KRAUT-BLOODY-RAGEOUS!

Thee Fourth Incarnation Ov Thee Obscured Hungry Kraut Daddy Demon

01 Turn In - The Ravers 01:36
02 LetŽs Do It Together - Blackbirds 2000 02:45
03 Wild Woman - Jo Hamann 02:20
04 Israfil Part 1 - Haboob 03:30
05 Munich City - Big Bertha 03:15
06 Dear Prof. Leary - Barney Wilen & His Amazing Free Rock Band 03:30
07 Wild Man - Cannock 03:52
08 Exodus II - The CT Four Plus 02:50
09 Let The Thing CominŽ Up - Staff Carpenborg & The Electric Corona 03:51
10 Voodoo Woman - Mike Lewis & Conny Plank 04:52
11 War Child - Drum 06:30
12 CanŽt Get It - The Speeders 03:57
13 Jesus And The Rockers - Karl Lenfers & Peter Janssens 05:21
14 On My Way - Andorra 04:21
15 World Is Satisfied - Jam 03:14
16 DonŽt Forget To Love - Don Paulin 02:18
17 Child Of My Kingdom - Tusk 03:41
18 Please, Please Love Me - The Monks 03:55
19 The Million Game - Can 04:32
20 DemonŽs Dance - Al Capone 02:37

Volume 4 of a trilogy dealing with the most obscure aspects of late 60Žs/early 70Žs German Underground noodling. And while we keep digging through those parts of the cemetery where the strangest zombies rattle their bones, chances ainŽt bad for a pentalogy. This CD tunes in with "Turn In" by THE RAVERS. That name was the camouflage for the Tonics, a leightweight Hamburg beat band on their many sidetrips for cheapo-label Tip since 1964. Their last LP for Tip in 1970 (subtitled "Going Underground") suspiciously sounds like another meeting of the Hamburg Budget Mafia, a bunch of Rattles, German Bonds and Tonics member, who already had been responsible for the Hell Preachers an Bokaj Retsiem LPs. - Another rather tame beatband were The Blackbirds from Püttlingen. They recorded two 45Žs and two 33Žs for Saga-Opp and their second LP already showed a strange, but pleasant high-wire act, balancing between conservative styles and progressive ambitions. In 1970 their swan song was released as by BLACKBIRDS 2000, a 7" on Cornet, and it demonstrates what great potential was wasted, when they threw in the towel soon after. -The flip of JO HAMANNŽs "Wild Woman" can be found on KRAUT DEMONS KRAUT. This side of the only 7" on Offers Music was recorded in 73 and it hits much harder. Sounds like VU meet Can in a garage. "Wild Woman" was part of PRAE-KRAUT 5 about a decade ago, where it fitted in perfectly soundwise. Historically itŽs part of the Kraut scene, and once again it demonstrates, that the early 70Žs havenŽt been half as boring as most of us tend to remember. Quod erat demonstrandum. HABOOB means desert wind and was a one-off project by Jimmy Johnson, William Powell and George Green (orig., g., dr. respectively). Produced in Munich 71 by Olaf Kübler with a cover designed by Falk Rogner, this LP on Hör Zu often is described as a Amon Düül 2 sideproject, too weird and jazzy to fit into any pidgeonhole. Actually it only was Jackson who sat in on "Lemmings" and "Wolf City", and the album is a lot more structured and thus accessible than, say, part 2 of "Yeti". The musicians were Americans resident in Munich, usually working as sidemen for Jazz productions. Forget about the "difficult music"-stamp Haboob still has to bear. A great and underestimated album. Grab it, if it comes your way. - BIG BERTHA werenŽt German either. Actually they were The Ace Kefford Stand minus Ace, the former Move-bassist. Cozy Powell, the Ball bros. Dave and Dennis plus Ace had been active in Germany since 1964, where they released numerous singles as by The Sorcerers and The Mayfair Set. As Big Bertha they had a UK-7" in 69, which didnŽt set the charts alight. In 1970 they planned to return to Germany, where United Artists tried to enlarge their roster of prog-bands after the success of Düül 2 and Can. The Noel Walker-produced "Munich City" is an autobiographical song about that move and a German-only 7", written and sung by Dave McTavish. A scheduled German album never materialized, but the guys reunited in 73 in the short-lived group Bedlam. - BARNEY WILEN, born 1937 in Nice, France, is another case of "Kraut, where youŽd least expect it". As on of the most prominent French jazzers, he had played sax for Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Archie Shepp, before he started experimenting with psychedelic sound effects and formed his amazing Free Rock Band in Germany 68 with a couple of like-minded local muzos from the MPS-stable. They recorded two LPs for MPS and the second, "Dear Prof. Leary" (1969) sounds like a harbinger of things to come like "Bitches Brew". - CANNOCK from Stuttgart are best known (and best forgotten) for their LP on Peak in 1980. In 76 they had contributed a little more satisfying (still not too memorable) to one of those Rock offers-samplers. Their attempts to sound "symphonic" only proved that itŽs a small step from the jungle to the zoo. (A common trap in these times of waywardness). But wait! Even Genesis and Tangerine Dream started with great records, and so did Cannock 1974. "Wild man" is a private 7" on their own label. Impossible to find nowadays and worth more than just a spin. - THE CT FOUR PLUS... well, no clue about what that might mean, but catholic teachers might be the best bet. A heavy sermon on the A-side, telling us to do our duty as salt of the earth (or forever be damned), was coupled with "Exodus 2" for a single on the MFB label in 69. Praise the Lord, itŽs an instrumental. And - praise hime once again - it hasnŽt got anything to do with the famous movie theme. ItŽs just a rehearsal room jam while the bishop was sleeping - HereŽs the forth contribution to our little series of necrophilia by the mysterious ELECTRIC CORONA and we still donŽt know who STAFF CARPENBORG is. All we have are the writerŽs credits on this 71 Maritim LP, and they all go to Paul Bucher, probably StaffŽs weekday name. Since we started to spread the name, prices for this LP (housed in a misleading, pretty ugly cover) jumped from Euro 1 on fleamarkets to Euro 100 on record fairs. There are eight cuts on it, and none of them a bummer. Are we really condemned to do eight volumes... - MIKE LEWIS was a Canadian multi-instrumentalist studying experimental music in Germany during the first half of the 70Žs. He was part of the group Wired, as documented on the V.A.-triple album "Free improvisation" (Deutsche Grammophon, recorded 1970), but had to pay the rent as well, and his record with the Moosknukkl Groovband on Spiegelei is best avoided. CONNY PLANK (no introduction necessary) also was involved in the Wired-project and together they fumbled around in the studio a bit. The result was released on Philips in 71. "Wuschel" (= curly) is a mixed bag of an album and not necessarily a must-have. "Voodoo Woman", though not particularly experimental, is the most elaborate and catchy track here. The 7" by DRUM has been found in a waste bin these days and - like with all these unexpected nuggets - it was a case of shock and awe. (Remember Trash, Jam, Old Lumber and the like...) A completely unknown 1970 private 7" with stamped white label. Hey gyp, dig the slowness. Increasing slowness actually, as these guys seem to struggle against the arms of Morpheus, always seriously in danger of losing. (ThatŽs why they need 6 minutes for a 3 minutes song) - THE SPEEDERS from the outskirts of Stuttgart were yet another beat band, that had to recognize the writing on the wall by the turn of the decade. Their mid-60Žs records cover the whole spectrum of pop, from great to disgusting. In 69 they tried to crack the charts with "Goodbye Sofia", a tasty little turd, that even made The Flippers sound like Rock ŽnŽ Roll, while a couple of shy steps in the opposite direction never saw the light of day. "I CanŽt Get It" from 1970 is the best of their unreleased studio cuts and on of the last tracks they recorded, before internal tensions caused a split. - In 1972 KARL LENFERS & PETER JANSSENS constructed a socio-critical "Sacro-Pop-Musical" called "Menschensohn" (son of man) and released this megalomanic beat-mass on two LPs on Pietbiet Rec. Like with all these christian crusaders project, you have a hard time listening through the whole of it, and the Enlightenment comes with instrumental interludes between the lectures, where the musicians show a lot more taste than youŽs expect from your next door missionaries. As these snippets are rather short, weŽve glued together four of them to some kind of a cut-up-remix-edit. But strange things happen: whenever you seemingly detect the point of the joint on this track, it has been on the original already. - ANDORRA from Hamm recorded three tracks in 73, which turned out to become the highlights of a 2-LP sampler called "Proton" on Kerston in 74. The compilation presented unknown and yet unrecorded German bands with promising names like Zyma, Nexus and Sun, but AndorraŽs "On My Way" is the best of the bunch by far. - JAM from Münchsmünster and their selfmade 7" from 1970 was one of the highlights on OBSCURED BY KRAUTS. Here comes the flip. Less heavy, but even more krauty and cryptic. - American songwriter DON PAULIN settled down in Germany in the mid-60Žs and made a living by recording numerous so called folklore-LPs, a style that occupied everything from nursery rhymes via skiffle to fake protest. By the end of the 60Žs you couldnŽt make a Deutschmark with "Havah Nagila" and hootenannie anymore and Paulin went electric under the guidance of producer Siegfried E. Loch and string wizard Sigi Schwab. The resulting LP "Time Turner" wasnŽt quite the smash it should have been with a high-calibre line-up that read like a "Who's who?" of Krautrock, but it had a couple of remarkable cuts nonetheless. - TUSK was SwitzerlandŽs answer to Deep Purple and on their sole single (Harvest, 71) they out-rock their idols "in Rock" shorthanded. Unlike most German (and - letŽs face it - a lot of British) copycats, Tusk had balls. Snotty hi-energy rock with silly lyrics and a ridiculous pathetic riff on both ends of the epic. Sounds like... Kraut? No way! Too much fun! The band broke up soon after and most members reappeared in prominent, highly dispensable heavy metal combos later again. But they never came close to the Tusk-sound again. - Not the best, but certainly the greatest little band in all galaxies are THE MONKS. If you donŽt know the story of these five angry yankees (stuck in Germany) by now, youŽll never learn. Their LP, recorded in 66, still - or again - is decades ahead of our times and they were THE premature proto-punk-kraut band until they passed the torch to Faust. ("WeŽre a German band", they stated reunited on stage in 2001). Their Polydor recordings are painlessly available and lots of demos and live tracks have been unearthed too, but rumours about a one copy-only acetate caused sleepless nights and wet dreams among the knights of the holy grail. And here it is! Recorded and pressed at Tonstudio Pfanz, Hamburg, in late 65. "Please Love Me" is the missing link in Monks history. A weird fuzz orgy - based on a stage warm-up instro called "Paradox" while they still were The 5 Torquays - coupled with outrageously troubadouring lyrics, this is the dark version of "Pretty Susanne". And more again... Unreleased CAN anyone? Dubbed from various parts of the soundtrack and puzzled together with great care, hereŽs the theme of an 1971 TV-play called "Das Millionenspiel" - A band called AL CAPONE from Moers closes this set of Germania incognita with an ode to the Kraut Demon. "DemonŽs Dance" comes from their 72 Trefiton EP. Nightmares guaranteed. Now turn off or turn in again with track 1, but stay tuned.

kain & bebel