WOLF CITY

This album was recorded at a critical point in the history of the band. There had been some quarreling within the band, and some band members left to form Utopia and record a self- titled album themselves. Yet in typical Amon Düül 2 fashion the band members made peace again while these albums were in the process of recording, which resulted in all band members playing on both albums, and one track ("Deutsch Nepal") appearing on both, albeit in slightly different versions (most notably in the vocals). The opener "Surrounded by the Stars" has the typical snapping guitar chords of John Weinzierl, over which the aetheric voice of Renate "Krötenschawnz" Knaup sings. "Green- Bubble-Rain-Coated-Man" starts more slowly. almost like a ballad, but it changes tempo in the middle and has a furious finale with weird synthies. "Jail House Frog" is an instrumental, in which the synths indeed sound like a croaking frog. "Wolf City" has Lothar Meid on lead vocals, but other band members sing "Wolf City" in chorus all throughout this rack; the guitar indeed snaps like the fangs of a wolf on this track. "Wie der Wind am Ende einer Straße" is an almost oriental instrumental, in which the band seems to improvise a lot. "Deutsch Nepal" has lots of mellotron, over which actor Rolf Zacher tells a story of a freaked-out general (lyrics in German). "Sleepwalkers Timeless Bridge" finally resembles Popol Vuh a little, which is no wonder, because one of the drummers (Amon Düül have 2 drummers on this album, Peter Leopold and Daniel Fischelscher) plays guitar on it, and he is also the guitar player of Popol Vuh on many of their albums. One of the bands best efforts. 4 stars.