GURU GURU

This self-titled album was in fact a very mediocre one by them. I read somewhere else that they've had only a trio line-up here consisting of Mani Neumeier (Percussion, Drums, Keyboards, Vocals), Ax Genrich (Guitar, Vocals) and Bruno Schaab ( Bass, Vocals). So without the keyboarder Conrad Plank listed here, not sure which one is correct, but actually the trio one would fit to the overall sound of the album.

Side one is mainly occupied by a 13 min.+ medley of various rock'n'roll standards probably be meant as a kind of parody which didn't work well unfortunately since they were playing those with very little change of the original versions, apart of a more hardrock vein. This one is framed by two short songs mixing rock'n'roll and mersey beat with a touch of psychedelic and GURU GURU-typical Krautrock style.

It's becoming somewhat better on side two starting with their probably most famous song Der Elektrolurch which means something like "electric frog" and has quite funny nonsensable lyrics, which I won't translate here in detail since they are really not essential. This one is a quite nice and typical one by them reflecting very well their spacey and comedian character. The album finishes with The Story of Life in a rather quiet and psychedelic/spacey mood with a slight floydian touch at times and some strange vocals.

I'm scared to call this album an essential one by them, maybe only for die-hard Krautrock fans. Certainly not a good starting point if you don't know anything from them. As far as I can tell their albums are all a bit different from each other with changing line-ups. My favorite one is the Live album from 78 showing an excellent compilations of their best tracks with great musicianship. I read as well that Dance Of The Flames is a very good jazz- fusion album but since I don't own that one I cannot confirm. Anyway this one here I cannot rate higher than 3 stars!