MYTHOS

Their first and best.One of the best releases on the Ohr label.Music is psychedelic underground,slightly similar with Hawkwind,but with the experimental moves which are always common for records on the Ohr label.Typically German Kraut-touch too!

An outstanding first album by the very underground Mythos. Released at the beginning of the 70s, this self title album is in the direct line of the musical inspiration developed in the early years of german krautrock scene for the mythic OHR label. This is a complex german rock music featuring strange vocals, folk & spacey-electronic arrengements to create a very dreamy and mysterious musical universe... It can aslo be a great introduction to the most obscure side of Krautrock.

The debut album by Germany's MYTHOS is a pure unadulterated classic space-prog album draped over 5 lush tracks. There are truly many cosmic charms to this space bracelet with some wild nubulas , space vibes and jams. Vocals are slightly distorted when used and somewhat modulated giving the listen a real outer worldly space feel. MYTHOS are clearly lost somewhere in the COSMIC JOKERS / ASH RA TEMPEL camp with dreamy dreamy psych/folk/prog landscapes. MYTHOS manage to create some pretty heavenly space atmospheres with some fantastic synthesizer, flute, spacey guitar and mellotron work throughout. For me this album ranks as a complete album and one of my personal favs from the space-prog category. A definite piece of creative vinyl.

This is a pretty good krautrock cd with folk and space touches. Its not fantastic when you think of Can, ART, Faust and some of the better known krautrock acts, but its a good cd to check out for seasoned prog listeners looking for second teir KR bands. 3.25 stars

This my first review to progarchives. I choose Mythos, because thier first album is one of the greatest krautrock lp ever. Everything is in it's right place. The atmospheric production, good vocals and cool numbers. First track sounds like Camel (the flute...), the next like polish ethno/folk band called Osjan (or Ossian). But the best are the last two tracks: Encyclopedia Terrae part1&2. A great musical journey with some fine lyrics at the end. A must for prog fans who choose atmosphere over symphonic madness:)

Here is my review of Mythos...''Mythoett''(3:02)is a mellow song,with flute,bass,and drum work,reminding me of a mellow rock JETHRO TULL.''Oriental Journey''(8'16)features congo's,flute,sitar,and spacey sounds.''Heroes Death''(9'47)is a psychadelic rock song,along the lines of late 60's PINK FLOYD,and mellows down some at about 5 minutes into the song.''Encyclopedia Terra Part 1(10'17)is another song that reminds of late 60's Pink Floyd,with space sounds.''Encyclopedia Terra Part 2''(7'24)has some spacey sounds during the first minute,then the music comes in for the next 3.5 minutes.The last 3 minutes of the song,the singer tells a story of some sort.As with ''Encyclopedia Terra 1'',this is also a bit mellow,but not too much.Out of 5 stars,I give this 3.7.If you are looking for a prog rock on a heavier side,you may be dissapointed.I cannot say that i dislike this,though.

Many words come to mind when listening to this fantastic album, like pastoral, spacey, atmospheric, trippy, eastern, dreamy, cosmic, dark and for one song heavy. Again this was recommended to me by Tom Ozric who not only knows his Krautrock, but is passionate about it too.Thanks Tom.

"Mythoett" is a pastoral flute led song. Light drums and bass help out. The tempo picks up early. It calms back down 2 minutes in before the tempo picks back up again. "Oriental Journey" is very eastern sounding with percussion to open and guitar joining in quickly. Distant sounding vocals are joined by the sitar to round out the sound. It becomes spacey after 3 minutes. Flute and bass 4 1/2 minutes in. Vocals and sitar are back 7 minutes in. "Hero's Death" opens with spacey sounds that build. Guitar and bass take over with drums in tow. Processed vocals 2 1/2 minutes in as the song gets dark and heavy. Almost BLACK SABBATH-like ! Amazing sound on this one. Love the psychedelic guitar 4 1/2 minutes in. Mellotron flows in a minute later. The tempo starts to pick back up a minute after that. More great guitar is followed by a calm and psychedelic guitar. Nice. Awesome tune. "Encyclopedia Terra Part 1" opens with the sounds of seagulls. Bass and drum sounds follow in an atmospheric and spacey soundscape. The sound builds after 3 minutes. Guitar before 4 minutes as it starts to get intense. The melody stops after 7 minutes as different experimental sounds come and go. It sounds like a battle in the air between fighter jets, like a war is going on before 9 minutes.

"Encyclopedia Terra Part 2" opens with birds chirping as a bell is sounding over and over. The organ is solemn as drums then bass join in as the sound builds. Guitar 2 1/2 minutes sounds great. Incredible sound a minute later with some excellent drumming. Mellotron before 4 1/2 minutes as the song then changes and a story is told with spoken words. It's a story about a man who invents a machine that allows him to sleep in it indefinitely until the machine wakes him up. His reason for doing this is the hope of coming back to a world with no violence and war. After the machine wakes him up the first time(after a hundred years) all has changed except that men are still at war with one another. So he goes back to sleep and returns after a hundred years again. This goes on 32 more times until when he returns from sleep that final time all life on earth is ended. Man has destroyed himself and all life. He then realizes that only death can bring him to the place he is looking for. A cool and very well told story.

A solid 4 stars and recommended to all Krautrock fans out there.

Mythos creates music which is similarly sincere surreal underground rock and also well crafted, visionary tonal poetry. It is based on beautiful melodies, hypnotically flowing compositions and slightly mantra-oriented repetitive treatments. This basis is enriched with a diverse array of psychedelic elements, forming solid and pleasantly raw acid rock sound. Leanings towards pastoral symphonic and folk styles are borne from both usage of flute and occasional mellotrons, bringing Rufus Zuphall as an association from the similarity of sound. The dramatic feeling is similar to the emotional impact of romantic-era classical music, though the complexities of compositional arrangements are not comparable. The cosmic feeling is produced with minimal deployment of electronic synthesizers or devices, concluding as a pleasant analogue vintage experience. Lyrics are in English, and the vocals might be considered as a potential weak point in the performance quality - A factor which didn't ruin my listening experience however. The message focuses to pacifistic and conventional hippie themes.

The discovery of this fine group deepened my awareness and appreciation of early 70's German krautrock scene even more. For comparison of other artists of same era I have so far heard, I would mention warm-toned and down-to-earth focused krautrock groups Necronomicon (stinging acid guitars and pathos), and Gäa (spiritual themes and bluesy jazz rock dimension). I'll have to hunt down the second album of this group also for listening, as I have hopes of good underground art focused to it now on basis of listening this one, which I found as an affordable vinyl reissue.

Alongside "Hölderlin's Traum", the debut of Hölderlin, and "Saat", the second album of Emtidi, the debut of Mythos is one of the three great progressive folk albums released in Germany in 1972. The album opens with "Mythoett", a beautiful cover of Händel's "Feuerwerksmusik" with Stephan Kaske on the flute. "Oriental Journey" and "Hero's Death" present an eastern psychedelic atmosphere with an inspired mix of sitar and mellotron with acoustic guitars or a more bluesy electric touch (in "Hero's Death"). In my opinion, "Encyclopedia Terra" is the highlight of the album. In Part I all instruments imitate war sounds (e.g. sirens, machine guns, planes) and the narration in the end is obviously inspired by H.G. Wells' novel "The Time Machine". The dramatic and strongly accented vocals of Stephan Kaske and the spacey arrangements are really unique. This is a true Krautrock classic from one of the best Berlin bands in the 70's.

Mythos is a space-rock gem from the Berlin Kraut scene. The sound is built with equal parts of 60s Pink Floyd, early Hawkwind and ethnic influences. The production isn't always up to snuff but the creative ideas were surely running wild.

Mythoett is a surprising opener, for a Kraut album at least. It's a very melodious and gentle classic theme for flutes, bass guitar and drums. It reminds very much of Jethro Tull's Bourrée. It's light-years apart from the psychedelic splendor that follows on Oriental Journey. Indian percussion and sitar create the Oriental atmosphere and strong emotional vocals make it into an outstanding track.

Hero's Death is very indebted to Pink Floyd, getting the clashing cymbals from Set the Controls / Saucerful of Secrets, and the main riff from Gilmour's Narrow Way pt II. In true Black Sabbath style, the plaintive vocals sing along with the main riff. The production puts the drums very much to the background which makes everything sound very subdued and slightly chaotic. Only the volume knob offers a way around this.

The second half of the album consists of fine instrumental space-rock, fit for Floyd Hawkwind and Ash Ra Temple fans.There's some environmental spoken word at the end explaining how man is destroying the earth. It sounds a bit preachy and besides, I'm not one who needs to be further convinced we're a destructive bunch. Luckily we have such fine music to make us forget all doom and gloom.

Nice kraut/space-rock gem not to be missed for fans of early Floyd, Hawkwind and Ash Ra Tempel.

A flute heavy but mostly enjoyable album from one of a myriad of similar Krautrock bands from this time.

If you can withstand the Stephan Kaske throaty, whiny and cod English vocals you're going to love this album. Many critics of Mythos have often criticised the singing capacity of Herr Kaske, somewhat unfairly in my opinion. Sure, he's no Luciano Pavarotti, but who was back then?

They sounded so pumped full of illicit substances I'm sure they couldn't have cared less.

'Hero's Death' has some pretty gruesome and ugly raw electric guitar which thankfully peters out into a maelstrom of sounds effects and heavily treated instruments.

I took this cd to New Zealand (from Scotland) and played it walking up a mountain in Queensland and quite frankly, at the time it gave me the heebie-jeebies towards the end. I guess it was because I was so far from home.

What makes this album special are the tremendous and genuinely disturbing tracks 'Encyclopedia Terra' where 'Mythos ' have miraculously travelled hundreds of years into the future to discover that all life on earth has been made extinct due to a nuclear war in the distant past. Kaske's, lifeless zombie monologue makes me really believe in what he's saying!

I can't find it within myself to give this a lower rating than 4 stars, though it probably deserves it. I love this album for it's last 20 minutes in which it takes a major upswing and improves dramatically from the first half, sounding very similar to side three of Floyd's 'The Wall' in parts.

Among the finest Kraut-Rock bands of the 70's, Berlin-based Mythos were established in 1969 by the trio of multi-instrumentalist/singer Stephan Kaske, bassist Harald Weisse and drummer Thomas Hildebrand.A huge amount of gigs would follow but 1971 was definitely The Year for Mythos as they played in the legendary Langelsheim Festival (nicknamed The German Woodstock) and were soon signed by Ohr Label.The next year their self-titled debut sees the light.

The album kicks off with the delicate short Symphonic Rock instrumental ''Mythoett'', based on Kaske's excellent flute work and not being far from the sound of JETHRO TULL around the time.What follows is a great unique experience entitled ''Oriental journey'', a weird but very personal combination of Kraut and Ethnic music with sitar, haunting distorted vocals, trippy flutes, and cosmic synths.A great piece of music.''Hero's Death'' is another beautiful experience of Hard/Kraut-Rock with a poweful rhythm section, the cosmic atmosphere is again present, but what actually leads the track is the dynamic electric guitars of Kaske along with his flutes and mellotron.The entire flipside of the original LP is dedicated to the 17- min. two-part epic ''Encyclopedia Terrae''.After a slow start comes this high-class electric riffing and pounding rhythm section, which can blow anybody's mind with its masterful inspiration to lead through effects to the second part of the composition, where a soft instrumental section with dreamy organ and smooth guitar playing builds into a dramatic finale with electric solo and great mellotron, eventually closed by Kaske's narration about a man and his desperate, hopeless need of living in peace (just read these beautiful lyrics) with synths on the background.What a brilliant inspiration!

Mythos debut is actually what true Kraut-Rock is all about.Weird but inspiring, cosmic but delicate, hard but also smooth musicianship of the highest level.The best Kraut-Rock release ever?Possibly.A milestone in both Kraut- and Progressive Rock music, which comes extremely highly recommended...4.5 stars upgraded to the maximum rating.

Mythos was a band that never managed to fully crack the Cosmic Egg, but then again they weren't really trying very hard. The group in its prime released only two studio albums, neither one achieving the timeless quality of other Krautrock classics, and with only multi-instrumentalist Stephan Kaske surviving the complete overhaul of personnel between them.

But they had a certain flat-footed charm not uncommon among second-division Krautrock bands. And, contrary to its trippy amateur cover art, their debut album opens with an unexpected classical flute piece, borrowed from Handel and reminiscent of JETHRO TULL's "Bourée". Hardly kosmische material, but like so many other musical and spiritual quests of that era the journey then turned eastward for inspiration, adding sitars, tabla-like percussion, and more than enough studio echo to hide the sometimes painfully insecure vocals.

The boilerplate space jamming of "Hero's Death" is clumsy but fun, especially when Stephan Kaske's voice begins cracking like a teenager on the brink of puberty. And then there's the two-part "Encyclopedia Terra", filling all of Side Two on the original vinyl with yet another Saucerful of the same Floydian Secrets that influenced so much of the Krautrock scene, but showing a somewhat tighter conceptual focus than other kindred freakouts.

The eighteen-minute long track is quite ambitious in a superficial sort of way, although the apocalyptic sound effects can be cheesy at times: synthesized air raid sirens and detonations, followed by an armistice of bird song and a lone, tolling bell. All of which leads to the song's miraculous aftermath: a haunting narration at the end of the world, related in world-weary Germanic English. These last few minutes of the album are maybe the highlight of the entire Mythos discography, revealing a stark pessimism far ahead of the trite Hair Peace, Bed Peace mentality of the time, and easily bumping my own rating of the album up a notch.

At their intermittent best Mythos was not unlike a de-clawed HAWKWIND, or maybe early PINK FLOYD without the architectural education (all the band members were high school dropouts). In other words, hardly an essential experience, but certainly worth another look to Krautrock completists.

Freely inspired by the already established Krautrock scene at the time and early PINK FLOYD, MYTHOS' debut possesses the type of naivete of spirit that seems frozen in time to those who remember it, those who were alive then but cannot remember it (among whom one might even count the group members), and those raised in the intervening years. It is certainly not that humanity was somehow more innocent then, but more that we are so much more jaded now. Even musically, the listeners' sense of following the artists on a journey for which the origin and destination are both wholly irrelevant is profound and, yes, endearing. Would that the journey itself at least possess a few signposts to help us determine if it's a journey worth taking at all!

All of the tracks here are listenable in the main, inclusive of the disjointed almost atonal vocal sections smattering the largely wordless backdrop, but some dutiful editing would improve the overall sense of progress. The flutes of the opening cut and the sedate movements of "Oriental Journey" contrast with the aggression of "Hero's Death" and "Encyclopedia Terra", which too vacillate from tranquility to pure tedium. It's neither as hypnotic as it ought to be nor as imposing as it would like to be, and I don't feel "saved" by the Christian pessimism of the last few minutes either, although I admit that the narrative and background are entirely sumptuous.

There is only one way to go with this - as the mythological heroes of Ancient Greece, to the middle ground, not so low as to collide with the earth shackled, and not so high as to scorch one's wings, because neither comes close to happening at any point during this trip.

Mythos - st (1972)

The German progressive scene of the early seventies had it all; free experimentation and seemingly very little knowlegde about 'what music's supposed to be', in contrast with the English progressive scene that was way more exploratory and intellectual. The krautrock scene has a lot of interesting bands, but there's also a group of relatively untalented bands that was lifted by the zeitgeist and in my huble opinion Mythos is one of them.

Mythos plays spacerock with folk en heavy rock influences in a minimalistic three musicians setting. Full of reverbs and rythm and blues parts. The opening track is a rock interpretation of a classical peace with the flute as main instrument, 'Oriental Journey' has folk and space moments whereas 'Hero's Death' has heavy rock passages. On all tracks the vocals are false (though others would prefer the relatively artistic sounding 'atonal'), it hurts my musical brain. The second side is filled with minimalistic spacerock themes and some sounds of nature. During the ending section we get to hear a rather blunt science fiction story in spoken work, about a timetraveller who finds humanity is doomed in the long end.

Conclusion. This is an amateuristic but sometimes enjoyable spacerock record that I can only recommend to hardcore space- and krautcollectors and people who like obscure music for the sake of it (which is fine by the way). Two stars.

A friend borrowed me this CD; the debut album of this obscure Berlin based band from the beginning of the 70´s. I´ve got to admit that this trio of guys were a skillful bunch, specially Stephan Kaske who could handle guitars, flute, zither and keyboards with apparently ease, and the ohter two were not far behind.

Their music is quite varied going from pastoral to heavy rock to electronic and so far. It would be great if they were put together, but actually those styles are featured on each track. So Mythoett is the pastoral bit, with flutes reminding me of Jethro Tull´s Bourée. Hero´s Death is heavy rock, while Oriental Journey is filled with sitars and (surprise!) eastern rhythms. Vocals are all electronic processed and they made me think of Eloy around the time of their Floating period, only even more on the fake side of it.

The second side of the original LP is more of experimental music, with only two trakcs, the instrumental Encyclopedia Terra part 1 being the most interesting, mixing elements of ambient/space rock/electronic with various sound effects. The second track has a long spoken story and both the theme and the music around it dated badly.

In the end I found this CD to be more promising than anything else. Clearly they were still green on the songwriting department. But since they proved to be capable musicians I guess I´ll look for their follow ups to see how they developed from here. As it is, this disc is clearly for the krautrock fans and collectors only.

Rating: 2.5 stars. .

Fairly spaced-out Krautpsych with lots of moaning and ethnocentric nonsense, the Mythos debut is a chore to listen to. But when has that ever stopped progheads from owning something with such neat-o cover art and cool band name? I suppose in '72 there were just enough altered states to make this a keeper, but in the light of the post-drug wake up call, it's a tidy forty minutes of lost souls, unwashed hair, the staggering odor of patchouli, and a hole where ten bucks used to be. This is what "stoner rock" was before it became what it is, and for that it deserves some credit. A drop.

Mythos' debut LP from 1972 is an excellent slab of seriously psychedelic rock of the German variety. I must admit that this one was a grower for me, as the vocals get some getting used to. The opening track, "Mythoett" is a nice, hippie-dippie, flute injected tune, and probably the easiest to digest for the uninitiated listener. With the following song, "Oriental Journey," things get a bit darker and weirder. There is some nice percussion work and sitar going on here, and we hear vocals for the first time. The vocals are haunting and drenched in reverb, which suits the music well. Next up we have "Hero's Death," which sounds like a combination of Pink Floyd circa 1967 and proto-doom metal band Pentagram in the early 70's, and it actually works quite well. The vocals on this one are a bit "off" so to speak, so if you are into Krautrock you will take this as part of its charm, if not you may cringe and run. After repeated listens it definitely grows on you, as does the whole album.

Finally, we have the second half of the album closed with a two part track, "Encyclopedia Terrae." The epic song is an instrumental psychedelic paradise with lots of freaky workouts reminiscent of early Pink Floyd and Ash Ra Temple. It closes with a spoken word story, which is very "of the time" so to speak. It talks about the "killing and fighting" of mankind and how a man built a time travel machine to go into the future to try and escape it, and fails, suggesting (accurately, unfortunately) that it is part of human nature to be violent.

One of the things that struck me most was how well the album sounds. The recording and production is very good for 1972 West Germany, and gives this one a little bit of a boost in the process. It is certainly not a ground breaking masterpiece by any means, but a very good offering of truly psychedelic Krautrock from the early 70's. Mythos would completely revamp its line up after its debut, save Stephan Kaske, and their follow up, "Dreamlab," is not as strong in my opinion. I give their self-titled debut 4 stars.

Now that's a good album!

What keeps Mythos of deserving a perfect score is..er... I can't find a serious star-eating fault to their first offering. They captured pretty well the Kosmicke way of thinking with obscure lyrics, sang with pupil dilated eyes from the bottom of a cavern. Trippy to say the least, they have all the ingredients of psychedelics topped with nice touches of mellotron and tasty flute. Closing your eyes and headphones are a must if you want to grab the vibe and the prophetical speech in the end is a great, mystical way of ending an album.

The perfect soundtrack if you wander in the Grand Canyon after dropping an acid tablet. I wouldn't be surprised if you get the munchies after listening to it!

An obscure but fascinating object.

Here, on its debut, the Berlin Krautrock group Mythos is a studio-augmented power trio: guitarist/sitarist/flautist Stephan Kaske, bassist/guitarist Harold Weiße, and drummer Thomas Hildebrand. While heavy-prog three-piece segments are the backbone the last two-thirds of the album, there are nonconforming passages interspersed throughout.

The oddest track here is actually the opening number, 'Mythoett,' a reimagining of a Händel piece. Based only on this song, you'd expect that Mythos would be prog-folk album. While 'Mythoett' is technically a power-trio song, Kaske plays flute rather than guitar. This is followed by the longer-form 'Oriental Journey,' during which the instrumental configuration changes from sitar/acoustic guitar/drums to flute/bass/drums to sitar/bass/drums. Segues among these movements are marked by sections sung by Kaske and a passage dominated by ethereal sound effects.

The traditional 'power trio' arrangement (i.e., with electric guitar) first appears on 'Hero's Death,' parts of which remind me of early-1970s King Crimson. 'Hero's Death' forms a bridge between the somewhat lighter opening songs and the more heavy and experimental Side Two. Like 'Oriental Journey,' but unlike the remainder of the album, it contains sections sung by Kaske, and contains some cleaner three-piece arrangements similar to those on the first two songs - - but with the electric guitar replacing the sitar and flute. 'Hero's Death' also introduces the kind of freak-and-roll sections in which 'Encyclopedia Terra Part 1' will culminate.

Side Two is comprised the two sections of 'Encyclopedia Terra,' the whole of which the band appears to consider its magnum opus. 'Part 1' opens with a musique concrete collage of ominous chords underlying the singing of birds - - implying a peace whose end is inevitable. Following the introduction of the rhythm section, a plaintive guitar enters at about two minutes, and the three instruments converge in a syncopated pattern at four. Soon enough, the guitar begins going rogue, as they say, and is joined by a second overdubbed guitar as the band departs King Crimson territory entirely for the crazy, fractured environs of Krautrock à la early Ash Ra Tempel. At this point, the war is on. Eventually, the martial syncopation returns. The final three-plus minutes of 'Part 1' is comprised by synthesizer- generated effects simulating air-raid sirens, warplanes, falling bombs, and explosions, over Hildebrand's equally violent drumming.

And then, finally, there's 'Encyclopedia Terra Part 2,' which, from a structural point of view, is like the 'Soon' section of Yes's 'Gates of Delirium' (from 1974's Relayer). The birds are back (shades of 'Close to the Edge,' which was also released in 1972), now joined by church bells. A Moog-ish, monophonic synth lead appears and the power trio is reintroduced, eventually joined by the flute, a second track of bass guitar, and, around 2:30, the electric guitar. The tempo is slower than on 'Part 1,' giving this track more of a heavy-prog feel. The group settles into the main vamp - - again, a Crimsonian affair - - for a minute, beginning around 3:30. The final three minutes of the album is a rhythmless ethereal synth passage over which Kaske recites a story about the future of mankind.

Mythos is a solid album. Overall, the sound is decent for an album recorded in late 1971 (I purchased my copy from emusic.com, so I don't know whether it is the 1994 CD release (which seems probable) or a later remaster). The production (by Dieter Dierks) is good, if a bit unsubtle in the reverb department. The instrumental performances are strong throughout. To me, this would be a four-star album if the compositions were a bit more inspired. As it stands, Mythos is an enjoyable period piece.

MYTHOS was one of Germany's first Krautrock bands that formed in Berlin in 1969 influenced by the unfulfilled potentials of Pink Floyd's "Saucerful Of Secrets" and then rode the psychedelic rock scene with contemporaries such as Ash Ra Tempel and Hawkwind. The band was a trio that consisted of Stephan Cask (guitars, sitar, flute, synthesizer, vocals, vocoder), Hard Weiße (bass, acoustic guitar, effects) and Thomas Hildebrand (drums, percussion.) MYTHOS found a home in good Krautrock company, the famous Ohr label that hosted some of the best known bands of the day including Embryo, Guru Guru, Birth Control and early Tangerine Dream. The self-titled debut was released in 1972 which became quite well known at the time after playing live with other progressive oriented bands such as Family and Colosseum as well as hard rock acts like Humble Pie. The album was produced by future Scoprions collaborator Dieter Dierks.

The MYTHOS debut album exudes a mysterious vibe instantly from its lysergic album cover art and the music pretty much follows suit with the only exception being the rather oddball track on the album, the opening "Mythoett" which is a folk rock interpretation of Handel's "Feuerwerkmusik" with Stephan Kaske playing the melody on the flute. The album takes on its more cosmic head trip starting with the the second track "Oriental Journey" which found the band on a lengthy jam session with Eastern vocal chants, sitars and other Eastern sounds crafted into a free flowing Krautrock extravaganza. On the original vinyl LP the track was connected with the following "Hero's Death" but these are two distinctly different tracks and rightfully have been separated on future releases.

While "Oriental Journey" was grounded on planet Earth, "Hero's Death" starts out taking off into space with wild oscillating electronic sounds simulating space ship travel as well as near 10 minute sonic journey into the cosmosphere with a Amon Dull II fueled bass groove and accompanying hard rock guitar and extra sounds to create the ultimate trip. Kaske's freaked out vocals are perfectly suited for the somewhat paranoid and meandering musical flow that takes an improvisational jamming session and augments it with moments of light fluffiness led by the flute and atmospheric synthesizers and then returns to a harder edged rock bombast to fuel the proper contrast. The bass groove provides the anchoring effect while the guitar has free reign to employ bizarre pick slides, heavy bluesy riffing and stunt guitar tricks while the percussion maintains an oddly timed progressive rock feel.

Originally swallowing up the entire second side of the vinyl LP on the 1972 release, the two-part "Encylopedia Terra" is the highlight of the album which tackles ecological issues and the failure of humankind to exist as stewards of the planet. The narrations were inspired by H.G. Wells' novel "The Time Machine" where a man travels 3300 years into the future in the hopes of finding a better planet but ultimately finds one that had been completely destroyed. The two parts swallowing up over 17 minutes of running time naturally allows the musical flow the proper time to ratchet up incrementally. Starting out as a cosmic heady psychedelic primordial ooze the track morphs into a harder rocking structure with heavy drumming bombast that implements military marches, bluesy guitar licks and a heavy bass groove as the atmospheric keyboards provide the ever-changing cloud cover. "Part 1" culminates in a total breakdown that offers the perfect freak out before morphing into the second stage of the act.

"Part 2" picks up as a mellow comedown after the bombastic conclusion of "Part 1." Distant bells provide a rhythmic drive while chirping birds and trippy synth runs build up into a more rock oriented Kraut-groove a la Amon Duul II. The flute once again becomes an important melody maker but ultimately the guitar dives in offers some riffing counterpoints to bring the track into full rock regalia. The melodic grooves offers a free flowing menu of musical variations before the the track culminates in the spoken word poetry from the "Time Machine" novel. As Kaske recounts the tale, the music becomes a mere backdrop that almost becomes a lullaby and then just like that the album is over as the Krautrock journey abruptly ends but not forgotten.

True that the album suffers a bit from the odd choice of opening with "Mythoett" which seems woefully out of place in the company of stranger kosmische Kraut jams but MYTHOS is an album that always hits me in the right place and comes off as the ultimate freaky journey for those seeking them out. While not a perfect release and doesn't have the immediate effects that bands like Can, Neu! or Amon Duul II may have had, MYTHOS nonetheless offers a true unadulterated Krautrock experience that offers a musical experience that matches the visual freakery of the album cover art. Overall MYTHOS provides a peaceful journey with pleasant melodic undercurrents that occasional climax into overpowering militant bombast with heavy rock guitar and percussive domination. The thematic developments perfectly envelope the MYTHOS moniker that evokes epic tales of cosmic exploration that result in both harmonic bliss as well as melancholic agony. The album may not have gone down as one of the Krautrock scene's most essential examples of the genre but personally i've always loved this one quite a bit and listen to it on a regular basis.

I confess I picked this up out of a bargain crate at a record fair 40 odd years ago because of the Crumb like cover art. Apart from the obvious 'big' names, my krautrock/folk knowledge was sketchy at best (we didn't have the net back then!) so I had no idea what the grooves would contain.

No, it didn't grab me at first but even if you pick something up cheap, a physical format means you keep hold and give it another try. I do wonder if someone streams something and thinks' no, not for me' these days, they perhaps don't go back and give it another chance.

The Tullesque opening shoulda dragged me in (those pesky flutes eh!) but there is an almost too forced jollity. I hear a little bit of Jade Warrior but the second track blends eastern with a more typical kraut influence and this was and is much more interesting...space/folk if you like...and thankfully my (the recipe is a secret) vinyl cleaner gives the atmospherics a clear and hiss free sound. The panning is a bit cliche but it works. The vocalist isn't the best but neither were say the vox in the Incredible String Band and I rather like them! Hero's Death shimmering cymbals in and we could be in an Amon Duul situation and they also invited early BJH to the party. Definitely my krautrock sound/s of choice. I think they gave the 'folk' the song off. With Encyclopedia the doubts creep back in as am sorry but you did the shimmering cymbals thing in the last tracks intro and the bass player has been listening to Wishbone Ash's Vas Dis (ironically) and although the guitar/s don't 'duel', the first 2 Ash albums are nodded to. It just doesn't escape the deliberate or otherwise influences/similarities. Overlaying a bit of electronica feels well like overlaying a bit of electronica for the sake of it. And the sudden 'war' referenced sounds tagged on to a track out of the blue? I will put on German Oak if I want a dark krautrock dealing with our post war trauma album thanks. And finally the 940th, even by 1971, song that starts with Church bells?

I really do want to 'like' this more but they do themselves no favours. I will give the benefit of the doubt that musicians didn't hear anything like the amount of music (as in what was out at the time) as we can today so sometimes they think they were being 'original' when they were just not. Also it is a debut album and bands should be allowed to find their own sound/make mistakes/get the stuff out of their system they needed to he types just as the VDGG bit comes in followed by...oh no...'the gong'.

I would give it a 3.25 for promise but with reservations.