★Garden of Delights
Umsonst Und Draußen – Vlotho 1977
*2023 stock* Before the Munich krautrockers turned more strongly in the direction of world music in the following years, at this gig they once again delivered their mix, moving between funk and jazz, as it defined the mid-70s. Fixed song structures never played a role with Embryo. Apart from the - despite difficult meter - extremely loose-floppy 'Getalongwithasong' (from the 1977 studio album Apo-Calypso), they mainly played new improvisations in Vlotho."
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
*2023 stock* Originally based in Stuttgart Conny Veit’s Gila had already recorded a more rocking psychedelic first album with a different line-up when Veit was invited to Munich to record “Hosianna Mantra” for Florian Fricke’s Popol Vuh. Hanging around frequently at Amon Düül’s commune in Kronwinkel he met Daniel Fichelscher who played and recorded with Amon Düül II at that time. Veit was impressed with Fichelscher’s drumming and decided to revive Gila with Fichelscher on drums, Veit playing gui…
Father, Son And Holy Ghosts
*2023 stock* This album is a bit difficult to pigeonhole, as most of the early Embryo work is. The opening number sounds if anything, like an outtake from Miles Davis' Jack Johnson soundtrack, but with lead guitar sound more prominant. Then, gears are switched, and you are listening to acoustic folk guitar and sitar, which melts into a cool ostenato riff flanging around, that just builds and builds, with countermelody on Violin (or Veena?) and guitar weaving in and out, along with the drum parts…
Gila
*2023 stock* 'Often referred by the title Free Electric Sound, Gila's debut is an amazing work, full of acid guitar freakouts, spacy organ and mellotron, exotic rhythm structures, and loads of electronic effects to fully realize the psychedelic visions. From the Floyd-ian space rock of the first two tracks the record moves into even stranger realms on the four segued pieces that make up the second side of the original vinyl. "Kollaps" starts off with ritualistic drumming, a creepy organ riff, a …
Cluster
*Edition with 20 pages booklet* One of the earliest German private pressings, from 1969, and one of the most sought-after collectors’ items. Three masters on their instruments. Trikolon is a very gifted trio from Osnabrück. As precursor of Tetragon, they played a very varied and strongly influenced progressive rock. They were influenced by classic and sometimes by blues. Their only LP "Cluster" was already released in 1969. It was edited by themselves in a number of 150 copies. Thus, it had been…
Carol Of Harvest
The holy grail of German psych-folk. Carol of Harvest were founded in the Middle-Franconian town of Fürth in 1976 and played folk with psychedelic touch. Their only LP was released in the summer of 1978 as a very small edition of only 200 copies, on the sought-after Brutkasten label. Label owner Peter Klimek regards the LP as the best record released on his label. It is reminiscent of the early 1970s rather than 1978. The LP is in such great demand that it is meanwhile traded at € 2,000 – 3,000 …
Genius Of Original Force
Edition with 20 pages booklet* Sophisticated rock with polyphonic vocals, multi-layered structure and frequent rhythm and tempo changes, in the vein of Gentle Giant and King Crimson. The LP was released on the Kerston label in 1977. The vinyl re-release comes with the original gatefold cover artwork and includes a 20-page booklet. Limited to 1000 numbered copies.
Epidermis were founded in Idstein, Hesse, in 1971, but they soon moved to the regional capital, Wiesbaden. They played some complex s…
Garden of Eden
*20 pages booklet edition. In proces of stocking* 'The band began in 1974 in Hagen but unfortunately this excelent album was emerged only in 1978, when progressive rock was not more in "fashion". Then this first work is sadly also the last. A similar problem that happened with Locanda delle Fate and his masterpiece "Forse Le Lucciole Non Si Amano Più". Since then Albatros is almost completely forgotten until Garden of Delights reintroduce this gem to prog fans in general and kraurock fans in par…
Electrip
* Edition with 68-page (!) booklet * Electrip was released in 1969, the same year as the Amon Düül II's Phallus Dei and CAN's Monster Movie, which makes Electrip one of the very first albums to fall within the genre of Krautrock. The band successfully draw from an incredibly diverse list of contemporaries to create their astonishing sound. Album opener "Electric Fun Fair" and it's successor "Pop Games" are heavily jazz inspired, and bring to mind some not so subtle Miles Davis influences as well…
Missus Beastly 1974
Missus Beastly regroups and blasts into some very dynamic fusion territory with this exceptional album. The usual apparitions of the house-hold names of the mid-seventies jazz apologists can be traced here, but the eventual output will always sound only as original as Missus Beastly. One of the biggest strengths these guys possesed was their vibrant rhytm section, from the opening track i can make a parallel to Passport's or Embryo's more dynamic tracks, wherein Curt Cress/ Christian Burc…
Siloah
Coming out of the boiling Munich scene of the sixties that also gave us the original Amon Düül (Thom Argauer had played in a dixieland band with Chris Karrer in the late 60s, actually), Siloah are one of the best kept secrets of the krautrock production. Siloah had a hard core including Thom Argauer, Manuela von Perfall, Heinrich 'Tiny' Stricker and Wolfgang Görner, plus a host of guests coming and going, everybody was free to join and play at any time, guest members often joining from the Baums…
Revelation
Virus, from the Bielefeld area in Westphalia, were the best and most famous local progressive group there in the early seventies. In 1970, they won the well-known competition in the Recklinghausen Vestlandhalle – still under their old name of Man’s World. The first prize: Recordings for their first own LP, under the direction of sound magician Conny Plank. That LP, “Revelation”, was released in 1971 and is partly reminiscent of the early Pink Floyd, e. g. in the final part of “Endless game”. The…
Sündenfall II
2019 restock. Sündenfall II from the Kevelaer area at the Lower Rhine played a mixture of folk and jazz. While their predecessors, Sündenfall, exclusively dedicated themselves to jazz, the group included folk after a change in line-up and band name (following the example of Amon Duul II). In 1972, Hubert Schmitz invited the band into his Trepitia film and sound studio in Alpen-Druept for free recordings, as he wanted to test the newly installed equipment after a recent move into the new location…
Night Works
"This disc offers the only known recording of the first version of Gila, a group that gigged constantly to build a considerable reputation as a formidable live act. Taken from a live Cologne radio broadcast from February 26, 1972 (a few months before the group's demise), Night Works is all that one could hope for, long space rock acid jamming and much better fidelity than one would get from a recording by an audience member. Swirling organ tones and acid guitar burnouts surge out of the throbbin…
Dr. Aftershave And The Mixed Pickles
This was Missus Beastly's third studio album released in 1976. If you'll notice on the cover art they have the album's title as such as to look like it's the band's name, and the title of the album looks like it would be "For Missus Beastly". A trick by the band really so that they wouldn't have to release this album with Dieter Dierks and Venus Music to which their contract stipulated that they had to.They had had a falling out with Producer Dierks over the cover art of their last album and fel…
Bremen 1974
This album contains three instrumental jazz rock jams recorded by Radio Bremen in September 1974 shortly after the band had produced the second LP. Keyboarder Dieter Miekautsch had left the band towards Embryo and Eddy Maron, also known from contributions for Vita Nova and Dzyan, brings new aspects to the music - it's quite a new impression of the band. The sound quality leaves nothing to be desired by the way. A very good show documenting a new facet of the Missus Beastly band and a highlight f…
Wiesbaden 1973
Cosmic Circus Music from Goettingen played some extremely long spacey improvisations in the manner of the early Ash Ra Tempel. Despite never releasing anything officially, Cosmic Circus Music were a truly great krautrock band, arguably up there with the masters. (Though I do wish they had called themselves Kosmische Zirkus Musik for added gravitas.) The band's misfortune, relatively speaking, was that they were three years behind the times. CCM's lysergic soundscapes, which are closest in styl…
Lang'syne
**From the master tapes, with fifteen bonus tracks in top sound quality** Langsyne from Barmen (Bergisches Land region) played a subtle kind of psych-folk with a wide range of partly unusual, exotic and medieval instruments: sitar, psaltery, koto, glockenspiel, flute, etc. Especially remarkable is the instinctive assurance with which the three musicians, who understood each other without words, played their music to…
Zagara
A killer bit of jazz rock from early 70s Germany – an album that should have been right at home on the MPS label, given the sorts of all-star talents in the group! The set was produced by mighty drummer Klaus Weiss – who's at his soulful best here, able to kick things when needed, but not with as jamming a sound as on his more over the top 70s efforts – which is perfect, as the album's got loads of sweet, subtle colors from Ferdinand Povel and Leszek Zadlo on flutes, plus great electric and acou…
Vita Nova
On the top of the list of Kraut uderground artifacts, a definite oddity plenty of abstract execution of psychedelic soundscapes, dark Classical textures and Jazz/Fusion, as cohesion is completely absent, however there is a certain charm coming out of this. There are more in the vein of Egg and Amos Key, creating atmospheric soundscapes complemented with powerful jams, featuring organ and clavinet in evidence and swirling around jazzy workouts, light improvisations and mellow Kraut Rock experimen…