GURU GURU

Retrospectively with Trepte's departure it is now certain that Guru Guru suffered their biggest musical trauma as the group is now settling down into RnR "normality". Replaced by Schaab, Trepte's absence is cruelly felt, as the group is not really being very experimental, contenting themselves of some "basic" rock tunes. The artwork of the sleeve represent an ethnic tapestry detail, being lost somewhere on this planet, but not being able to find its way.

A bit basic RnR as I said so earlier, but deceptively so because there is a Zappa-esque spirit present (will be there for decades to come) and it is not that basic. After the short Samantha's Rabbit (a short RnR), the group enters a Bo-Diddley-like very indulgent jam, but really this is more than boring for the demanding proghead. Woman Drum is again a basic RnR track.

The flipside has the merit of introducing the first version of Der Elektrolucht: there will be many, many more, but this studio version is obviously still in its infancy stage and it takes a while getting to the heart of the song. Easily this album's highlight, it has a lengthy intro that is never played anymore. The last track is the 12-min Story Of Life, doen't offer anyore thab chaos, but this time it lacks any kind of quality. Messy!!

For whatever extra effort the double Guru gives to entertain you, it is a bit of a failure, because the strangeness works sometimes, but the humour doesn't often, either. After this album Schaab will leave calmly as obviously it was not easy to fill Trepte's shoes. Hardly essential, this album could also be easily avoided if the flipside was not saving it from total failure.