DR. AFTERSHAVE AND THE MIXED-PICKLES

Dr. Aftershave is coming back ...

One of the rare albums from which I still possess the original vinyl. I sold almost all the others about ten years ago. They used to be unhearable in the meanwhile because of my carelessness (oh - if I ever could withdraw that!). First of all - I'm not sure if band and album title have changed the places! The back cover contains such informations like 'produced by Dr. Aftershave And The Mixed-Pickles' and 'this record is dedicated to Missus Beastly'. But I don't want to enhance the confusion which the band must have intended for sure.

Nevermind - as I told before I kept it - this is still mine though as a vinyl. Maybe it was the crazy cover art - maybe because MISSUS BEASTLY hails from my little hometown. But this is still history in 1976 anyhow. The line-up which produced this album is totally differing from the original band. The only remaining Herford citizen Lutz Oldemeier (drums) had left and they were hold up furthermore by Norbert Dömling (bass), and the brass section consisting of Friedemann Josch and Jürgen Benz.

The musical style however hadn't changed quite much compared to the eponymous foreunner album. It's a special krautrock fusion which is also known from EMBRYO for example. And some members of this band are present here indeed - Roman Bunka, Christian Burkhard and Butze Fischer - the new drummer. It was the same year when both bands founded the music cooperative APRIL (later renamed to SCHNEEBALL) together with SPARIFANKAL and TON STEINE SCHERBEN. 'Dr. Aftershave And The Mixed-Pickles' is known as the first production of this label.

The first song Miles all along the Watchtower immediately brings up the unique style of the band. Dömling's extraordinary funky and deep toned bass playing and Fischer's impelling drums are serving a special drive. The jazzy note is worked out by saxophone and Burkhard Schmidl's keyboard. Roman Bunka adds an excellent decent rhythm guitar with a slight asian touch. Can't detect references to Jimi Hendrix - more to Miles Davis - but they also could have meant Buddy Miles RIP with the title. So far so good - this song is a wonderful opening act.

If one song ever could be recommended to be extra accessible for more people High Life seems to be a candidate. Nice floating composition near a ballad with vocals by Maria Archer but dominated by synthesizer and electric piano - unfortunately faded out because of the restricted vinyl length I assume. Morning Sun seems to be a passage from a longer band jam and is an example for the obvious krautrock leanings. The funky Gurus for sale contains a jazz rock guitar solo by Roman Bunka - again faded out - what a shame!

Nothing again is devided in two parts seperated by cosmic synth soundscapes. The first segement sounds like a reminiscence to RETURN TO FOREVER with acoustic guitar and the calm second part shines with a bass solo appearance. Funky ethnic with percussion, flute and wonderful sparkling e-pianoPatscha Menga underground follows. The short and modest For Erie closes the album with a classical touch only celebrated by bass and piano.

An album with an excellent mix of arranged and improvised elements. Until today not digitally released what I know and I'm quite sure this would have been done in the meanwhile if the original tapes were still existing. A great pity. Highly recommended to everyone who is looking for jazz rock/fusion albums keeping apart from the average and who is able to reach for one of the vinyl copies (but not mine!).

This was MISSUS BEASTLY's third studio album released in 1976. If you'll notice on the cover art they have the album's title as such as to look like it's the band's name, and the title of the album looks like it would be "For Missus Beastly". A trick by the band really so that they wouldn't have to release this album with Dieter Dierks and Venus Music to which their contract stipulated that they had to.They had had a falling out with Producer Dierks over the cover art of their last album and felt so strongly about it that they refused to work with him anymore. So they formed their own label called April which was later changed to Schneeball. Hard to believe they could get away with this, although i'm glad they did considering the circumstances.That unwanted cover art from their last album wasn't the only injustice the band experienced as some copy cat band started releasing albums under the MISSUS BEASTLY name. I should also mention that MISSUS BEASTLY and EMBRYO were closely related and often had members coming and going from one band to the other.

"Miles All Along The Watchtower" is very Jazzy and certainly as the title suggests brings Miles Davis to mind but with sax instead of trumpet.Great sound to this one with the intricate drum work and sax, and I like when the piano leads after the sax stops too. "High Life" is a rare vocal track with sax and female vocal melodies leading early.The vocal melodies turn into English vocals. We get a laid back instrumental section to end it. "Morning Sun" is again very Jazzy and again Miles Davis comes to mind. It's pretty intense 2 1/2 minutes in then it settles down righ to the end. "Gurus For Sale" has a killer sound to start then it settles in with the sax playing over top. Bass to the forefront before 3 1/2 minutes as the drums pound. Guitar ends it with passion.

"La Plague De Patscha" is good with the flute playing over top of the drums, bass and piano. It settles down 2 minutes in as the flute stops. It's building then we get female vocal melodies before 4 minutes then sax. "Nothing Again" is uptempo to start then it calms right down just before a minute including intricate guitar. It picks back up after 2 1/2 minutes and sax joins in too. A change before 6 minutes as it settles down with guitar. Piano takes over before 8 minutes then it picks up again for the big finish. "Patscha Menga Underground" has these intricate pulses and beats as the flute plays over top. Sax takes over just before a minute then the flute returns. Piano leads before 3 1/2 minutes to end it. "For Evi" is a short piano led tune.

An extremely well played Jazz / Rock / Fusion album from this German band although I wouldn't expect anything else.

The cover art is better this time - whimsical and cartoonish being a big step up from the nightmarish grotesqueness of their previous studio album's cover - but that's the only real improvement over the preceding album. Missus Beastly's 1974 studio album (and Bremen 1974 from the same period) showcased a smoking hot cutting edge fusion band at their prime; two years down the line, it seemed the band had fell behind a little, performing with a rather undistinctive and anonymous sound which resembles most other fusion dabblers from the era. Still probably worth a listen if the preceding album bowled you over, but be aware that this one probably won't repeat the trick.