XHOL CARAVAN / XHOL

For me "Electrip" is the superior album of the two.This one is made up of two side long tracks.The first "Breit" is the better of the two.Sax leads the way early until drums and organ become more prominant after 5 minutes.The tempo shifts before 11 minutes.The sax takes a break but returns a short time later.The drums and organ are all over this track before 21 minutes.It settles quickly after that though, and it ends in a dissonant mess. On "Schaukel" it sounds like they started recording this song as it was already well under way.It settles quickly as sax comes in playing a relaxed melody with organ,drums and bass playing softly in the background.The sound gets louder before 3 minutes and builds.A calm after 5 minutes as the sax stops.It starts to get bluesy.Vocals come in after 11 minutes,they do get pretty vulgar and obscene in this straight up blues section. Pretty good record, but for me not essential in the least.

A very important album in the history of krautrock.This was one of Germany's first progressive records, and perhaps the first krautrock recording.In the book "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg" they say "Electrip" was one hell of a remarkable album,especially for the 60's,an electric sax and organ fronted fusion with a great deal of invention and energy...remarkable throughout!" This album was a blend of free jazz and psychedelia with a dash of humour.Yes Frank Zappa does come to mind,but this is more about long extended jams and improvisation.I just love the way these guys jammed.Flautist and sax player Hansi Fischer would leave soon after this record to join EMBRYO. "Electric Fun Fair" opens with the sound of a toilet flushing followed by a circus-like melody before we get to the rest of the song.Sax and drums lead the way with some great organ runs 3 minutes in as drums pound.Sax is back 6 minutes in. "Pop Games" opens with chipmunk-like voices before drums,bass and sax take over.Great sound.It settles before 3 minutes as drums and other sounds come and go with no melody until 4 minutes in when a hypnotic beat is joined by some powerful organ 5 minutes in. "All Green" is classic XHOL.I like this one a lot.It's like free jazz as drums,organ and sax stand out as they just jam.The bass also becomes prominant later. "Raise Up High" features vocals that are pretty raw but they work.Drums,flute,sax and organ stand out as he sings away.One line he sings is "We're gonna all get stoned,and then get blown." Where's the toilet flush? Haha.It calms down 6 minutes in with sax sounds as it starts to build.Drums,organ and other sounds come and go until the main melody returns 9 minutes in and they jam. "Walla Masallah" is a short song with spoken words in german with a simple melody. If i was rating the music by itself i'd probably give 3.5 stars,but this rating includes the fact it is somewhat original and very influetial.This is an excellent addition to your collection,and a must have for krautrock fans out there.

This album contains three improvised songs beyond the 20 minute mark. The first two were recorded live in Göttingen/Germany at the beginning of July 1970 and the last studio one, which only appears on the GOD compact disc reissue, is a little surprise because produced four years later which was two years after the official breakup of the band!

XHOL originally wanted to make a double LP as a studio and live split but the OHR label, headed by R. U. Kaiser, didn't agree and enforced a regular live production. So the members, a little bit angry about that, provided this album with the encrypted name 'Hau-RUK'. RUK stands for Kaiser's initials and 'Hau' is a german synonym corresponding to 'beat'.

'Haste einen Freund dann rauch mit ihm den Scheund' is printed on the album back side which can be figuratively translated to 'If you have a friend you should smoke a joint with him'. And that points to the essence of this spaced out recordings. Here we have simply structured jazz rock oriented jams in the absence of electric guitar but with diverse keyboard and brass contributions. If the listener does not lose his patience and is able to get used to the special meditative style of the band - only cut off by some explosive parts here and there - all obstacles are cleared further on.

Breit needs time to get involved with - a short name but a long meandering track and probably a description for the current condition of the band and the audience at this evening. The song rises slowly from minute to minute with canterbury leanings near to Soft Machine. The band members are interacting awfully good with a strange weird organ and wah-wah deformed saxophone. Schaukel - another german song name with a strange intellectual challenge - works nearly in the same way with more bluesy components including a reminiscence to the classic 'Rock me Baby' and it would be no problem to join the songs to one title.

Süden Twi Westen was recorded at the famous Dierks Studios on the other hand and looks like to be a result of a XHOL reunion which finally had not been completed. Norbert Dömling and Hansi Fischer, only contributing to this bonus track, are wellknown for me because they also played with Missus Beastly and Embryo. This song differs to the latter for some reasons - stylistically in the earlier XHOL CARAVAN mood, with a better sound quality and more elaborated and gripping. The band delivers a swinging jazzy begin with flute/saxophone and electric piano interrupted by experimental keyboard and flute contributions, later continuing in a more groovy mood and finally coming back to a very jazzy sound.

The original vinyl version of 'Hau-RUK' is a little bit unvaried according to my taste but the Garden Of Delights reissue, gentrified with the bonus track, is highly recommended though - interesting for fans who like to hear escalating jams with jazz rock orientation.

Not Xohld on this one...

So I'm idly flicking through my reviews wondering if I've missed any letter of the alphabet, and X stands out - and, luckily for me, I've just acquired a copy of Electrip by Xohl Caravan, the better to increase my knowledge of early Kraut bands.

This isn't the usual stoke up a number, pass the funny pipe and see what drops out stuff - there's a definite method in the madness, and that, sadly, kills a lot of it for me - it's not what I expect from this type of music, and it reduces it to sounding like a bunch of musicians who should know and do much better.

To start with, we have Electric Fun Fair. This begins with a predictable waltz in the style one might associate with a carousel... actually, it appears to randomly start with someone flushing the toilet. I'm afraid I'm not really sold on the humour here, however... the musicians have got the textures right, but the lack of intricacies in the music tell it like it is - and the switch to a 5/4 jazz-rock style improv complete the picture, and it's not really one of a funfair - that's just lip service in the title. Oh, and the 5/4 swing in the jazz improv does make it sound like a variation of Brubeck's famous number, in case you were wondering.

Just when things are getting all too predictable, the music is broken down in a very interesting way - but this sadly gives way to perhaps the cheesiest thing I've ever heard from this musical scene. I know children are often told that the moon is made of cheese - but frankly, cosmic cheese is not for my crackers.

A more rocking groove takes over, and the organ goes off on a raga tip - and the whole descends into a noisy section that is much more like it, but soon returns to the jaunty fairground sound of earlier to bring the piece to a close.

You can tell that the band have thought about it and planned it out in some detail - and to my ears, that's entirely what's wrong with it. I like Kosmische music that really goes off on one, gets deep into the soul of the groove, follows it, tears it apart, layers it up and above all, FEELS where the music is going, rather than attempts to shove it into some pre-ordained and completely de-fleshed skeleton. Maybe that's just me.

Pop Games features a pleasant but slightly irritating ditty on the sax - which fortunately gives way to a pleasant improvisation over a single chord. I say fortunately... however, this drones on somewhat with little direction for a couple of minutes before some tension is built and we change to a pre-composed riff, which is striking in its potential for soundtrack music.

Then, around 2:55, it finally starts to get interesting - a drum solo, or rather, a percussion solo takes over, with small tuned instrument bursts giving a nice avant-garde feel, reminding me of Moonchild in places. This builds into another improvisation riff with a Doors go jazz flavour. The bass and drums get a kind of Ozric Tentacles thing going on, while vibes, sax and keys noodle around creating a spacey, Hawkwind-like texture - a couple of years before Hawkwind took this direction.

Next up is some jazzy funky goodness in All Green (reference to Al Green, perhaps?), which is of considerably better quality than the previous offerings, providing an interesting journey in a space that's mellow, with just enough tension at the edges to provide energy in the Doors-style keys.

A descending riff takes over, but is slightly overdone, then the music is slashed into with more aggressive keys, and a Pink Floyd moment strips the piece back momentarily. The drumming here is interesting, turning the beats upside-down and inside-out in turns, mushing it all up - but again, I feel it's all a bit too drawn out, before the descending riff returns and dissolves into chaos, which is where the piece should have ended - but, as a pattern forms, the band decide to resurrect the first theme and play with it a little bit - but not enough for it to be particularly interesting or warrant a re- showing here.

Raise Up High is a 17-minute+ spectacular... or would have been had we not been treated to some Jagger-alike vocals over music that sounds like the Doors meet a simlified version of Jethro Tull. These aggressive vocals really switch me off, and the music noodles around uninterestingly underneath them. Cries of Wooh!!! do not help proceedings, and the end of the piece suddenly seems a long way away... The improv here is not up to the quality of earlier tracks, and the bass is out of tune - hang on, there must be something nice to say about it.

Nope.

With lyrics like Baby, baby, I say I'm feeling better, I know it's not just because of the weather, we're on to a real loser, and only 4 minutes have passed of this monstrosity. Yawn.

Skipping through, I discover a breakdown at 6 minutes with some nice spacey bleeps and whistles from keys and sax that give the feeling of an ending. But no. It's so-called free jazz, where everybody plays what the heck they like with no regard to anyone else.

Suddenly, this is cut across with a reversed drum beat and more aimless noodling before a heavy riff threatens to build. This is sounding promising - but more like a new piece than a continuation of the old one. The bass is particularly irritating, noodling around, out of tune, with little regard for the build-up, and it all falls apart very disappointingly into more noodling that really gets on my nerves with its zonked-out lack of concentration.

We get approximately 9 minutes more of this - the bass player particularly noodling away around the same tired old lines, until we're treated to a harpsichord-alike solo for the final 45 seconds.

Hmm. One of the worst, most self-indulgent pieces I've ever heard in this genre - and that's saying something.

Walla Mashalla is vaguely interesting with its African chanting over more directionless noodle, but that's it - a very disappointing ending to an album with a poor start, but some real moments of inspiration somewhere around the middle.

As to the bonus tracks, Planet Earth sounds like the band were going for a hit single. A quirky one, with an odd vocal melody that leaps through uncomfortable (but effective) intervals, and a catchy backing, but single material nonetheless.

So Down was probably slated as the b-side of the single - a lightish jazzy/bluesy flavoured number, with vocals steeped in vibrato, and a nice swing.

In short, only worth owning if you need to have a complete collection of the earliest music in this scene - there's lots of Psychedelic rock from 1969 and the preceeding 2 years that has better improv, experimentation, virtuosity - and above all, soul.

There are some very good moments, but you have to go through a lot of dross to get to them. On balance, this album is only really for collectors and fans of Kosmiche music.

Xhol figure among true legends of krautrock (before Amon Düül II, Guru Guru...). First born as an experimental free-jazz ensemble they progressively found their own musical identity at the end of the 60's with an extraordinary fusion of styles, mixing strange-atmospheric-freakout organic chords with discreet acid folk-ish accents, electronic weirdness (Motherf**kers GmbH) and a sonic, catchy free form rockin' jazz that admits closed relationships with Miles Davis' eccentric experimental fusion jazz period. Hau- ruck is their jazziest musical excursion. The two epic and totally improvised tracks on Hau-Ruck deliver unmistakable spaced out jazzy fantasies, including excellent rhythmical sections, powerful organic harmonies and eternal brass incantations. The wha wha effects give a more fuzzy, druggy tone to the compositions. The energy and groovy aspects are always well defined and accompany otherworldly and haunting keyboard sequences. Breit starts as a spiritual-psych atmospheric epic and pursue on a propulsive, hypnotic jazzy rock improvisation dominated by Hammond organ solos and sensual, intense brass parts. Schaukel deliver an other colourful, dynamic musical universe, featuring a nervous, charming bluesy rock background. Seriously impressive and easily recommended. Top class album.

— First review of this album —

Altena 1970 is around the third or fourth direct live recording by Xhol/Xhol Caravan (at least taking in account the years of the official live recordings), bunked one year after the first Altena (1969), still dug-up and printed as the youngest Xhol release until now - dating 2006, actually. Both Altena concerts are pretty much of the same caliber, if not the same close quality as well, both (and each one in particularly) defining a wrapped music that's hardly for flushed tastes - likewise Xhol impress, usually, with their top albums, with their extreme recitals, extra clips and long recordings...and so. Indirectly, any fan and album-by-album careful listener can feel that Xhol/XC have burned a lot of concerts throughout their short kind of a life (who knows, for one, how many plays they've made off the record, from garbage to real treats), having the underground quality but also the craft of creativity so to gear up in such a way. After all, the 3CD special Mother[%*!#]ers edition must spot some live pearling as well, plus the great Hau-Ruck experiment also has a public (if I don't recall wrongly, in both cases!). But the Altena serie sounds like a winner for the true spirit of live playing, more '69 than '70, though you could forget a bit about rating favorites as far as the enjoyable and eclectic (maybe just not the illuminating) goes in both works - and it's also nice to assimilate a bit from Xhol/XC's essentialness down Altena's path of a good concert place, at least in a time when the Isle Of Wight and such stages weren't locations this band could really dream of (or??).

Altena 1970 is one of the rare Xhol albums - no hard feeling though if the assumption is false - luckily that doesn't rhyme with haunting it purely as a collection item, since music is fullest, qualitatively, plus from the artwork (though not a really characteristic one for Xhol) all the way to at least half of the performance, this is a good ode to Xhol and to a Xhol fan, nicely fitting overall, probably just missing an essential star because of some bruiages or some uninterestingly achieved parts. Heavier than the repertoire of the classic Electrip, but somewhat lighter, more accessible and off-toned than 1969's Altena twist, this live album practices anyway not the art of Xhol in general, as particularly the art of Xhol's live swings and style. And this mostly means underground jazz-kraut rock, with blues and psych that aren't full styles but splint up, with healthy or insatiable jams and an even more genuine way of extroverting explosive music...by an introverted feeling, mood and aura. The way the improvisations are longly made feels so natural, that it could reflect a bit from the general great rock performances, up to Deep Purple and hard rockers playing long shots with ease. Still, Xhol stick to the hazy and heavy side of jazz-kraut - with a more lost hand on the jazzy side.

The magicians on this concert are the old-fashioned classic troop, Belbe and Fischer on saxophones (Fischer on flutes, as well, fooling the hearing, especially on the first piece, with some crazy Jethro/Focus roves), Van Wyck on drums, Briest on bass and grand Öcki on keys. Basically the quintet plays with grace, shock and artistic measures, and it's no bore at all finding that the special seed inside Altena 1970. The music is quite pleasant, for the difficulty it sometimes presents, consisting otherwise in German Heavy-ish Rock on the side of medium kraut, long jams and an interesting maze of sounds and dances. I Can't Wait is probably the best piece, though it doesn't mutate heavily into anything from a blues with flutes and dry keys (in the middle-part) jingle. Electric Fun Fair is from Electrip, jazzy and saxy, still more complex and haywired down the last minutes. Xholenium is another fine complementing epic, interesting with its more raw keys and inconsistent marks of jazz-kraut, still jammy and cold.

All in all, a good record, music and strap of Xhol, saving the trouble of being too stylish, and expressing a rather free concert of instrumental music, bluesy, jazzy, kraut rocky and so. Not essential, and even pale in contrast with albums of the period, but surely a rare concert album and a good find.

Xhol (or Soul Caravan, or Xhol Caravan) disbanded and left into being forgotten starting 1972 or so, after the session and the tough-breathing recording of Mother[%*!#]ers G.M.B.H. (a tongue-sharp composition which still holds some of the most pointy and exuberant pieces made by the band, in their classic lust - thus the crossword reference chosen here isn't that commode). In 2001 this double recollection album + a cover "EP" is released, re-acting some old vibrations and classic moments. A change of perspective is barely made (at least getting to listen to the entire Soul/Xhol, to enjoy then a treasure chest such as this, is no more essential than an excellent collection item). For a fan's taste, the eloquent surround will have its moments of dust and shine, whilst the Xhol memory remains encapsulated into the casual details and observations, by which the band influenced a lot of the music scene's free performance, of psych's independent marks, of the first kraut-act acid inspirations or of the jazz-garde distant, distractive or drystone flow.

The first disc is called a rarity, despite that it won't be presented only here, but also right in the Altena 1969 performance release. It's a monumental 55 minutes rumble of class performance, going on a Freedom Opera concept, marking few instrumental corrosions and experimental outbreaks, but also singing aloud consistent and classic jazz, blues, conceptual (kind of) rock, voice-hoc, brick-a-brass psych and craft art, including "poems" after Vanilla Fudge or just playing, connectively, a Xhol high smoke of moody yet massive, mischiefed (sound quality is a drag, mostly) or mesmerized music.

The second disc is a bigger rarity, having another massive and ornamental piece of an entire hour, from WDR Radio Live recording, which resembles the much more experimental, dark and hard notched, jazz violent or tough psych "Xhol" transpirations (Hau-Ruck-like, but not entirely). No guitars, instead a lot of music matching a hairy free-jazz, noise, or tinge-rock orchestrations. The authentic feeling (cause the rest is purely...Xhol) goes between a slumber meditation and a passive crash of mind-phases, through an acid fluid content of style crashing into sound and improvisation crashing into classic disordering passion. The recording is interesting, but not monumental.

The "third disc" is not an authentic Xhol recording or expression, it's a small rotation, of 15 or so minutes, consistent of three covers made on three Xhol pieces, by Current Ninety Three, Nurse With Wound and Christoph Heemann. The disc is actually a "various" and a separate kind of album/EP in many places, the Mother[%*!#]ers Live sessions, whether on double album or doubly stereo vinyl, including only the two massive recordings. The sign is a good mood of Xhol ("Hot Buttered"), by a large similar craft and expression by the three cover artists. Heemann most especially recalls how he discovered and adored Xhol since '74, finding them "years ahead of their time" and even time itself.

Recollecting loads of music and old recordings upon a new decade that doesn't share anymore the classic time empathy and characteristic (nor can change the view into the band have burned like a flame, artistically and eclectically, only in that period) isn't of a major or essential impact. But that doesn't switch off the taste to listen to some more music by a band with potential beyond all thoughts. Therefore the collection album is pretty recommended, the sight of Xhol live, in the arranged (after all) flashes of psych, massive jazz, experiment rock and progressive new-stand, is close to incredibly worthy.

3,5 stars really!!!

This album is considered the turning point where Soul Caravan will become eventually Xhol, losing the second part to avoid confusion with the Canterbury band. With s superb psychedelic artwork and a title to match it, the album is clearly proof that Soul Caravan was indeed growing into Xhol as part of the members lived in a commune. The term Krautrock was probably first used while talking of this band, and this album might just be the first album presented as such.

Starting on a toilet flush, the opening side is made of extended tracks where the organs and saxes are exchanging/alternating solos on a series of tracks that don't seem tomatter if theyb really exist on their own rather than as a whole. Electric Fun Fair is an extended soloing round circling on a circus-music theme. Slightly superior is Pop Games where Belbe and Fischer's saxes trade licks before drummer Skip (not Spence) and conga-er Rhodes interrupt for some 90 seconds, before the track returns to the original feel. All Green is definitely funkier and jazzier and laid back.

The flipside is more about the unavoidable 17-min Raise Up High's presence (and its rocket start, followed by a raunchy guitar/vocal passage that last pretty well the whole tracks save the atonal improvs that are scattered throughout. The whole thing is a bit sketchy, indulgent, dodgy, repetitive and not always interesting either but on average, it doesn't stand up to the first side, finishing on a harpsichord tinkling. The last Mashalla is a botched-up idea best forgotten

The GOD label reissue joins as bonus both tracks of their preceding single with both sides actually clash with the rest of the album, but has the merit to show further proof of Xhol's passage from soul to psychedelic, but both tracks being still closer to experimental soul (BS&T in Planet Earth and early Colosseum on So Down) than psych. Indeed Electrip is really a product of its time and probably one of the more significant albums of the Krautrock genre. Essential certainly, classic also, but flawless certainly not!!

A "2 years old" recipe, being pasteurized, drought then expelled as art (or as the bit of tape scraps which emanate something beyond the imagination of dirty, drifty, drafty touches), makes Xhol, for a yet another incredible moment, the high owners of the high spirits, in a German Progressive Rock stage that, for sure, elaborated by now its monumental talents, but still has room for excellent music being made into the thirst, the lust, the dark loom and the grieving sorrow punches of Xhol. That it is the last one around the classic count (and the Xhol main existence and persistence) too, that's really a lesser deep sense and a slow moment of talc-taking the steps. It's ridiculous to talk anymore of Xhol having defined, by coming from soul, rhythm, jazz or blues, the kraut rock (meaning the German forsythia) movement music and method development, out of many expressions from the early beginnings that culminate in the experiments, the acid-ravishes and the cumbrous emotions of supreme marked surround trench sounds. After at least two sensational or referential albums, plus two more that really don't miss much or tell the different tension of Xhol (just like to shadow-surprise, if you know that kind of a good album) this one, more as a pleading abstract creation, a moment of total recall in the mood of already mastering the music, the jam and the novae taste, plus a breeze of impulses rather than clear elements which too emote, this Mother[%*!#]ers G.M.B.H. & Co. KG (the hard word inspires a lot to faint acid and aggressive inclinations of building the great power in here, but the rest is far from vulgar; the initials and the dots are something more obscure to the simple language) is an expression of hard measures, deep breaths and chalks of inspiration, total abstractions and, with a serene smile saying "welcome to the brain kraut sophistication", a genre of impeccable sorts, radical moves, afterwards more or less vincible characters. Up for the best expression and rewarding style, I still say the free gloating and grouting experiment of Hau-Ruck was the delirium tremens for Xhol's kraut despondency. But this album, by its incredible balance, its wise samples and its free-rock croon, shares just as much the touch of polish, dandle and grinning deep music and melodramas. Taking jewels out of stones and dust.

The desire for an album of experiences, of recording-fits and provoking different scraps makes Mother[%*!#]ers... and album of power, of great experiment, of light steaming time and of, who knows, the beatitude of forsaken grave ecstasies. The ambivalence crosses out the stable mark of one basic abstraction or one threatening high rise, it has the crossover however of many accents, many inspirations, many jams per the honey of that inspiration, and, sourish or not, the great colloquialism of such a brand. Music is, bounced pronouncedly, for the great motion inside Xhol, for the late classic aspirations beholding, for the listeners with a various or futile taste, and for the experience of sounds, rock, rum and color improvisation being one twist of a hard chance, yet one switch of a genius mood. In such a difficult potion, the recommendation of easy listening is nowhere possible, yet the jazz breaks, the touch of flame shine, the psych un-traumatic experiences (reminiscences, consequently), plus the mood of a bitchered relaxation makes the choice with aplomb, it even introduces the soft art of hard aches, as to picture the style and the experiment within the perfect harmony of something bearable and fully convincing. The taste is genuine, the moments of illusion are seminal, the rock on jazz and cosmos are hernial.

And the splits, the spills or the spillages in Mother[%*!#]ers G.M.B.H. & Co. KG are a dependent detail. "Radio" is the introduction meant to confuse and panic, to sequence or scrub the analog language. Bits of moments, spoken word or soul-classic reflections mingle from one switch of the radio frequency to another. It's a piece of unregulated style. Leistungsprinzig is a soft sophistication, with prominent jazz, slow rock fever and, of course, a one minute moment of full inspiration. Orgelsolo is rough and experimental, steamy and provocative, clustered and content into sounding acid gummed; the most deceiving, yet deciding kraut melody-arrhythmia from the album, making a great power of "natural drones", atmospheres, subtle moves and steam shadow symbols, much like the eclectic paranoid touches of kraut in insensitive manners and full sound/noise experiments. A really long gem, with strength to show the honest complex art. Side 1 first day begins the jazz, the blues, the late psych and the dum-dingle festive music, something that, for sure, is a better mood in the entire album perspective. The rapid chaos leads to jams of melody and musicality, also to chisels of powerful emotion on more or less drunken atmosphere. A fantasy bit evokes only the glare of beautiful, dynamic or heart-beating abstracts. Rock per chance and jam. Yet another scrap distinct movement is Grille, very low connected, very silent marking, but, in a balanced taste, very subtle and "superficial on high notes", resembling the mood meditation, but also the acid dreams of congruential colors. Love Potion 25 is a anecdotal blister epic finale, mixing all the jazz, the blues, the wind huaraches play. Some vocals impress too, from the jazz quintessential beat-pound to some Morrison angry lyrical feelings. The high intensity joines, after all, the art of Xhol being a powder on burning danger, a jam on intelligent marks, a substance of intense, tonic rock adventures.

One more time, in another monumental shape, the Xhol artistic impression is tremendous, the style shade is unctuous, plus the mood of so many types of nice, acid or deeming music is a contemplative full feeling. I like this album less than at least two other Xhol creations, yet it's late to have doubts, it's a superlative-connected (if not beyond relatively reached) shade of taste and genre.

3.5 stars really!!

One of the very first (if not THE first group) for whom the term "Krautrock" was coined, Xohl had by now dropped the Caravan name, and their improvised psych rock full of lengthy tracks (and their almost unavoidable lengths) were the norm. Whether this is their third of fourth (the boundary between Soul Caravan and Xhol is a difficult one) album, it stands as one of their definitive statement, even if some passages sound awfully close to the second life of Traffic (with Kwaaku Reebop). Titled on a iffy German pun and graced with an equally iffy artwork (the back cover being hard to deciffer), this album is close to a textbook case of self-indulgent release, but if you love live jamming, you should be in for a treat with this one.

Indeed the first side is taken up entirely by a Traffic-like live jam improv (called Breit) that should have the latter's fans drooling (even if the sound is sometimes approximate) with plenty of interplay. The flipside (Schauzel) is not much different, bar a free-jazz passage, even if it includes a Rock Me Baby improv in the middle;

While for some, this album may come as a summit in self-indulgence, those loving this kind of album will be delighted to know that the excellent Garden Of Delight label has not only reissued this album, but added yet another track of the same genre (and length) Suden Twi Vesten, which fits so perfectly the album as if it had always been a part of it. I speak in terms of improv and feel, but Saxman Belbe introes the track on a flute/recorder. This track brings the album to a whopping 67 minutes.

Not quite essential if you ask me, but in some ways this album is a pure joy and reflects the era's carefree musical attitudes, while being heavy in the experimental or adventuring side. Only some lengths are stopping this one to reach the fourth star!