CIRCLE OF THE CRAYFISH

Another German obscurity, SIXTY-NINE was the brainchild of arranger, composer and keyboardist Armin Stöwe who started the band in Bad Kreuznach in the year 1969 from which apparently the moniker was derived (you thought something else, didn't you? :D) While beginning as a fully manned rock band in the vein of the rockin' the classics bands like The Nice, due to the incessant lineup changes, Stöwe decided to forge ahead as a duo with drummer Roland Schupp, which may sound like a very bad idea but the whole two-man band thing was actually quite en vogue at the time.

One can think of these guys as the German version of Hansson & Karlsson with other German duos following suit. The duo become somewhat popular after performing at the 1972 Giant Pop Festival in Würzburg, the Hard Rock Night in Saarbrücken and the Höxter Festival. This led to the first and only album emerging in the autumn of 1972 titled CIRCLE OF THE CRAYFISH with Stöwe handling all vocals, organs, piano, synthesizers and occasional guitar while Schupp focused exclusively on the drums, percussion and gongs. As one can expect, this is very limited in sound and very limited in appeal but for what it is it's done quite well and a step above the prototype set forth by Sweden's Hansson & Karlsson.

CIRCLE OF THE CRAYFISH featured six tracks and was basically a keyboard wankery session with drums and vocals added for diversity's sake. Stöwe, like many was smitten by the keyboard gymnastics of Keith Emerson and therefore is the focus of the album however given the limiting sounds of the organ, this one comes off as somewhat of a rough draft as it falters without additional instrumentation despite the collection of Hammond organs, minimoog, clarinets and bass-pedal. It all sounds too dated but there is no doubt that these guys made the most out of what they had and were popular enough to play on tours with myriad bands such as Golden Earring, Amon Duul II, UFO, Beggar's Opera, Birth Control, Guru Guru and many more.

While the majority of the album is the similarly sounding keyboard led rock with not ready for primetime vocals, the highlight of the album is the left turn psychedelic freakout "Paradise Lost" which at over 15 minutes takes the duo into some wickedly bizarre soundscapes and really the only track on board that connects them to the world of Krautrock. A good comparison would be those latter farthest trips possible tracks on Can's "Tago Mago." The lack of variety in the first half of the album gets a little monotonous so this one is a welcome relief since this tripped out Krautish mind melter sounds more like 1973 than the anachronistic late 60s sounding first half. The closing "Crayfish" dishes out some interesting keyboard sounds as well with a fast tempo and virtuosic outbursts.

Overall this isn't a bad album but it's not really a great one either. While Stöwe and Schupp did an admirable job at attempting to replicate a full band sound as a duo, there is only so much two guys can crank out which leaves me personally feeling unsatisfied. The album is redeemed though by the excellent "Saucerful of Secrets" inspired "Paradises Lost" which gently oozes out of an amorphous primordial soundscape to a more Deep Purple sounding organ and drums groove. Even the vocals sound better on this one. Perhaps CIRCLE OF CRAYFISH will never be deemed an excellent discovery of the lesser known Kraut gems of the early 1970s but this one is certainly worth a listen or two and a true inspiration for those who admire an industrious duo taking on the task of acting as a whole band.