AINIGMA

Having all been interested in music at an early age, this trio jumped on the exploding Krautrock bandwagon and crafted an album's worth of fuzzy guitar driven heavy psych however while by 1973 when most bands in the scene had perfected their game and created some of the most mondo-bizarro space trips across the universe and back, AINIGMA retained a 1960s charm which made DILUVIUM sound more like a relic from 1968 rather than something that came out during the fully mature progressive rock scene of the early 1970s.

DILUVIUM featured five tracks including the near 18-minute title track. While lumped into the Krautrock world, AINIGMA sounded like a fuzzier version of Cream or Blue Cheer with strong melodic hooks driven by robust organ swells but what really sets the band apart was the buzzsaw guitar distortion, an attribute that made the second wave of black metal stand out in the early 1990s. This album is one of the earliest uses of such heavily distorted power chords fuzzing and buzzing out into oblivion. The tempos also bring the world of doom metal to mind as everything ranges from slow to mid-speed.

In fact if the pacifying organ melodies were removed from the equation, DILUVIUM could possible qualify as a lo-fi black metal demo if it were not for the weakest aspect of the entire album, namely Willi Klüter's lackadaisical (clean) vocal style which gets the job done and aren't really offensive but they don't really rise above and beyond the call of duty either but then again, the vocal style also adds a bit of that classic Kraut detachment and softens the intensity of the organ solos, guitar fuzz and bass and drum bombast.

Often compared to the psychedelic bombast of Vanilla Fudge with a blues rock propensity in the vein of Frumpy and Atomic Rooster, AINIGMA wasn't afraid to let loose and whip out some crazy drum solos, organ freak outs and progressive time signature deviations from time to time but for the most part, DILUVIUM is a rather straight forward melodic romp through some fo the most fuzzed out guitar rock with creepy organ sounds leading the way. Had the band stuck it out and continued and perhaps with a stronger vocalist, could've been more than just a historical relic relegated to the obscurity bin.

Although the original vinyl has been a pricey collectable in the decades since its initial release, the album has seen many reissues with three distinct album cover designs. DILUVIUM has also been released with bonus tracks in 2006 on CD courtesy of the outstanding label Garden of Delights label. This one is for those who love those DIY underground albums that were unadulterated by any record company whims and showcases a young band in a fiery passion. Unfortunately this album doesn't really stand out in the crowded German scene from the early 1970s but is by no means a throwaway album. Except for the average limited vocal range of the Will Klüter, the music on this one is pretty damn good.

3.5 but rounded down

That means hard Psychedelic/Space Rock with a lot of aggression and melody. The Hammond organ and the guitars is sharing the spotlight with the vocalist. The vocalist is pretty OK. The Hammond organ is great. The overall sound is not too bad. The whole album has this 1960s sound and feels 40 years old.

The songs are, very surprisingly, good. The band knew how to write good songs. No great songs did manage to infiltrate this album. But this is a good album for those who loves hard psych from that era. This album is almost converting me to become a fan of hard psych and that says a lot.

3 stars

This is a garage / psyche monster not unlike NECRONOMICOM's album.The big difference is the sound quality. Unfortunately this album has some less than steller production values which is a shame because the one bonus track which is the instrumental version of the side long "Diluvium" sounds pretty amazing. Obviously this was recorded later and man it's a pleasure to listen to it. How rare is it to have a bonus track outshine the regular studio album ?

Anyway this would be a 4 star album if the studio album had that kind of sound quality.The music here can be grating and muffled which really takes away from the enjoyment of it. This is probably worth checking out if you like that noisy and aggressive style. 3 stars.

The songs are all heavy rock that sometimes sounds like Uriah Heep on LSD. The 18 minute title track consist mainly of psychedelic jamming over a riff that reminds me a of like UH's own Gypsy. The band may have been part of the Kraut movement but there's little or no experimentalism, anarchy or free-jazz influence in this album. Only the fuzzy guitars and psychedelic organs add a Kraut spice to the sound, be it a rather insignificant one.

The songwriting on this album is rather average. There's not one melody that I would call either memorable, interesting, refreshing, surprising or moving. There are some fun bits while the band freaks out during the extended jams, but even that is far from anything noteworthy. There are at least 100 other Kraut albums to check out before this one. Cool cover.

But the main point is that special guitar appearance which is really weird, quirky, messy. Somewhat controversial - is this simply bad or is it cult? I'm tending to the latter. Except the recording quality this is not a plain amateurish band - the songs have substance, are well-conceived with a lot of nice jamming moments. The eighteen minute title track is an example for that - containing the obligatory drum solo he is mixing up the heavy rocking fundament with a psychedelic flavour by changing into some floating parts - quite gripping and successful.

If someone is searching for special raw documents of the early german rock music history this album will be a good find.

Instead, Ainigma's example is, by any chance, kind of "classic": taking on the heat of stoned psychedelic, heavy rock and kraut rough structures, the level of experimentation isn't remarkable, the quality and temperament don't add to make the album perfect (in fact, this too furious expression pays its price, showing either a slip of youthfulness, either a glitch or a pretentious tone raised by these kraut-heads), but the style is administered in strong doses. Druggy psychedelia, organ space sounds, heavy raw guitars, excerpts of bluesy or progressive main rhythms. It's a good mix. Even better, the ratio is worthy: three short pieces, contrasted by an epic that's not flawless, but neither sloppy. And speaking of contrasts, we don't get too much of that in terms of sensible-powerful music, because melancholy or (more appropriately krautrock-ish) soft hallucinations are almost unremarked throughout the entire recital. Instead, powerful shocks and simple but virile bursts of energy are the saucerful ingredients. However, between the vocals and the instruments, there's a classic-experimental or an emotional-instinctual constant ceasure. Diluvium can be complimented for its different shades of roughness and kraut-zest, instrumentally speaking. The epic does wonders in showing the trio's artistic side, while the first two songs are a bit too consumed by the "burn" and do sound more jammed than neatly composed.

What's disappointing in Ainigma's work and potential? First of all, getting back to the things said in the first paragraph, that these boys were 16 or 17 delivered such a hot-tempered record, yet they've stopped to this. Sure, they would have been *considered* mature by the time prog and kraut bands would have burned out, in the late 70s. But, even if such the psychedelic squeeze was enjoyed in the peak of the 60s, respectively the early phase of the 70s, it's a shame Ainigma disbanded, when they had reasons to keep pedalling. Inside Diluvium, talking about age is pointless when you hear how Willy Klüter glisses or improvises on organs, how Netzer can apparently crunch the guitar with his right hand and keep a good bass pace with his left hand and how well the second member of the Klüter family, Michael, can play drums (he gets a solo in the middle of the title-track epic, but it's not really more impressive than the rest he does). Instead, I think Willy's vocals are affected by his youth skills, because it's a low on Ainigma. Sure, songs like All Things Are Fading wouldn't be the same without the luscious dialogue and mentioned contrast between the voice and the steam of rock, electric instruments, still Willy's singing isn't apt for a good grade. It's sad this way, yet it's a fact for me. Now, to end upon the subject of disappointments, the pleasure of the album lies more into the middle part of it, since a worse kick-off like Prejudice I've yet to judge. Meanwhile, the bonus track on the different edition of this album, Thunderstorm, is both damaged in sound and mastering and weak in music and growl. The production is probably low because the style is "underdone", but that makes anyway the album less enjoyable. Finally, you do have to stylistically prefer, on one hand, and to have a cooled-down mood in order to enjoy listening, on the other hand, such a loud, mentally acid session of par-psych par-heavy rock cloudride.

If Prejudice is simply too twitchy and unpleasant and it would be better off to stop the play right after the epic ends intensely, in case you've got Thunderstorm as a bonus, Diluvium is instead good to very good when you hear a progressive rock felt core rhythm in You Must Run, when the instrumental improvisations sound so cracking in mixture with Klüter's lackadaisical sad poetry in All Things Are Fading (which isn't close to my favourite moment by Ainigma, but can impress generally) and, finally, in how complex should, under normal circumstances, be regarded the title-track epic. Simple in terms of music, strong in terms of long drifts and bangs, yet complex in its fibber and to a point artistic in its musical arrangement (A-B-A, meaning a first progressive/kraut shake, followed by a drum solo and a psych-refreshing mid-melody, to finally bring the sum of nuances and jamming riffs back to an honourably long & cool second drift - organ leitmotifs included as "easter egg"). After all this, unless you weren't in the right disposition for such a big dipper, or you just don't appreciate the virtuous - in a gripping sense - expression of this orientation, you have to give credit to Ainigma, for a psych/kraut work that sounds well and infuses even more than that.

Lopsided yet crazy and cool, with flaws but not with strong defects (the different nuance of these close terms should be understood), rare but also worth collecting, succinct but also build-up, Ainigma do deserve, in the end, a recommendation. Diluvium is a jam-based moment of krautrock that's worth looking into, even if on your way up to the giants, the freaks or the unbounded minds and names.

My favorite tracks are the minor ballad "All Things are Fading", and the bonus track "Thunderstorm", which is an aggressive instrumental outtake from their rehearsal room. The opening track "Prejudice" is also quite powerful trashy tune, then on the longer title track maybe the musicians venture a bit too far to the vast opens of improvisational oceans for keep the blow interesting. I got myself a have vinyl reissue from Little Wing of the album, and it has a neat alternative cover by the Irish painter Francis Danby. I would recommend this album to vinyl collectors and to all those, who are interested in dark psychedelic heavy music and German underground acts.