AUF DER BAHN ZUM URANUS

This album is a great example of a good German underground music from the 1970's. Their music is trippy and euphoric, not being extremely surrealistic nor abstract, but more blues-oriented with good rhythmic drives. The guitar melodies are quite free, and though they obey the logics of simplified western classical music or blues rock scales, they do not repeat basic passages in a boring way.

The first track of this album is "Uranus", which begins with quiet sounds, leading to a sermon spoken in German. I must admit hat I didn't get the message complete, as my German is too rusty, but I guess it might be about the Voyager probe which was heading to these distant gas giants at the 1970's. The music turns from the cosmic soundscape as hard and hazy acid blues with neat Jimi Hendrix styled guitars. In the verse is also presented a great trademark of this band: the good vocal choruses, which I really enjoy. Then there's some more preaching and voyaging between Uranus and Earth, but sadly the end of the song reveals the only feature that slightly annoyed me in this album; Many of their songs don't end properly, but they are faded out. I understood this album was recorded in quite critical conditions, and perhaps this solution is here present partly due that. Following "Bossa Rustical" is an instrumental tune, starting with Spanish folk-styled acoustic guitar, which drums and bass soon accompany. Then a second guitar emerges, and the song begins to grow, but suddenly alas disappears back to the void. Luckily, after this the album begins to get again a better grip, "Tanz Mit Dem Mond" begins with dramatic acoustic pianos and guitars with the amplified band blowing behind them. This makes a very pleasant sound field, which is enriched with beautiful melodies done by several echoed vocal layers. Following "Mutter Erde" has very good singing again in it, and the melodies change neatly from minor to major moods and vice-versa. There's a great psychedelic groove in the rhythm, and the track ends with wonderful dynamics, being one of the biggest highlights here for me. Fifth track is a mystic and calm trance like song, called "Welt Im Dunkel". There's some kind of worshipping going on, remotely resembling the masses of Black Widow's early works. The last track "Gäa" (Gaia) has a wonderful start with bluesy strikes from the rhythm section, which mingle with Cream sounding guitars, and the band blasts out a great hippie jam. There's some funny wordless singing and flutes added, which paint the hazy summer fields where the beatniks can be imagined jumping, running and loving without barriers. This track resembles a bit of "Weiss Der Teufel" of Rufus Zuphall, sharing same kind of melodies, blues influences, country of origin and the era of production. The guitarist of Gäa is a very good player indeed, I have come to this belief after many years of listening.

The album is little unbalanced, but also original and pure, and enriched with nice underground styled covers. If you like krautrock, psychedelia and blues based hippie jamming, you should hunt this to your collection certainly. Those who are allergic to fade-outs have to forget this album, I had that neurosis earlier but luckily partially healed from it. Those who want that the records are more or less produced should maybe listen this carefully through before buying it. This might be a bit difficult especially as for the original pressing, as it should be a quite rare album. You should find it still from a specialized music dealers and auctions and as both CD and vinyl reissues.