BREMEN 1974

This album contains three instrumental jazz rock jams recorded by Radio Bremen in September 1974 shortly after the band had produced the second LP. Keyboarder Dieter Miekautsch had left the band towards EMBRYO and Eddy Maron, also known from contributions for VITA NOVA and DZYAN, brings new aspects to the music - it's quite a new impression of the band. The sound quality leaves nothing to be desired by the way.

The twentyseven minute Free Clinic is known as a (way shorter) bonus live track from the digitalized version of the second MISSUS BEASTLY album. Sometimes even with a free jazz touch they are jamming all the way through with excellent interaction. Lutz Oldemeier is much more than a drum machine - he plays varied even using his instrument for solo excursions when backing the others on the way to what destination ever. Norbert Dömling acts impressing as usual with his funky bass and the brass instruments are swirling around all over there.

Green Girl is quite more accessible - canterburiesque with a fusion oriented guitar. Dömling surprisingly changes his style right in the middle from somewhat angular to funky. On Steel's Electric Eddy Maron gets the chance to shine with his guitar skills completely - no wonder - a song which was composed by himself. The band once again plays near to a free jazz style with weird flute and saxophone contributions.

A very good show documenting a new facet of the MISSUS BEASTLY band and a highlight for fans of improvised jazz rock. 4 stars are well deserved.

4.5 stars.This was professionaly recorded by Radio Bremen back in 1974 and the sound quality is excellent. One of the big differences between this release and their studio albums is the addition of the great Eddy Marron on guitar. He played with them for less then a year while at the same time playing for DZYAN and FREE SOUND. Yes he was a busy guy playing a lot of live dates, this is the only document we have of him playing with MISSUS BEASTLY. Eddy mentions in the liner notes that this band never took drugs, it was all about the music. I would describe the music on this recording as being Free Jazz and I have to say right away that I contemplated giving this album 5 stars that's how impressive it is.

Things get started with the 27 1/2 minute "Free Clinic" which is definitely my favourite track on here. It sounds like vibes to open as other sounds come and go in this atmospheric intro.The guitar sounds are getting louder 4 1/2 minutes in until a minute later he's lighting it up. Nice bass and flute as well. The guitar stops after 8 1/2 minutes. Check out the bass after 10 1/2 minutes. Nice. Sax takes the lead 12 1/2 minutes in. Organ after 15 minutes and then it settles right down to an experimental section with sax and other sounds. The tempo picks up as we get a melody after 19 1/2 minutes, love the drumming here.The guitar is back after 22 1/2 minutes and he just starts to rip it up. Flute before 25 1/2 minutes as guitar backs off. Drums and percussion continue to impress. Bass takes over for flute then sax comes in to end it. What a ride that was.

"Green Girl" opens with sounds that come and go including vocal expressions. It all starts to come together to form a melody. Very cool. Sax takes the lead until it ends the way it opened. Brilliant ! "Steel's Electric" is an Eddy Marron composition. It's fairly laid back with the guitar the sole focus early. Light drums join in. Sax and flute help out around 4 minutes.The sax gets dissonant.The tempo picks up after 6 minutes with some good bass a minute later. Sax after 8 minutes returns.

Highly recommended to fans of Free Jazz.

A decent live album from Missus Beastly, consisting of three live jams - one epic taking up nearly half an hour, and two (comparatively) short nine minute pieces. Since these were recorded for radio the sound quality is decent (and, when it comes to less famous bands from the era, really quite good), and the band were clearly on form that evening, playing a frenetic, Mahavishnu/Zappa-influenced style of fusion which obviously goes down well with the crowd. The radio sessions were apparently recorded to support the release of their second self-titled album, so anyone who enjoyed that album would be well-advised to check out this live release, but at the same time the session here is substantially more loose and improvised than the tighter and more polished material on the album itself.

Missus Beastly's "Bremen 1974" is, in my opinion, their best release. This may be hard to believe, considering that it is a live recording from 1974 that was not released until almost 30 years after their final studio album. But this is an incredible, jammy, jazzrock recording that should get more attention.

I'm not really a huge fan of Missus Beastly's other releases, including their wildly different debut, but this one really grabs me. It's loose, yet tight at the same time, and is the only recording of splendid guitarist Eddy Marron's participation in the band. His excellent guitar work soars on this release and leaves one to wonder what the band's subsequent releases may have sounded like if he had stayed on. The album features 3 long, jam-heavy tracks, each one different from the other. The songs incorporate jazzrock, ethnic flourishes, psychedelia, and funk into a masterful live performance. Highly recommended for fans of German jazzrock from that era! 4 stars.