintageprog.com)
A tremendous improvement over the debut, and “In Search of Space” is generally regarded as the first classic Hawkwind-release. The band had pretty much found their signature sound of hard rocking guitar-riffs built around lengthy, spacey excursions stuffed with weird electronic sounds and Turner’s unique and atmospheric saxophone and flute-playing. The album included the first classic Hawkwind-riff and anthem in “Masters of the Universe”. The 15-minute opener “You Shouldn’t Do That” became another classic and stage-favourite. The band still messed around with some quite free-floating improvisations in “You Know You’re Only Dreaming” and “Adjust Me” but both were of a much more consistent kind than anything on the debut-album. Even the two acoustic tracks “We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago” and “Children of the Sun” has a great spacey atmosphere that will make your mind float. A very important album in the band’s history.
Line-up:
- Dave Anderson / bass, acoustic & electric guitars
- Dave Brock / vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, audio generator
- Del Dettmar / synthesizers
- Dik Mik / audio generator
- Terry Ollis / drums, percussion
- Nik Turner / alto sax, flute, audio generator, vocals
Track List:
01. You Shouldn’t Do That (15:43)
02. You Know You’re Only Dreaming (6:33)
03. Master Of The Universe (6:15)
04. We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago (4:48)
05. Adjust Me (5:45)
06. Children Of The Sun (3:13)
07. Seven By Seven (Bonus) (5:21)
08. Silver Machine (Bonus) (4:39)
09. Born To Go (Bonus) (5:05)
Links in comments.
Amon Duul II – Yeti (1970) (@256)
30 Jan 2007
(Review from progarchives.com)
Amon Düül II was born of an artistic and political community called Amon Düül (which recorded during the late sixties a long live session made around collective and free musical improvisations).
Unlike their later, more refined efforts, this embryonic recording showcases the more urgent sound of a band with strong ties to the European counterculture barricades of 1968. The music is almost raw in spots, but not without a certain primitive beauty, moving from the dreamy psychedelia of “She Came Through the Chimney” (complete with bongo drums and more than a whiff of cannabis) to the feedback-soaked power of “Archangel Thunderbird”, on which the strident upper-octave singing anticipates Johnny Rotten’s angry vulpine growl by more than half a decade.
Elsewhere the album is very much a product of its time: spaced-out one-chord guitar jams with pounding drums and thrashing cymbals, ghostly violins in Middle Eastern echo chambers, and the amps all cranked to maximum distortion. For lack of a better comparison (always the cheapest form of criticism, to be sure) think of a shotgun marriage between “Space Ritual” Hawkwind and the more cosmic digressions of early Pink Floyd, circa “Ummagumma”.
It’s worth noting that the original 1970 release was a double-LP, with the entire second disc (the last three tracks on the CD) improvised in the studio. But good luck trying to find any significant difference between the songs and the jams. There’s a sometimes astonishing uniformity of style throughout the album, to a point where the composed portions sound no less spontaneous than the unrehearsed playing.
That sort of creative balance was of course not uncommon in the early ‘70s (especially in Germany). But its absence from too much of what passes for popular music these days is what makes a band like Amon Düül, and an album like “Yeti”, even more valuable a generation later.
Line-up:
- Renate Knaup / vocals, tambourine
- Chris Karrer / violin, guitars, vocals
- John Weinzierl / guitars, vocals
- Falk Rogner / organ
- Peter Leopold / drums
- Dave Anderson / bass
- Shrat / bongos, vocals
Track List:
01. Soap Shop Rock:
a) Burning Sister (3:41)
b) Halluzination Guillotine (3:05)
c) Gulp A Sonata (0:45)
d) Flesh-Coloured Anti-Aircraft Alarm (5:53)
02. She Came through the Chimney (3:56)
03. Archangels Thunderbird (3:30)
04. Cerberus (4:18)
05. The Return of Ruebezahl (1:35)
06. Eye-Shaking King (6:37)
07. Pale Gallery (2:11)
08. Yeti (Improvisation) (18:00)
09. Yeti Talks to Yogi (Improvisation) (6:06)
10. Sandoz in the Rain (Improvisation) (8:55)
Links in comments.
