Double CD. Comes in a gatefold mini LP replica with obi, folded Japanese liner and folded poster. One of the cornerstones of the entire Krautrock movement. Second album from Munich's Amon Düül II, first released as a double LP on Liberty Records in April 1970. Rolling Stone ranked it the 41st greatest progressive rock album of all time. Dan Epstein called it "one of the finest records of the entire original psychedelic era."

The band emerged from the radical Amon Düül art commune in Munich - a collective of university students and artists involved in the late-60s countercultural scene, with ties to figures like Dieter Kunzelmann of Kommune 1. When the commune split over whether to record professionally, the more musically proficient members formed Amon Düül II while the others continued as Amon Düül (I). After the stunning Phallus Dei debut (1969), they could only up the ante with this voluminous double disc affair.

The first two sides contain arranged psychedelic rock compositions. The 14-minute, four-part "Soap Shop Rock" suite opens the album in devastating fashion - the absolute highlight, striking as hard as "Kanaan" did on the debut. "She Came Through the Chimney" shifts to eastern-tinged folk, Chris Karrer's violin recalling High Tide's Simon House. "Archangels Thunderbird" and "Eye Shaking King" are heavy psych benchmarks. The entire third and fourth sides are given over to extended improvisation - the 18-minute title track is a vertiginous, aggressive, stoned odyssey that builds progressively, guitars wailing through cosmic space. "Yeti Talks to Yogi" and "Sandoz in the Rain" (featuring members of Amon Düül I - Sandoz being the pharmaceutical lab that developed LSD) close with tribal, light-folky textures.

Lineup: Chris Karrer (violin, guitar, saxophone, vocals), John Weinzierl (guitar, vocals), Dave Anderson (bass - later of Hawkwind), Falk Rogner (organ, piano - who designed the iconic cover art), Peter Leopold (drums), Renate Knaup (vocals), Shrat (bongos, vocals). Produced by Olaf Kübler and the band, engineered by Willy Schmidt.

The cover depicts the Grim Reaper (Der Sensenmann) - actually a photograph of Wolfgang Krischke, the band's sound man who died of hypothermia while under the effects of LSD. Rogner: "He never managed to find his way into Amon Düül properly when he was alive, so maybe his image as Der Sensenmann will work as a strange cover image and he could be remembered as a magical person." Part of the cover was later used on Julian Cope's Krautrocksampler.

Japanese mini-LP sleeve edition on high-fidelity SHM-CD. Essential for admirers of Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Hawkwind, High Tide, and the whole German cosmic rock explosion.