NO. 2

Kin Pinh Meh - No. 2 On their debut album Kin Ping Meh proved to be a good prog-related hardrock band. They play a style similar to Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, with a special interest in ballads (in the good sense luckily). On the second album their music is enriched with more progressive an adventurous influences. The "old" sound is still there on the shorter tracks, but the longer tracks make this album probably more interesting than the debut.

The album opens with a folky track and then a typical seventies rocker. It becomes interesting with a good cover of the Beatle song "Come Together". This version follows the original, but includes a heavy guitar solo. The "Together Jam" is a sort of extension of the previous song and is the closest thing they come to krautrock. These are two good tracks, but the highlight of the album comes next. It is the most progressive track on the album, "Liveable ways". Heavy cords are alternated by doomy and spacey parts which makes this a great dark and spooky track. This is followed by a very mellow and quiet track. The best parts of the album are now pretty much over. The next track is a stupid country&western track and then comes a bluesrocker. On the cd reissue two more tracks can be found. The first is the single version of "Sometimes" (the album version can be found on the first album). This is a great ballad with tasty organ and guitar. The closer of the cd is a boring rock&roll track.

So this album is more diverse than the debut and also has more progressive influences. On the other hand, not everything has a high standard and there are better prog-related bands to find. Still a nice album.

KPM's second album is much in the liner of their debut hesitating between a hard rock direction and a more middle-of-the-road version of rock. They insist on singing in English and do it relatively well, even if sometimes it does sound a little awkward and they insisted on writing a song titles wrong (livable instead of liveable), which does show their limitations. Musically the group is apt, but none of the musicians are virtuoso and don't try to show-off either.

The quintet is still developing what would come to be the type of AOR of later 70's, as clearly shown in the slightly country-tinged Come Down To The Riverside. If the follow up Don't Force Your Horse doesn't have the same flavour, it remains indeed your typical AOP by KPM. Of the harder side of KPM, a lengthy cover of Beatles' Come Together (but definitely not my favourite cover of my favourite Beatles track), that if enjoyable, it does not break anything either. Of better interest is the instrumental Together Jam, which as the title indicates is a full-group effort and could just be the first side's highlight as they show that they are more at ease with more improvised music and looser structures.

The flipside is starting out on two lenghty (8-min) tracks, the first of which, Liveable Ways, is actually quite pleasant, full of good interplay, while Day Dreams (or Daydreams?) is rather ambitious low-developing track with a lengthy intro, and when the song does finally start, it unfortunately sound like US-like soft rock, although mellotron layers intervene, but can't hide the inherent songwriting weakness of the track. This is exactly with this type of more ambitious track that KPM shows their limitations. After an awful (but short) banjo-led country rocker (Very Long Ago), the group indulges into another AOR country I Wonna (wanna ? ;-) Be Lazy, which actually helps the album escape from the proghead's interest.

Graced with a very piggy artwork, this album received a Second Battle label reissue (and a bonus track from a single which doesn't add much to the overall value of the album), which might interest some rockers and other German rock aficionados, but regarding progheads, this is hardly essential and of moderate interest to them, even if enjoyable enough.

One of those albums you happen to stumble on, recognising the name due to this site I decided to have a listen and found it to be very enjoyable and a worthy addition to my collection. Kin Ping Meh's second album is a highly enjoyable rock album which combines some late 60's psychedelic rock with classic 70's bluesrock, personally I think they stylishly lended a great deal from Cream and (early)Deep Purple, and actually managed to pull it off to sound just as good, be it less flashy than Deep P and not as technical as both mentioned bands, but the energy is there. I especially love some of the guitar soloing going on above the (generally) straight forward rock bass/drum core. Little psychedelic elements added by keyboards and spaced out guitarworks places it not only geographical, but also musical in the krautrock genre (early Eloy, Can and Amon Düül II spring to mind, but you have to want to hear it), that doesn't changes the fact that the album mostly listens to as a classic rock album.

Come Down To The Riverside starts as a folkish (Led Zep Style) psychedelic bluesrock song, lovely atmosphere, good energy and a good voice, with Don't Force Your Horses that energy and quality is continued with good guitar riffing (again Led Zep) augmented with a good melodic guitarsolo. Come Together is the Beatles song, actually a good cover, they create a great rhythm doing justice to the unsurpassable original, the following Together Jam adds some great guitar soloing to the song, the kind of guitar solo that I enjoy listening to, not overtly flashy, but in the right key and tempo for it to stay enjoyable, also through the supporting segments (beginning and end).

Livable Ways is rather good, a bit more psychedelic than the first half of the album, with slower pace and you have to dig deeper to enjoy the build-up and ultimate explosion, again with a rather good guitar solo. Day Dreams is not as good as the rest, basically after the nice intro it turns into a rock ballad which would have suited Styx or later day Chicago better. Very Long Ago is enjoyable, certainly if you like banjo country rock, just for the enjoyment factor I want to add an additional star, just for this song (but I won't). I Wonna Be Lazy sets the band back into blues rock territory, a nice ending to the original album. The CD version I have has 2 additional songs, which both are nice, Sometime is a slow blues song, and Sunday Morning Eve is a standard rock song, with nice piano (bit Chicago reminiscence), nice additions to the album.

Overall I rather enjoyed this album, not a brilliant album or anything, but when you come across it don't be afraid to buy, for it's a good record. Just below 4 stars.

Vintage music that brings you to glory days of rock!

Again, this is the album that does not have prog component in the music. However, it's nice to enjoy this classic rock band. The music offered here is similar with bands like Tea (Germany), Humble Pie, or Mountain with unique singing style of its lead vocalist, Wrener Stephan. The opening track "Come Down to the Riverside" (3:13) is like a combination of The Beatles and Lynyrd Skynyrd. It seems like the band tried to explore the southern rock style, especially through the guitar licks as well as singing style. It's really enjoyable. It moves in similar vein into next track "Don't Force Your Horse" (3:46) where guitar still plays critical role in putting the music style of the song. Supported with vintage recording quality, enjoying this track gives me a "different" experience that brings me back to the glory days of seventies where rock music dominated the music industry.

The Beatles cover "Come Together" (6:00) is another place that I can find joy of listening to this album. No, it's not that due to the original version of this song it's already excellet, but the re-arrangement by Kin Ping Meh makes it "something new" for me and it has made me repeating this song over and over whenever it reaches third track. I like the fact that the guitar sound has been made different than those of original version. It reminds me to the guitar player of a band named as MAHOGANY RUSH - the guitarist is Frank Marino. The guitar solo at the end of this track is really stunning.

"Together Jam" (4:55) starts with jamming mode through guitar solo supported with bass guitar and drums, plus organ. The use of two guitars separated with left and right channel has made this composition is really excellent. The guitar solo is really the main thing from this track and it satisfies me to the bone! The bass guitar is also given a chance to perform its solo. It's an uplifting track!

"Liveable Ways" (8:00) is probably the progressive attempt that the band tried to make. The combined guitar and bass guitar works at the opening of the track is truly stunning. The vocal line is also excellent, performed with energy. The song also inserts some ambient portion right after intro part. "Day Dreams" (7:56) provides musical break through ambient nuance at intro part with guitar fills. "Very Long Ago" (2:54) is a country rock music, using banjo as main rhythm section. The album concludes nicely with "I Wanna Be Lazy" (2:58) in Southern style.

Overall, this is a good addition to any prog music collection. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW